Write It Out!

As Erik Spiekermann once observed, "a real typeface needs rhythm, needs contrast, it comes from handwriting, and that's why I can read your handwriting, you can read mine."

So as part of their Typography unit, HND Year 1 were tasked with celebrating the handwritten word with a project entitled 'Write It Out!'

With the proposed client as the National Museum of Scotland, the brief required two submissions - handwritten letters to our industry mentors, and a set of visuals creating a campaign to promote an exhibition. Two of the most engaging results came from Stefano Cocchia and Katy Johnston.

Stefano gathered together some great quotes about handwriting, and created a series of bright typographical posters and then combined them all into this funky ad -




Katy Johnston's concept began with an inventive letter to Alan Lennon of Lennon Design, in the form of a doctor's prescription, with some great copy - Junior Designer, *Intern, 1 X daily as required between 9am and 5.30pm (weekends - emergency use only).




Katy then developed the medical theme and came up with some great
visual ideas alongside further examples of her inventive copy -

Age UK Mentoring Project

HND Year 2 presented their first mentor project of the year earlier this week, a fairly recent D&AD brief which we dusted down and reworked due to the fact that the client has just recently changed their corporate identity.

Age Concern, now Age UK, had set the task of tackling ageism and highlighting their mission to confront and eradicate it. The mentors agreed this was not the easiest of briefs, but the class still managed to come up with plenty of inventive work.

A standout solution came from Viktorjia Kravcova, whose 'Age Is Just A Number' concept produced some great combinations of typography, iconic subject matter and inventive in situ promotional visuals.

NC Typography

Well done to NC Graphics for their terrific set of typography posters. This is just their second class project, and their first with any substantial digital work, and across both groups the results are refreshing, bold and confident.

It helps that we gave them some great subject matter to investigate - an event at the London Design Museum, focussing on a typographer (Brody, Renner, Frutiger, Gill, Bass) or a typeface (Garamond, Futura, Gill Sans, Bodoni or Frutiger).

All the posters are on display outside R310, and here is just a quick sampler:



Andrew Palfreyman (Group B)



Craig Nicholson (Group A)



Calum MacKinnon (Group A)



Emils Blums-Blumanis (Group A)



Craig Dodds (Group B)



Magda Milek (Group A)



Iona Wright (Group B)

We Love Alliance Graphique International

Earlier this week, some of our HND students made the trip to Spain to attend the Alliance Graphique International (AGI) Open Conference in Barcelona.

The guys were lucky enough to see some of the world's most famous graphic designers showing their work and sharing their ideas.


Tadas, Jonny, Viktorjia and Sarah meet the one and only Paula Scher.

Pentagram illuminaries Paula Scher, Angus Hyland and Michael Bierut all presented talks, as did Marion Banjtes, and of course Stefan Sagmeister, who talked about his upcoming movie project, 'The Happy Film'. Educators and writers Steven Heller and Lars Muller were also amongst the speakers. In total there were 27 AGI members presenting their work and ideas on design.

Will this event ever make it to Edinburgh? We hope so! The 2012 conference will however be held in Hong Kong.

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AGI Open