Wall Works, Hamburger Bahnhof

On Thursday we took the design students to the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum. As well as famous Pop Art and Abstract Expressionist works by the likes of Warhol, Rauschenburg and Anselm Kiefer, the group got to see the remarkable Wall Works expo - a selection of pieces celebrating the wall as a powerful space for all kinds of visual communication. Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Arte Povera, Video Art and stencil graffiti on a gigantic scale were all represented by artists such as Daniel Buren, Sarah Morris and Nasan Tur.

We also caught the preparations for the upcoming Susan Philipsz exhibition, with the gallery team installing the typographic annotations to the pieces.

 
Anselm Kiefer 

 
Nasan Tur 

  

 
Hemio Zobering




 
Richard Rauschenburg 





 
Installing Susan Philipsz 



 
Andy Warhol

ReNoise at CTM

Part of the CTM Festival, the Generation Z : ReNoise exhibition explores the unique proletarian amateur noise music culture that thrived in post-revolution Russia. As well as some early sonic devices, and some amazing footage of experimental music performances, the exhibition also featured sketches, notes and a good selection of rare Constructivist posters, pamphlets and promotional material.

The last letters from the former GDR

The highlight of the first full day of our student trip to Berlin was a visit to the Buchstaben Museum to see their amazing collection of neon signs, letters and fonts from the former GDR. The collection featured a vast array of metal letters and signs, all salvaged and renovated from the shops, factories and public buildings of East Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  You can check out the set of photos from the visit on Flickr, but a few standouts are featured here.  One novel inclusion was a large uppercase 'E' used as part of the cinema facade in a scene from Quentin Tarantino's film Īnglorious Basterds', which was shot nearby in Potsdam.

Switch-operated Neon Sign.

Bringing Back Sounds

Who said print was dead? The HNC class finished their magazine concepts last week, and for some of the class this was their first introduction to editorial design. The brief was to create a new masthead and cover and spread concepts for relaunch of SOUNDS, the seminal music magazine which folded in 1991. The aim was to recreate the glory days of British rock journaliam, when the market was able to support 3 broadsheet music magazines - SOUNDS, Melody Maker and NME. Some of this work will appear imminently on our pinterest project samples board.

a busy start to 2014

We've only been back for one week, but things are already seriously busy. On Thursday 16th we are hosting our second Mentor Meeting of this session, where the mentors will get a chance to catch up with the students, look over some initial work on their D&AD projects, and give some useful advice in the run-up to work placement.

Our final year students go on placement each year at some of Edinburgh's top creative agencies during the four-week stretch from late January through February. Arranging the slots has been tricky this time around because we've also had to factor in a week-long student visit to Transmediale and CTM, in Berlin (Jan 28-Feb 4).

The work placement scheme is an important part of our employer-engagement strategy, and an essential experience for student creatives. As usual the response from Edinburgh's design community has been superb, and we'd like to thank (in no particular order):

Lewis, Mortonward, RAPP, Multiply, Contagious, Whitespace, Jump Marketing, Three Brand, Peach Digital, Shaw, Iain Lauder Design, Eskimo, Line Digital, Story, The Union, Tayburn, Skyscanner, Stuff, The Lane Agency, The Gate, White Light Media and Hookson.