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Graduate shows 09: New Designers
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 20 July 2009, 16:40 Permalink Comments (11)
Detail from Ben Cain's The Road, from University for the Creative Arts, Maidstone's display
Last Friday, CR visited New Designers where students graduating in visual communications courses were showing work. It was a decidedly illustration-heavy crop this year and with a lot of strong pieces around. Here are a few of our favourites...
As with previous New Designers, University for the Creative Arts, Maidstone had a particulary good show of work.
First up from UCAM, Ben Cain whose work inspired by Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel, The Road, offered up a striking print as well as a book cover:
We also really liked Kathryn Spreadbury's dark, claustrophobic images of city life that formed part of her Urban Jungle series. Bleak but brilliant:
Siri Frøseth-Rønning's meditative paintings were in the mould of Anna Bushan's work, where much of the narrative is left to the viewer's imagination. (Sadly, we can't find a website for Siri's work but an email is here):
And Tom Buddle's graphic novel, The Enormous Radio, looked very intriguing. (More pages from this can be seen at his website):
This piece stood out from North Wales School of Art and Design's wall display. It's by Megan Hindley, who also blogs under the moniker, Stedhead:
University College Falmouth also presented a range of great work and we particularly liked Suzy Phillips' covers for the novels of DH Lawrence:
Two very different graduates from Cambridge School of Art also impressed: firstly, Jana Diemberger with her beautifully illustrated book, Monacello: The Little Monk:
On the opposite wall, Melissa Castrillon's delicate pencil illustrations caught the eye, too.
Apparently, her images document the story of a young woman who attempted suicide in 1885 by jumping off the Clifton Suspension bridge in Bristol, only to survive thanks to her several skirts which acted as a parachute. (She then lived until she was 84):
It was nice to see some physical products on show, in amongst the 2D art.
wemaket-shirts.com, a group project by several illustrators from Nottingham Trent looks to have a lot of talent beind it.
Their printed mailer was very nicely produced, as was this T-shirt (entitled The Game) which features two crafty characters playing cards:
Lincoln University's Wilf Hanson showed some great editorial illustrations of several musicians including The Beatles, Iggy Pop, Elton John and Graham Coxon:
Finally, and somewhat enbarrassingly, we really liked this mad-capped forest scene which was also by a Lincoln graduate, though we failed to take a picture of (or indeed write down) their name.
So if this is your insane creation, or you know whose it is, please do let us know via the comments so we can credit it accordingly:
UPDATE: The piece below is by Jonathan Edward Atkins. (Thanks to George and Simon in the comments)
Thanks to Satara Achille for her help with the photography.
11 Comments
i found new designers to be "a bit samey" and although you have hand picked some really nice work there was 100 others going for the same style but liberally peppered with mediocrity. I did not once discover something that blew me away or open my eyes to something new. Walking around the exhibition centre alot of the work became a blur that i have long since forgotten.
However Nottingham Trent did put up fantatstic work that stood out as a different standard and some really nice fiurniture design elsewhere.
2009-07-21 14:53:18
Why is each image so utterly depressing? Is this CR's predisposition, or our societies influence on students?
We need happiness, not sorrow!
2009-07-21 15:17:52
I was an exhibitor at New Designers for South East Essex College and I thoroughly enjoyed being there and looking at what other students have designed. I was impressed and the competition was intense. I am quite surprised with some of the illustrations that have been featured on this blog as they do seem to be full of sorrow! Haven't you got any photographs with a happier feel? I want to look back at this blog and see illustrations with a friendlier vibe!
2009-07-21 19:16:10
I was an exhibitor at the show at one of the many stands representing graphic design, not illustration. This selection of work has to be the most dark and depressing I've seen, and certainly doesn't represent the show well in terms of the wide variety that was present.
There was inspiring and exciting graphic design on a lot of stands, some of which was eye opening and very conceptual, compared to the image heavy all-visual-no-thought approach to some peoples work.
I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and in my opinion would suggest the editor of this blog fairly represents the show for what it was. South East Essex College and Nottingham Trent put on a great show for graphic design, which did actually feature at new designers.
2009-07-21 23:12:32
As a visitor I saw great deal of really impressive work, much of which hasn't featured within this article. The depressing A-Level-style 'Urban Jungle' imagery selected doesn't really begin to compare to much of the far deeper, more skillful level of imagery that I saw at the show, the standard of which is illustrated here through the example of the work of Ben Cain and Wilf Hanson.
Overall, the UCA show was indeed most impressive and professional, with Siri Frøseth-Rønning's understated work, amongst others, standing out from the crowd. I found more examples of her work here: http://www.wecreative.eu/
I thought that perhaps what let down other exhibitors, such as Falmouth, was the standardised presentation, which showed little originality or creative flair.
2009-07-29 14:21:17
I agree with Anna- I went to New Designers in the hope of being spoilt for choice in chosing an artist to come onboard with our company but found only a couple of illustrators that really interested me- one from UCA and one from Falmouth.
There was little diversity within the strong house styles of the individual universities and the repetition of over-used and unoriginal styles, such as in the 'Urban Jungle', as picked up on by Anna is what I think let this years show down.
I also noticed the repetition of the style as used by Melissa Castrillon, which although is very successful here, was apparent in almost all stands, including the UCA one- I would be interested to know where this style is coming from.
2009-07-30 09:17:01
http://wilfhanson.carbonmade.com Please have a look!
2009-08-02 23:48:15
http://www.stephlovestodraw please have a look at my website! it will show that new designers was not all full of doom and gloom!
2009-08-07 21:59:00
http://www.stephlovestodraw.com
2009-08-08 18:11:26
The work with no name was Jonathon atkins, also known as King Jon.
I thought the whole visual communication part of the exhibition was very dull and almost pushed to one side. The stands were badly assembled and the lighting was atrocious. We had to pay an extra £100 for lights which should of been there in the first place.
My work was put up in two seperate places leaving many viewers puzzled to who's work was who's!!
Please take a look at my blog......
http://georgemitchellillustrations.blogspot.com
2009-08-28 16:08:59
The last piece was done by my brother - Jonathan Edward Atkins.
Please credit him - he is our families only hope.
Besides illustration he likes cars and his cat - Gherkin.
A Bientot
2009-09-04 16:40:53
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