Show Me the Money - Infographics

Here are some great examples from the latest HND1 project - an infographic showing their average weekly spend. The solution had to be typographical, and the execution had to be confessional (although they were given the option to use percentages rather than actual numbers...).



Rowan Campbell




Robyn Hall



Olga Kostrzewska



Katy Johnston



Jonathan Walton



Michel Grazewicz



Jody Hogg

Three Magic Words

Creating visual communication on large scales is always fun, and here's a nice example - a double-sided promotional banner for equality and diversity - which HND student Nijal Munankarmi designed during his work placement, a two-week internship as part of the marketing team here at Edinburgh's Telford College.

Show Racism the Red Card

For the third year running, we've picked up awards in the SQA Show Racism the Red Card Competition.

Danny McMahon (HND Graphic Design) won second place, and his poster will be printed and used across all the secondary Schools in Scotland to promote the Anti Racism campaign.

Mark Phillips (NC Graphic and Digital Design) was awarded the third prize. Both students made the trip through to Glasgow yesterday, accompanied by tutor Alex Gunn, to collect their awards.

The finished pieces, and all the details will soon be available at redcardscotland.org.

Letts look inside Dynamic and Octo

We are halfway through 'agency week', with Dynamic and Octo, our two eight-person design agencies, working away in their teams to come up with a solution which they'll need to present to the client at the end of the week.

Creative Director Rufus Spiller, from the Line Agency, has been popping in each day for updates and to check the art direction and task allocation amongst the groups.



Its all happening at Octo.

The client is diary specialist Letts, who have commissioned a re-imagining of the print diary format, to provide an immersive, fresh and above all useful offline space in which to get organised for the year. Two members of each team visited Letts on Tuesday to see the production process and get some background information on the client, their products, and the marketplace.


Smooth operators Dynamic look relaxed.

There's no input allowed from the design team tutors, so we've had no direct access to the work-in-progress in either team, although both groups assure us that they have 'very solid concepts'. Everyone is clearly having a lot of fun thinking for a living. Roll on Friday!

Don't Fake The Funk

HND1 student Jonathan Walton's 'Don't Fake the Funk' - a response to an MPA Roses brief set by Manchester agency Music. The campaign, to encourage young people to support original music and avoid the remix, cover and sample, features a great 70s vibe and the best use of the QR code you are likely to see.

A Week On The Line

Rufus Spiller, Creative Director at the Line Agency, has made us an offer we couldn't refuse. Tasked with setting a Mentor brief, Rufus suggested we split the HND2 class into two groups, each of which would then form a design agency for a week, with both agencies developing and pitching an idea to a real Line client.

The experiment kicks off on Monday 19th, when the groups, christened 'Octo' and 'Dynamic', will spend every day of the week, from 9 to 5, working on the project. Rufus will drop in each day and help establish agency roles, workflow and art direction. And to make both groups up to eight members, we've drafted in three students from HND1 as well.

Our remit as tutors will be to provide basic resources, including two rooms, Macs, interactive whiteboards, a pile of fresh A2 sketchbooks, and a fistful of marker pens. We won't be able to offer any art direction, and we won't see the product until the presentations on the Friday afternoon.

As part of the preparation for the project, we've enlisted the help of the NC groups, who worked on a one-day project today to come up with corporate identities for Octo and Dynamic. The successful designs will be selected by both agencies tomorrow.

Hopefully we'll also be able to announce the name of the client and the project brief shortly.

Agencies:
OCTO - Nic, Jonny, Abbie, Kat, Viktorjia, Terry, Nijal, Hussain*
DYNAMIC - Mikey, Tassia, Zia, Nootcha, Steven, Jordan, Jody*, Arron*

*HND1

D&AD

Phew. That's all our entries in for 2012. Well done to all the classes today - HND Graphics 1 and 2, and HND Illustration - for sticking with D&AD's overstretched system and confusing upload instructions.

A special mention to Lucy Brown and Ashleigh Johnston who somehow managed to do the Design Bridge brief from scratch, starting at 11.15am in my class, and get it submitted by 4pm today. The entry form has a field that asks which month you started the brief in, not which hour!

Good luck all.

Star Creative Student Shortlist for Steven

Great news today with the announcement that HND second year student Steven Brown has been shortlisted for the 'Star Creative Student of the Year' in the Marketing Society Awards 2012.

This prestigious award is open to Scotland's Universities and Art Schools, with Edinburgh's Telford College the only FE College invited to participate.

The first round of the contest consists of a written submission to a set brief. Submissions are then shortlisted to just six students, and they are then invited to present visuals to support their concept.

This year's brief was to devise a campaign aimed at 18-25 year olds for Red Stag by Jim Beam® - the finest Jim Beam 4 year old bourbon, infused with natural black cherry flavour.

Steven, who has spent the past month on work placements at Realise and HeeHaw Digital, will now be asked to present his idea at Maxxium House in Stirling on Tuesday 27th March.

We had two shortlisted students last year, Gill McColl and Ross Duncan (who eventually picked up the Silver Award).

Very well done and the best of luck to Steven for March 27th!

Virtue

Here's a worthwhile taster from HND 1 student Jody Hogg, who tackled the Design Bridge packaging brief for D&AD - to challenge category convention and create a new whisky that appeals to an international female consumer.

Jody's solution features some great typography and manages to combine a retro feel with a complex modern theme.