We Have Hand-Made Winners

We had 11 student teams presenting their 'Hands On' induction projects this morning. Solutions ranged from a subversive guerilla advertising to educational pamplets, an imagination station, a handprinting installation and even a photocopier photobooth. But the clear winners, as voted by the whole group (and incidentally by the tutors) was Team 3 and their 'On' campaign - using hand on techniques on 'practically everything'. See what you think -







Selections from the rest of the project-work can be checked out on our Pinterest boards here.

sixty students + first week = Hands On

The first week back for our students, and as we've done for the past three years, we called upon our final year group to come up with an inspiring induction project, which would involved our NC, HNC and HND groups. The main aims of the induction week are to promote peer bonding, introduce our newbies to the studio process, and to have a bit of well-earned fun.

This year the project was 'Hands On' - dispensing with digital and computer work and focussing purely on a handmade design solution. Led by final year student Calum McKinnon, the project brought together 60 students, organised into in 11 teams, to carry out a series of ice-breaker activities and then tackle a two day brief. We supplied the group with a double lecture theatre space, plus £350 worth of art materials.



Calum's team arranged three increasingly surreal ice breakers:

Firstly, a 30 minute logo design to brand each team, using only paint, paper and pencils.

This was followed by a spagetti tower competition - with each team attempting to construct a spagetti tower made from 40 strands of spagetti, 1m of cellotape, and a single marshmallow (all in 10 minutes). Team 7, led by Mark Phillips, managed to break the 1 meter barrier, winning by 50mm.

The final ice breaker required the teams to create a bridge using only 4 pieces of A4 and 1m of cellotape, then balance as many Mars Bars as possible on it, across a 40cm gap. Team 8, led by HND student Craig Nicholson (clearly a closet architect) managed to balance a rather amazing 32 Mars Bars on their bridge. Worth trying at home.

The brief kicks off tomorrow - to create an inspirational campaign that promotes back to basics, ‘Hands On’ design. The teams have until 10am on Thursday to create their design, when they'll present to all groups.

Kicking off the season

The East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL), celebrating its eightieth year, will kick off the 2013-14 season with a new logo, designed by graphics student Alasdair Muir.

Edinburgh-based Matchday Media (Scotland) Ltd, a regular collaborator with our course in recent years, developed a new digital presence for the association, and invited us to present a selection of branding concepts. Alasdair's design best captured the look and feel EoSFL were looking for - combining a modern clean typographic style with a hint of the classic sports logos from the 1970's and 80's.




More: New EoSFL Branding (EoSFL Website).