Despite the current lockdown due to COVID-19, our art and design students have been busier than ever!  They’ve been working on lots of fantastic creative projects over the past few months – keep reading to find out more.

Graphic Design 'Creative May'

Throughout the month of May, art and design students were challenged to take part in ‘Creative May’.  Every day, students were tasked with completing an exciting daily brief set by our graphic design staff.  The aim of these short activities was to encourage students to be creative with what they have around them at home.  Each task was accompanied by a video demonstration showing examples of what students could do.  Briefs included leaf printing, flower pressing, making your own paint, vegetable stamping and marbling with nail polish.  Completing these projects gave the students the opportunity to develop a collection of work during lockdown, which they then can then present as part of their portfolio to employers and at university interviews.  The feedback from students who completed the tasks was overwhelmingly positive:

“I’ve found the challenges so motivating!”

“I've really enjoyed the ‘Creative May’ activities – it’s been a great opportunity to try out lots of new techniques.”

Rachel Buck, Subject Tutor for graphic design, said, “Setting these daily tasks has really helped our students to continue to develop their creative skills – it has been wonderful to see the work they have produced from home!”

To see all of the ‘Creative May’ tasks, and the new ‘Digital June’ tasks, go to the graphic design Instagram page.

Graphic Design 'Lockdown Livewire'

Congratulations to second year graphic design student Daniel Bryant, whose advert designs were chosen to help promote a brand new Instagram Live event called ‘Lockdown Livewire’. 

The ‘Lockdown Livewire’ event, which took place on 6 June 2020 and featured live performances by various music acts, was organised by first year music student, Scott Channon.  Those performing included ‘The Distraction’, ‘Myriad’ and Scott himself!  All donations collected during the event went to the NHS.

Scott commended, “Thank you to the graphic design department who were so willing to help me find a student to design the ‘Lockdown Livewire’ advertising campaign.  Working with Daniel was brilliant – he was so helpful and flexible with the designs (even when I spelt one of the acts name's wrong twice!).  I will definitely be keeping Daniel as a contact in the future, as he is so talented and easy to work with.  He did an outstanding job!”

Summer Art Exhibition

Due to the current lockdown, the annual Summer Art Exhibition, which normally takes place at the College in June, has been cancelled.  However, staff from fashion textiles, graphic design, fine art and photography, still wanted to celebrate the amazing work that second years students have produced over the past two years. 

Rose Davies, Senior Curriculum Manager for graphic design, said, “We were so disappointed to have to cancel this year’s Summer Art Exhibition.  This event is such an amazing celebration of the brilliant pieces that our second year students have worked so hard on over the past two years.  But thanks to our fantastic graphic design Technician, Beth Ryce-Kelly, we are able to display and celebrate the students’ work digitally through this celebratory video!  The video only shows a very select number of students' work to demonstrate the quality and range of projects - there are hundreds of art students, whose names you can see from the credits!  Well done and thank you to all our second year students for your hard work – enjoy the video!”

Please click on the video below to watch our digital Summer Art Exhibition: