welovedesignetc
The design courses blog for BA (Hons)
and HND Vis Comm at Edinburgh College

YCN Call for Entries

25 October 2010

YCN have just announced that their up-coming Student Awards programme will be launching online on Monday 1st November at http://awards.ycnonline.com/briefs.


Some Inspiration

24 October 2010

After the mid-semester break, both HND 1 and 2 are hard at work on a number of projects - HND 2 have an interiors brief, based around a signage re-development for the Telford campus, and HND 1 have a typeface design project and an MPA Roses brief.

On top of that, the 2011 D&AD briefs have just been announced, and Helena, David and I will be integrating them into the delivery over the next seven or eight weeks leading up to Christmas. And finally, we'll be gearing up for a modest end-of-year exhibition, with input for the Mentors, and a chance for the NC classes to exhibit their work as well.

All of which means that its time for some inspiration, so here are three great short TED talks by David Carson, Jaket Utko and Paula Scher on creativity, intuitive design, and the thrill of being hired to think for a living -



















Gray Stuff

21 October 2010

Designing book covers is still probably the dream job for many graphic designers, and it's something we look at in detail on the HND course.

So it's great to see that Edinburgh's Talbot Rice Gallery is curating 'Gray Stuff - Designs for Books and Posters, 1952 – 2010' - an exhibition of Alasdair Gray's rather amazing visual works.

Gray is a former student at Glasgow School of Art. But despite his artistic talents, he found fame as a novelist, and at 75, is considered Scotland's greatest living writer.

This exhibition showcases his unique illustrative and typographical style, which has appeared both on the covers of, and inside, his many acclaimed novels, such as Lanark (1981), 1982 Janine (1984) and Poor Things (1992). He has also designed book jackets and magazine covers for dozens of other writers and publications, and has painted a number of murals inside some major buildings in Glasgow.

Alasdair Gary seems to be finally getting the recognition he deserves for his visual art - his work is currently also on show at the Modern Art Gallery, and at the British Art Show (currently on tour in Nottingham). BBC2's Culture Show is featuring a special on Gray tonight at 7pm, and he has just published 'A Life in Pictures' - an autopictography featuring 50 years' worth of designs, sketches and illustrations.

Before the end of this semester we'll hopefully arrange a visit to Gray Stuff for some of the Graphics classes.

More:
Alasdair Gray @wiki


HND 1 : Magazine Covers

14 October 2010

HND Year 1 have just finished a nice print project. This was set by David W and required the class to produce two covers and a doublepage spread for a world music magazine. Check out some of the great pieces this project produced in the Galleries section.


D&AD Beta

7 October 2010

D&AD have just announced the beta version of their new website. They've been talking about this site for over a year, so it's great to see it - here.

The archive, the President's Lectures, and some university network profiles are already in there. This is obviously not the finished article, and there is a lot of content still to be uploaded, but it does look nice.

I've also been given a sneak preview of the 2010/11 briefs - four of them to be exact - and the clients are Michelin, Oxfam, Taschen and Westfield. Unfortunately, we've been asked not to distribute these to students yet, so HND II will have to hang on until the formal release of the full list of briefs.

D&AD are touring and will be in Glasgow at some point. I'll be arranging to go to the event, and our nominated student reps Emma Hart (HND 2) and Terry Smith (HND 1) will also get the opportunity to come along.


CABE Presentations


Sample boards for CABE, HND II.

HND II presented their CABE projects earlier this week.

Mentors Graham Neish (Neish Design), Graeme Lewis (Nevis Agency) and Alan Lennon (Lennon Design) were in attendance and the class also participated in some interesting peer critique.

This was the first chance to test our new presenting easels, which David W purchased at the start of the semester. These allow a student to display up to four boards at any one time. In combination with digital content on the interactive whiteboard, this new setup looks like it will really broaden out pitches and solution deliveries.

CABE samples have been posted in the Gallery.