HND Year 1 Final Projects

A sample of HND Year 1 Graded Unit work. There were three briefs to choose from - a re-brand for Edinburgh's Wagamama Restaurant, a corporate identity for the 'Bean Machine" drive through coffee kiosk, and a promotional campaign for Rutland Street Studios - an art and design collective based in Leicester's cultural quarter and housed in a Victorian factory



Rowan Campbell - Bean Machine







Arron Gillespie - Wagamama







Michal Grazewicz - Rutland








Olga Kostrzewska- Wagamama







Jody Hogg - Rutland







Katy Johnson - Rutland




Jonathan Walton -Rutland

Letts Get Published

Earlier this week Line's Creative Director Rufus Spiller popped in to deliver some sample copies of the Letts diaries our students worked on back in March. The students formed two design agencies for a week-long project.



Letts Diaries: Octo (small format) and Dynamic (Large format).


The prototypes - one designed by Team Octo and the other by Team Dynamic - will be used by students over the coming months to generate feedback on the style, format and usability of the designs. Letts will then make a decision on which format will be adopted for 2013.

Bauhaus @ The Barbican

The Barbican Gallery in London is currently hosting 'Art As Life' - the biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over 40 years, and as part of our continuous professional development, the department has sanctioned a number of tutor visits to see it.

'Art As Life' is a visual narrative of the most influential art school of the last century, and features art, architecture, print design, textiles, film, interior & industrial design, and of course typography.

The exhibition documents the amazing experimentation that the school pioneered, and shows how the political landscape of Germany in the Weimar years influenced the movement and its teachings. The work on display also explains how the eventual breakup of the Bauhaus (at the hands of the National Socialists), ensured that its founders dispersed to other parts of Europe and the USA to spread the teachings of the school and set the blueprint for modern architecture and visual communication.

As well as brilliant art by Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Theo Van Doesburg, there is the avante garde photography of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, the textiles of Gunta Stulzl, the graphics of Joost Schmidt and the fantastic typography of Herbert Bayer.

This is more than just an exhibition - there is a public programme of workshops, talks, films and performances as well as the 'Art School Lab', a two-week summer school led by leading practitioners from all artistic backgrounds. The Barbican will also soon be announcing a date for typographer Erik Spiekermann to present a talk at the exhibition.

Well worth going to, but note that photography isn't allowed, and when I was there on Monday the shop had already sold out of Joost Schmidt's famous lithograph poster Plakat zur Bauhaus-Ausstellung (1923), which I was hoping to put up in the studio.

Degree dudes

Yet more congratulations this week, as three of our former graphics students complete their degrees at the University of Dundee's Duncan of Jordanstone.

Ottavio Di Sotto and Kyle McPartlin - hugely talented design prospects - both gained their HND here at Edinburgh's Telford back in 2009, and were the originators of the 'We Love Design' team branding. Also graduating is Sophie D'Agostino - 2011's Star Creative Student of the year.

The tutors here always try to get up to Dundee to see the show (David Wilson is a former DJCAD graduate in Illustration), and Helena traveled up at the start of the week to see the show and catch up with the guys. The show runs till the end of May if you fancy making the trip up there. You can get a sneak preview of all the work here.

Steven Burns the Brightest

Our HND Year 2 student Steven Brown was named Star Creative Student of the Year at the Marketing Society Star Awards last night. Helena and I were delighted to be there to celebrate with Steven, alongside his Mum and his fiancee Natalie.

The Awards, held this year at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh, recognise creative and marketing talent across Scotland.

TV and Radio personality Kaye Adams hosted the event, which saw more than 400 practitioners and professionals from many of Scotland's top agencies and marketing teams gather to celebrate the best creative work of the year.





Steven was shortlisted for the award back in May, along with five other students from the Universities of Dundee, and Edinburgh's Napier.

As well as the trophy and accolade that goes with this achievement, Steven has the offer of a placement at each of three of Scotland's top agencies - Multiply, Redpath and The Union.

He also received an invite from the Leith Agency to join their apprentice-style interview day, a day-long project as part of the agency's Hotdesk program.

Check out the full list of award winners, plus photographs of the night, on the Marketing Society's website.

Top of the World

A design by one of our HND Year 1 students will shortly be the highest outdoor visual campaign in the world.

On 8th May, Tanzanian Wilfred Moshi set out as part of an expedition to climb Mount Everest.  Wilfred is currently at Camp 2, some 7000ft short of the summit. When he reaches the top (the first Tanzanian to achieve the feat), he'll be launching the Global Vision Project, an initiative by the Twende Pamoja Trust, and branded by HND1 Graphic Design student Jonathan Walton. 



In the past, Twende's Mike Knox has commissioned other design projects from our HND students, and this year he supplied our Year 1 class with a brief to design the 'Hand in Hand' campaign for the Global Vision Project. Jonathan's work was chosen following class presentations to the client.

The current stage of this amazing project will be launched imminently by Wilfred from the top of Mount Everest, followed by further events from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh (June), and from Mount Kilimanjaro in
August.


More Info:
Twende Pamoja Trust
Mount Everest Hand in Hand on Facebook
Wilfred Moshi's blog

Banging the Degree Show DRUM

It's always great to get good publicity for our course, and each year the DRUM includes a profile of our student work in its annual preview of degree shows. 

This year Edinburgh's Telford is amongst seven institutions featured, the others being Glasgow School of Art, Grays, Duncan of Jordanstone, and from south of the border, the Universities of Leeds, Central Lancashire and Lincoln.

Check out the full article here.  A few copies of the print version of the magazine should be arriving in the studio shortly.

Judging Feedback

D&AD have posted the judges feedback for the student entries this year. As usual, the three judging criteria (which you will have heard explained a few times if you've been to a D&AD roadshow event) provided the judges with the benchmarks for a good entry:

Firstly, the work must be a great idea
Secondly it must be exceptionally well executed
Thirdly it must be on brief .

Read all the feedback here.

It's Almost Show Time

For the third consecutive year, our End of Year Show is being held at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh (June 13th -17th), with open public viewing for HND Textiles, Illustration, Interior Design and Graphic Design.

We'll also be holding our annual Graphic Design industry night, where a select group of industry practitioners, potential employers and course mentors are invited to view the work, talk design with the students, and indulge in some free wine. Check out the exhibition promo at  www.etcshow.net