Pure Joy

HND Graphic Design student Joy Mooney took the Breakthrough Award at the DMA awards recently in London. The DMA Breakthrough Awards runs in partnership with the DMA Awards and GRT.



This year, Direct Line supplied the brief, which was to re-position Direct Line to a younger target audience for new car insurance by building awareness of the brand and increasing understanding of 'black box' insurance. We managed to produce all three finalists with Joy being joined by Natasha Ryan and Blanca Jiminez.

All three travelled down to London with tutor Helena Good to pitch their ideas to the judging panel, ahead of attending the Awards.  Joy took the top prize but Natasha and Blanca shared the joint Silver prize - a huge achievement all round for our student creatives.

Another Big Star

Niamh picks up her award from Union's Creative Director Sheryl Thompson (right) and host Danni Menzies.

To round off a bumper year, the course is celebrating another win at the Marketing Society Scotland Star Awards, with HND student Niamh Curran picking up Star Creative Student accolade for her work on the STV brief, sponsored by the Union.

This project is unique on the course because the initial response is a written submission, and the shortlisted candidates then pitch their developed idea to the judging panel. Niamh held off competition from talented creative students at Robert Gordon's and DJCAD, and our students have now won this award in no less than six times in the last seven years.

An extra bonus this year was that 2017 graduate Christina Giannakou, now a designer at AlwaysBeContent, was shortlisted in the Rising Creative Star category, a great achievement so early in her career.

Now in its fourteenth year, the Star Awards brings together the largest gathering of the marketing and advertising community outside of London.  This year, some 500 practitioners, clients and creatives celebrated at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh.  The full list of winners can be found here.

Samples from Niamh's submission -

Star Creative Shortlist 2018

We're celebrating good news from the Marketing Society Scotland, who have announced their annual shortlist of six students for the Star Creative Award 2018. Our HND final year student Niamh Curran has made the shortlist, alongside students from Robert Gordon's, DJCAD and Dundee University.

The award is in the Development category, sponsored by Union Direct, and requires students from Universities and Colleges in Scotland to submit a written proposal to a brief set by a high-profile client.  This year, the client was STV Creative, and the brief was to devise a campaign to expand STV's reach with younger audiences across Scotland.

The shortlisted students will all pitch their developed ideas to the judging panel at the Union Agency, and the winner will be announced at the Marketing Society Star Awards, the annual celebration of Scotland's world-class marketing community, in June at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh.  You can find out more about the awards, including the shortlists across all the professional categories, at the Star Awards 2018 website.

Over the course of the last few years our course has produced five winners of this award, including the winning student in each of the past four years.

Sprint Friday in Berlin

Traditionally as part of our annual Berlin study trip in February we arrange a studio visit. In past years this has included the generosity of Saatchi, TLGG and Eden Spiekermann. This year we were lucky enough to visit Axel Springer, one of the world's largest publishers, on the Wednesday (which we'll report on in a separate post) and AJ&Smart, one of the foremost exponents of the 'Design Sprint' ethos in modern visual communication, on the Friday.

The AJ&Smart studio is located in East Berlin, close to the East Side Gallery (one of the few intact parts of the Berlin Wall). The studio was founded by Aussie Michael Smart and Irishman Jonathan Courtney, and includes employees from the UK, Finland, Brazil, Russia, Poland, and of course Germany.  We were lucky enough to meet Michael when our group - all 40 students - arrived just before 4pm on Friday.



Huge glyphs on a wall right opposite the AJ&Smart office on Kopernicker Strasse.


Our students are all set to hear from the lovely folks at AJ&Smart

Venla Hakunti and Rob Hamblen, both wearing some cosy-looking AJ&Smart slippers, put together a great welcome and a fantastic presentation to the students.  The presentation focussed on the company's 4-day sprint process, itself based on the original 5-day model devised by Jake Knapp, a design partner at Google Ventures and the author of the best-selling book 'Sprint'.

Rob introduced some of AJ&Smart's clients - who have included Air BNB, Slack, and Europe's biggest retailer MOVMNT - and talked about their approach to design thinking and how the studio selects and manages its projects.  He then explained the typical sprint process at AJ&Smart - ideation, sketching/storyboarding, prototyping and testing - then demo'd some awesome sprint products, including a really cool mobile app for Red Bull and a (prototype) real bar of chocolate.


Something AJ&Smart build up plenty of during a Design Sprint


Rob explaining the four day sprint model.

As well as reeling off too many great quotes to list here, Rob, himself an HND graduate in Graphic Design, then gave a great Q&A, and our students asked some really sharp questions about generating ideas, dealing with clients, planning, timescales and process.

The AJ&Smart experience also included some nice refreshments and a general natter at the very end, and all of our students were clearly buzzing after the talk. It's always amazing when busy organisations take the time to host talks to students, and everyone agreed this was a big highlight of the 2018 Berlin trip.  Massive thanks to Venla, Rob and also to Danny Holtschke for making this all happen.  Hopefully we will visit again next year!


We left AJ&Smart a heartfelt message.


They even do Design Sprints in the AJ&Smart toilet!

Techshare 2015

On Thursday and Friday of last week, four of our HND students attended the Techshare Europe 2015 event at the Glasgow Science Centre.

The conference, now in its 4th year, attracts a wide range of international speakers and industry experts and promotes discussion and debate on wearable technology and digital access and engagement.

The speaker lineup featured Nick Cain and Kiran Kaja (Google), Daniel Hubble (Microsoft), Richard Moreton (Samsung), Steve Bennett (Dolphin), Thibault Péant (Claria), Chris Yiu (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations), Jamie Chen-Pensley (Catapult Transport Systems) and Gary O'Donaghue (BBC Washington Correspondent).

Student teams from Duncan of Jordanstone, Glasgow Caledonian University, Napier University, Glasgow School of Art, Abertay University and Edinburgh College were involved in the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) Innovation Challenge. The students worked on a brief for the RNIB Group, producing ideas in digital experience to tackle the challenges facing blind and partially sighted people and pitched their solutions at the end of the conference.  You can check out how Techshare happened on their Storify board.



Tutor Helena Good with our Techshare team - Hannah Johnson, Rumana Sayed, Liam Henderson, Rhys McGeary.

One Week with Innis & Gunn

In the run-up to our Industry Night & Show, which takes place on May 28th at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, we've released a short promo about our recent One Week project.

During the project our HNC and HND design students worked in teams alongside six of Edinburgh's finest creative agencies (Blonde, The Gate, Multiply, Lewis, Realise and Whitespace) and a live client, Scotland's leading craft brewer, Innis and Gunn.  More details of our Show will be released soon, in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the film.

Best Educational Event 2014

Class of 2014. Photo by Derek Anderson.

Edinburgh College, the design team and the class of 2014 are celebrating this week after picking up the award for Best Educational Event at the Scottish Event Awards 2014. Details of all the results are on the Scottish Events Awards website.



Mentor and Art Director on the project Alan Lennon accompanied tutor Chris Hughes and design students Dan Plunkett, Adriana Matecka and Saul Stebulis to the event at the Glasgow Marriott. The award recognised the quality and success of Say 2014  - our graduate show and industry night event held in May at Creative Exchange in Leith. The event attracted more than 100 creative industry professionals and showcased an amazing selection of design work by our graduating HND students.

Alan, one of our longest serving mentors, commented "It's been a privilege to work with these talented students in the planning and execution of  Say 2014. The process, discipline and professionalism they demonstrated is a testament to the quality of the design course and high level of tuition they receive. This prestigious award is a fitting recognition."

Say 2014 required a huge amount of support from all our mentors, industry supporters, colleagues and technical staff, and some amazing dedication and hard work by all of the class of 2014. Here's a reminder of the event -

Say 2014 Event Nomination

Our 2014 graduate show, 'SAY 2014', has made the shortlist for Best Educational Event at the 2014 Scottish Event Awards - the second year running that our show has been nominated in this category at the awards.



Say 2014 was held at Creative Exchange in May, and attracted more than 150 advertising and design professionals from 58 of Edinburgh's best agencies and studios. The campaign this year was designed by HND students Saulius Strebulis, Adriana Matecka and Dan Plunkett, with art direction from one of our longest-serving mentors Alan Lennon of Lennon Design.

The judging took place in London in July, and the Scottish Event Awards will take place on Wednesday 8th October 2014 at The Marriott Hotel in Glasgow. The full list of nominations is available on the Scottish Event Awards website.

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.

One Night Stand Event Nomination

Our 2013 graduate show, 'One Night Stand', has made the shortlist for Best Educational Event at the 2013 Scottish Event Awards. Our concept, to reinvent the graduate show format by exhibiting for a single evening only, produced a full house at the Traverse Theatre Bar, attracting more than 100 advertising and design professionals from 47 of Edinburgh's best agencies and studios.





The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday 26th September at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow. The full list of nominations is available on the Scottish Event Awards website.

We Love Review Nights

Our 12.12.12 review night was another successful get-together for our students, former graduates and mentors. With the class all set to go out on placement early in 2013, this was the perfect opportunity to get feedback on their work, and to find out more about what it's really like out in the creative industry.

As well as a great portfolio surgery session, we were treated to inspiring talks by mentor Ian Farmer, student designer Jonathan Walton (currently being mentored by Ian), and Equator's Creative Director James Jefferson.

Upright Creative's Ian Farmer kicked off by talking about his long involvement with our course, and how the sorts of designers we are producing now (and the awards they are winning) are proof that our curriculum and teaching approach has responded well to the daunting pace of change in the industry. Ian also made it clear that working as a mentor is a lot of fun, and a continual source of inspiration for those professional designers involved in it.

Final year student Jonathan Walton did a nice presentation featuring some examples of his projects, and he showed how the direction and intent of the work had been positively influenced by mentoring input from Ian.

Our guest speaker James Jefferson then gave a passionate talk about his experiences in the creative industry, from the founding and rise of his agency Equator, to the pitfalls of applying for jobs, doing interviews, and the general approach a designer needs to take to be a success. He also made the point that industry needs solid connections to education - our mentoring programme being a very good example of how it can work. James finished off with five off-the-wall gifts of advice, including a really classic final one - 'Don't Design, Do Remarkable Things'.

The evening finished off with a short set of presentations of advice and tips from our former graduates, all currently working at various Edinburgh-based agencies, and all keen to pass on the benefits of their experience. The event was filmed and hopefully we'll have it up on vimeo soon.


James Jefferson in full flow.


Portfolio Surgery.


This looks like nice work.


Graduate Advice.


Discussing a project.


It's Easy With Hindsight.

London Week

Level 5 at Tate Modern.

We've just about finalised the itinerary for our London trip next week. A total of twenty-one HND 1 and 2 students will be going, along with tutors Alex Gunn and Chris Hughes.   The group are due to arrive in London on Monday afternoon, and will be staying in Russell Square. The schedule is planned as follows:

Monday PM - British Museum.
Tuesday AM - YCN Studio visit and Agency talk.
Tuesday PM - ColorCompany's 24/7 Print Studio in Mayfair.
Wednesday AM - Design Your Future - UCAS Convention.
Wednesday PM - Tate Modern and South Bank Centre.

The 14th Annual UCAS Convention, held at ExCel near Canary Wharf, is an opportunity for students hoping to study art, design, media, fashion, architecture, ceramics, and photography at University. Many of the UK's top Art Schools and Universities will be there to talk to students about the courses they offer in these subjects, within a live exhibition environment.

More Info:
YCN
UCAS Design Your Future
Tate Modern

Creative Brief-In

D&AD have just announced their autumn roadshow dates, which includes a visit to Edinburgh.

These visits to colleges and universities across the UK are a part of their Education Network programme, and feature a series of inspirational talks and workshops for tutors and their students. The Edinburgh date, scheduled for Nov 16th, will take place at Edinburgh College of Art. Full details on the D&AD site at dandad.org/education

We Love Success

Photograph by Natalie Brown. 

On Thursday 27th September, we celebrated with our HND graduates at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.  It was the final graduate ceremony under the banner of Edinburgh's Telford College. As of this week, we are now part of the newly vested Edinburgh College, along with our colleagues at Stevenson and Jewel & Esk Colleges respectively.

The event included an amazing recital by the NYCoS Training Choir, followed by a fine address from acting Principal Julie McCran, and some inspiring words from Jim Donaldson CBE, (Chair) and Prof Roger Mullin (advisor to the Cabinet Secretary on College Reform).

The pic above shows three of our grads showing off their medals, alongside tutor Helena Good. There were quite a few celebratory drinks afterwards, but it wasn't a late night - all three were due into work the next day. Terry Smith (left) has just taken up a creative position with the Union, Michael Kerr (centre) is a junior designer with Newcastle's meandalan, and D&AD nominee Steven Brown (right) is part of the creative team at Heehaw Digital.

Well done to the class of 2012.

D&AD Awards and New Blood 2012

Earlier this week, Helena and I attended the D&AD Student Awards Ceremony at Old Spitalfields Market in London, along with HND graduate Steven Brown. Steven was nominated for a Yellow Pencil in the Installation Design category. It was a great way for the Edinburgh's Telford Design Team to finish off another hugely successful year.

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

Heinz Salad Cream YCN

Our NC Graphics groups A & B recently completed their first competition project - a YCN brief to promote Heinz Salad Cream to a younger audience. As part of the brief, we also asked the classes to devise a digital presentation, featuring their research, a series of posters, and either an ambient or digital in situ idea. Here is a short selection from the finished work, showcasing some good copy skills and lots of visual imagination.



Calum Mackinnon



Jennifer Mason




Ross Corstorphine



Andy Palfreyman.



Holly Kemp.

We Love Placements, etc

It's that time of year again when our HND2 students go out into the world of industry on a work placement. Placements are a crucial rite-of-passage for any fledgling designer, but given the current economic climate, gaining valuable industry experience is more important than ever to the success of our course.

We'd like assure all the agencies who've agreed to offer a placement that our designers want to think for a living, and know how to make a great cup of tea. Huge thanks (in no particular order) to -

Lewis
Story
Zero
Heehaw
Realise
Eskimo
Project
Heedi
StudioMB
White Light Media
Platinum
Fourth Craw
Morton Ward
Edinburgh City Council
Avian (Dundee)
meandalan (Newcastle)
Redpath
The Union