CR paid a visit to this year's D&AD New Blood show this weekend, and browsed through stands from universities all over the country. As always, the quality of work on show was high. Here's our pick of the projects that stood out most for us.

Before we get stuck into the work, a quick note on the projects chosen: one of the difficulties of the D&AD New Blood show (and in fact any student show adopting the exhibition stand approach) is that the illustration and graphic design work stands out over the rest, purely because this kind of work is displayed best in this manner. In the booklet accompanying the show, D&AD President Sanky says that they'd concentrated more on digital skills this year, though this did not necessarily come through when walking around the show. Similarly, the advertising work that stood out most was print and poster. So this post will be dominated by these kinds of work. We are very keen at CR to see more digital and film projects, however, particularly as we are on the hunt for the best new talents for our graduate special issue which is coming up next month. Therefore, if you feel your brilliant work has been overlooked, please don't hesitate to send it to us, either in the comments box below or via email.

Now to the work. First up is some illustration (shown above and top) by Josh Neal, a graduate from the University of Plymouth. More of Neal's work can be seen at josh-neal.com.

Also from the University of Plymouth is Nic Farrell (nicfarrell.com), who picked up this year's inaugural D&AD New Blood award for best copy for her illustration, shown above.

Nottingham Trent University graduate Dave Raxworthy (daverax.co.uk) created this rather lovely branding, promo and packaging design for The Hub, a bike rescue centre and shop based in York.

Ian Upcott, also from Nottingham Trent, created this dog biscuit poster as part of a series of images on a pet shop theme. Upcott's website is at ianupcott.com.

Also from Nottingham Trent is Lucinda Ireland (lucindaireland.co.uk), who caught our eye with her 'Girls Like Type Too' project. Indeed they do, Lucinda, indeed they do.

Finally from Nottingham Trent is Kenson Lai, whose reference to CR attracted our intention, despite it being part of a series lambasting graphic design clichés. More by Lai is here.

Rich Williams (rw-design.co.uk) from Arts University College at Bournemouth puts an optical illusion to clever effect in this poster for drugs helpline Talk To Frank.

Some striking illustration and packaging design now, from Charles van der Essen (charles.vanderessen.com), a graduate from Bath Spa University.

Lu Sisi (ftjelly.com), a graduate from the Glasgow School of Art, created this charming stop-motion animated film in celebration of the analogue camera, which features a soundtrack made entirely from camera noises.

Also from Glasgow School of Art is Dean Pauley (deanpauley.co.uk) who has drawn on our digital times to create this immaculate hand-made book. Despite its old-fashioned look, the leather-bound book contains the text from over 3,000 spam emails.

Over at the Edinburgh College of Art stand was this rather nice 3D lettering display by Jack Statham (jackstatham.co.uk).

Callin Mackintosh (callinmackintosh.com) used a 3D cutting effect to bring his Geometric Experience series of posters to life on the Duncan of Jordanstone stand.

Also from Duncan of Jordanstone was Kris Wilson's set of brightly coloured posters and button pin badges. More at kristofferwilson.co.uk.

Nick Smart (nicholassmart.co.uk), a graduate from Middlesex University, created this set of record sleeves.

We missed Jake Townsend off our post devoted to work from the University of Lincoln, but it stood out at D&AD New Blood. More by Townsend is at thisisjaketownsend.com.

On the University of the West of England stand, Jay Wright's illustration work stood out. More at jaywrightillustration.com.

And on their graphics stand was Joshua James Saunders' project on family run firms in Bristol. More at joshuajamessaunders.tumblr.com.

Ivan Bellew, a graduate from Sussex Coast College Hastings, combines celebrity heads with "the animal that most suits their mannerisms/frame and character" in this series of illustrations. More are online at ivanbellew.carbonmade.com.

Also from Sussex Coast College Hastings was work by Laura Burton, including an example from her "Tesco no value scarf range". More at lauraburton.co.uk.

A number of graduates on the Kingston University stands caught our attention, including Andy Shrubsole (andyshrubsole.com) & Scott Taylor's (scottnoahtaylor.com) ad campaign for Umbro...

... and James Huse's photographs of an exploding balloon filled with water. More at jameshuse.co.uk.

On Kingston's illustration stand was work by Patricia Voskova (patriciavoskova.com)...

...and Tom Clohosy Cole, who presented the observations of a fictional travelling insurance salesman. More is online at tomclohosycole.co.uk.

We've covered a lot of work from Loughborough University already on the blog, but missed this project by Alice Schofield (aliceschofield.co.uk) and Hannah Dossary (hannahdossary.com), which was a sweet visual map of the process by which they created the Loughborough Uni student catalogue this year.

We also liked this project by Ben Marsh, whose digital project with Joseph Harrison-Dunn was featured on the Loughborough post on CR. Here he presents The Scouse Font, which attempts to capture the Scouse accent in a typeface. More on Marsh at ilikedoodles.com.

CR's Mark previously did a post on Samuel Hawkins work (here), but we thought we'd highlight that he's also just graduated from the University of Westminster. Hawkins' website is samuelhawkins.co.uk.

Finally, at the risk of ending on a bum note (boom boom), we present the work of creative team Mike & Ben, who have graduated from the University of Gloucestershire. The simplicity of their ad for hair-removal product Veet stood out on their uni's stand. More of Mike & Ben's work can be viewed online at cargocollective.com/mikeandben.

The D&AD New Blood exhibition has been on show at the Truman Brewery in London all weekend, and remains up until 6pm tonight. More info is at dandad.org/talent/new-blood.

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