Four Deadlines & a Dinner

Ellie Woodman – Folie à deux

Four Deadlines & a Dinner was a MOTH collaborative practice project working with 20 Stage 2 Graphic Design students within the School of Communication Design along with external partners from medicine, palliative care, writing, design for the live environment and VR. During this four week period, students worked across a range of death & design projects, they discussed and delivered ideas and potential solutions relating to end of life experiences.

With Dr Mark Taubert Clinical Director/Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Velindre NHS Trust, Cardiff, we explored how visual communication designers and medics could benefit from sharing knowledge and skills to impact on policy and practice with regard to end of life matters, in particular with patients with life limiting illness and their choices regarding DNACPR. The work produced from this will be exhibited at the Bevan Commission Health and Social Welfare Conference in Wales in September 2017.

In collaboration with Ben James, Creative Director at Jotta Design and Anna Kiernan a Senior Lecturer in Writing, we considered our own personal eulogies and innovative ways in which to store our digital selves as either a digital future or digital archive beyond our physical life.

MOTH hosted a Death Over Dinner party, where our guests were invited to eat and engage in meaningful conversations and questions about the end-of-life, we also held a film night where we screened Afterlife, by Hirokazu Kore-eda: Newly deceased find themselves in a way station somewhere between Heaven and Earth. With the help of caseworkers, each soul is given three days to choose one memory from their life that they will relive for eternity. The project also included a tour of artist’s graves at Falmouth Cemetery run by Glyn Winchester from Falmouth Art Gallery.

Theo Penrice – Childish Perspectives:
Wrong But Not Forgot
James Cook – To Top it Off
Poppy Andruskevicius – I’m never drinking
again

Haruka Kondo_ What do I want to do?

Joe Arnold – Pair No 8

AVTUR at J G Ballard Day

First year Graphic Design students Paul Merritt, Dylan Young, Reuben Morley and Alex Bassett have worked together on two group projects: BAUEN and AVTUR.

Our first project BAUEN, was the realisation of a micro-nation for which we designed a 63 page book documenting a dystopian village based on the write/re-write motion of a computer hard disc. BAUEN designers constantly build and demolish to satisfy their modernist creative aesthetic indulging themselves in continual updates with no care for inhabitants or environment. Design is all.

After BAUEN we decided to work together again for an end of term film project. We were asked to make a 60-90 second film on the theme of ‘A new experience’. Alex, Reuben and Dylan had never read the work of J G Ballard before. Taking the RE/SEARCH Ballard special and ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’ as our starting point we began to look for film locations in Cornwall. We accessed M.O.D. facilities and hung out in car parks. We found concrete structures near tin mines and irrigation structures in fields. Finally we pieced together the 90 seconds of vision and sound that is AVTUR. The film was shown at the end of year Graphics Oscars where it won an Oscar for ‘Best Cinematography’

The J G Ballard Day conference took place on Saturday 24 June at Birmingham City University with the theme J.G. Ballard and Making, our film AVTUR was accepted as part of the yearly academic event. This one-day, multidisciplinary symposium showcased student projects at Birmingham University alongside academic papers and other creative responses to Ballard from elsewhere.

Objects, artefacts, performances, papers and discussion panels that respond to any aspect of making in J G Ballard’s work were included in the day’s events. Our film was shown as part of a visual and film themed section of the day where several films were shown and followed by questions and discussion. AVTUR was shown twice and we had an excellent reaction from other contributors. We answered many of interesting questions regarding both the technical side of the making of the film and the creative links to the themes of the world of J  G Ballard.

It was a great opportunity to find out what kind of reaction our film would have from Ballard scholars and to find out if we were successful in translating at least some of the feeling and ideas present in his work. It was also a fantastic opportunity to spend some time in the beautiful modern building where we presented our film.

After the event its organiser Dr Thomas Knowles (Birmingham City University) said that AVTUR was “A really excellent addition to alternative cinema influenced by Ballard. AVTUR really captures the mood/tone of his works” He also confirmed that “It went down a treat” in a posting on his blog about J G Ballard day.

Falmouth Graduate wins Design Week 17 Rising Star award

BA(Hons) Graphic Design graduate Katie Cadwallader, now a designer at Supple Studio, has been awarded ‘Rising star’ at this year’s Design Week Awards. Now in its 26th year, the Design Week Awards are the leading accolade in the design industry. The Rising Star Award is open to those who’ve been in the design industry for up to three years and aims to discover the design industry stars of the future.

“To be recognised as a ‘Rising Star’ is incredible for so many reasons. I’ve been subscribed to Design Week since college so seeing my name up there with some of the world’s greatest designers will take a long time to adjust to. It’s a category in which you have to be nominated by someone – in my case, our clients at Royal Mail and my boss. That in itself was compliment enough.

So many people can take credit for this award – starting with the lecturers on the BA(Hons) Graphic Design course at Falmouth who nurtured me both in my work and in my transition into adulthood. The teachings from Falmouth about the power of ideas and the importance of work ethic, stand me in great stead. I swapped this support system for that of my colleagues at Supple Studio, who constantly push me to be bolder, take risks and have conviction in my work.

No one said it more succinctly than Kevin Spacey bizarrely, “If you’re lucky enough to do well, you have to send the elevator back down” So thanks to everyone who gave me a lift.”

We are extremely proud of Katie’s achievement, which is well deserved. Katie is the fourth Falmouth Graphic Design student to receive this accolade. Previous winners of this award have been Craig Oldham, Josh Turner and Phil Skinner.

Stage 1 Graphic Design Oscars 2017

Stage 1 Graphic Design were set a collaborative film project entitled: I’ve Never Seen Star Wars. The project was based on a comedy talk show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and hosted by comedian Marcus Brigstocke, where in each episode a celebrity guest tries out experiences that are new to them, but common to many others. The title comes from the show’s producer and creator, Bill Dare, having never seen the Star Wars films.

Teams were asked to deliver a 60-90 second short film demonstrating playful, compelling story telling. Continuing in the spirit of Stage 1, they were asked to embrace risk and experimentation, (but, it also had to be: a. within the law, b. safe and c. decent for public viewing. Most of this criteria was met!).

We celebrated the films at our annual Red Carpet Oscars event on Thursday 25th May. The films were funny, beautifully shot and edited with some skillful post production techniques. They revealed great talents, showed brilliant collaborative practice and were above all thoroughly entertaining. It was a great end to a great year group who now enter into Stage 2 in Sept, looking forward to the next set of challenges and new experiences on offer at Falmouth.

18 Films were shown and the judges had a very difficult job of shortlisting the Oscar winners down to 5:

Best Cinematography and Post Production

Avtur- A film based on the first impressions of the writings of J G Ballard: Alex Bassett, Paul Merritt, Reuben Morley, Dylan Young.

Best Action Movie

Learn to skate. Emma Barraclough, Martha Galilee, Annie Haines, Rachel Potter.

Film that most honoured the brief! (+ most records broken).

Never have I Ever. Millie Hacket, Andy Horner, Fern Partridge, Amy Shortis.

Best Directors Cut

I’ve never danced in public, I’ve never cooked before, I’ve never drawn a perfect circle. Tom Benford, Abii Birkett, Matthew Cannon, Suin Lee.

Best Film

I’ve Never Made a Film. Connor Edwards, Tom Heath, James Hopkinson, Emily Sorrel.

Graphic Design Summer Show 2017

The BA(Hons) Graphic Design degree show celebrated the breadth and diversity of work from our graduating students from the class of 2017.

It was great to see a show so full of challenging, provocative and successful projects including three students nominated for D&AD New Blood awards. The rich array of work on display showcased many areas within the discipline, including – amongst others – branding & identity, design for social change, user experience, editorial design and typography.

You can see many of the graduate projects from the Class of 2017 here: http://newblood.falmouth.ac.uk/

 

RSA Vaults Portfolio Review Night

Each year, we have the privilege of hosting a Portfolio Reception Evening for our final year students. Traditionally, this falls in the last 4 weeks of our teaching year – just ahead of the students completing their work and submitting it all for assessment.

The event was held earlier this year due to a changing timetable at our end, the lateness of Easter, and was disrupted by the fallout of mindless Terrorist attacks, but was no less valuable for all involved.

The venue has (for many years now) been at the RSA Vaults building in central London, and our ‘portfolio evening’ is now affectionally known as ’The Vaults’ in the minds of the designers who attend each year.

It’s a significant time for a number of reasons – the opportunity for our burgeoning designers to rehearse talking about their work and respond to feedback from some of the UK’s leading agencies. It also allows industry the chance to see up-and-coming designers in their prime and to take the opportunity to build key relationships that lead to placements, internships and – occasionally, the first job offer.

Our course has always been based on the premise that – at the end of the day, both the design ‘industry’ and design ‘education’ is very much about people, with names and faces and stories to tell, and we have worked hard over many years to build connections & relationships that have weathered many-a-storm. We continue to value everyone who gives us their time and support each year, and this feeds directly into our students’ experience of studying with us, complimenting the regular support they receive back on-campus at University.

At the end of the day, the event is at it’s most rewarding at both the beginning, and end of the evening. The beginning, as you watch nervous faces anticipating the next four hours ‘Can I do this?’, ‘Will I make a fool of myself?’,  ‘What if no-one likes what I’ve done?’, and then the end, as those same people are literally set-to-burst with the knowledge that they’ve been there, done it, and got the reward; ‘I can…’, I didn’t…’ and ‘They loved it…’.

Graduate Day March 2017

Our annual Graduate Day is a special occasion on the Graphic Design calendar, when graduates from previous year’s cohorts are invited back to Falmouth to recount the experiences of their first formative period of professional working.

This highly valuable event allows current students to learn of the successes and challenges that are all part of the journey in achieving that important first rung on the career ladder. Whilst it’s great for the students to hear of the amazing achievements of the group, they also get to hear the reality of the motivation and sheer hard work that follows the completion of their degrees and the importance of perseverance and developing a thick skin to help achieve one’s goals.

We were delighted to have welcomed the group of nine young designers to give short talks in the main lecture theatre in the afternoon. The group also ran seminar discussions in the morning with final year students to share stories of ambition and encouragement for the last period of their degree study.

Importantly, the selection of graduates for the day is made to paint a broad picture of career direction and opportunity, with design destinations including work at Penguin Books, The Partners, Oxfam, B&B Studio, LPK and GBH.  The selection also includes other strands of stepping stone after a degree, including going into Design Management and also following more academic routes, by going onto Postgraduate study on our own MA Communication Design course.

Thanks go to graduates Alex Bride, Cassy Bull, Matt Caldwell, Matt Churchill, Fraser Donaldson, Dan Prescott, Georgie Rait, Rosie Stevens and Queenie Wong.

The central narrative

Each year, our first year students embark on a project that explores the idea of storytelling – the foundational premise upon which most graphic design (and arguably communication in general) is based. Understand the place of storytelling in our craft, and you are likely to build strong, believable visual narratives.

We explore pace, flow, rhythm and tone of voice to aid the engagement with (and comprehension of) a given story or message. We encourage the students to begin with a personally authored piece of writing, to then research within and beyond graphic design (film, poetry, creative writing, photography, and so on…) and experiment with a wide variety of visual responses. The hope is to nurture diverse and experimental approaches to narrative and move beyond conventions of (in this case) the traditional book.

At the end of the module this year (as is our practice), we created an exhibition of the work and invited the rest of the course to share in the fruits of the first year’s efforts (and scare a few second and third year students in the process!). Of particular note this time around was the care in production of many of the books (thanks again to Megan Stallworthy for the workshops), and the time spent considering the initial stories – many of which dealt with sensitive or poignant moments. The samples shown here were all produced by our first year students (who have been with us for just under 20 weeks), and they wrote, designed and hand-made the books in just 5 weeks!

Coming up!

Industry engagement in central to the course and this year has been no exception. In November second year students selected from the study trips arranged by the course.

In London, students received presentations and industry insights from some of the leading design studios, including Biblioteque, Bartle Bogle Hegarty, B&B Studio, Brand Union, The Chase, Design Bridge, Hat-trick, JKR, Lewis Moberly, Kessels Krammer, Made Thought, NB Studio, The Partners, Pentagram, Someone, Sea, Thomas Matthews, UsTwo and Weiderman Lampe.

In Amsterdam, alongside cultural visits to the city, the Stedelijk Museum and Design Museum Breda, students too visited a broad selection of studios. These included the advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy, AKQA, LUST, Silo, De Designpolitie, Trapped in Suburbia, Vandejong and 72andSunny.

The course continues to attract influential figures in the world of design to deliver talks and workshops for our students. So far this year we have had Pentagram partner Naresh Ramchandani, Phil Carter of Carter Studio, Art Director of Monotype’s magazine Luke Tonge, Simon Manchip from Someone and Chintal Darjee from The Future Laboratory. Other speakers and visiting tutors in this field include artist Gordon Young, publisher Anna Gerber of Visual Editions and museum curator Sarah Brin.

Forthcoming events in March

Graduate Day. This yearly event invites graduates from the previous year back to Falmouth, so current students can hear the stories and challenges of life and work outside of University

Creative Career Journeys.  Creative Director Jamie Ellul of award winning Supple Studio, will be running a day of seminars and portfolio ‘drop-ins’. His lecture will tell the story of his career journey to date, working and learning with some of the most highly respected graphic design studios in the UK, including Hat-trick and Magpie.

Graphic in Motion. Ideas today are delivered across many platforms both digital and analogue and the course is pleased to welcome motion graphics, TV designer and director Mark Chaudoir who will talk about his exciting career on screen.

Portfolio advice event in London. The connections we have deliver critical stepping stones to career success and the portfolio review evening at the Royal Society of Arts in London is vital for this. The capitals’ top creative directors and designers are invited to discuss student portfolios, offering advice and a little extra polish, before the final degree show in May.

Preparing for placements. The course has a great track record of providing placements for students at many of the UK’s most respected studios. These world renowned studios generously support our period of placements at the end of the second year, enabling our students to get a real taste of working in highly creative and successful studios. We normally expect to place between 60 and 80 students at this period of study. The final year who will be preparing final portfolios at this time, also make use of our extensive network of contacts, so they can begin to set up there own placements and first steps into the workplace upon graduating.

D&AD New Blood in July. As well as our portfolio evening, the course shows student work and hopeful winners at the industries top central London show. This is great shop window for the course and student work, with many introductions made as top studios shop for the years’ new talent and potential employees.

“World class is a phrase often loosely banded about in higher education but in the field of Graphic Design Falmouth can justifiably make that claim”. Ben Casey, External Examiner and Founder of The Chase, (one the top creative design consultancies in the UK)

STUFF Student collections Moth Design & Death + The Studio Society

Following on from the Staff STUFF Collections, which were exhibited at the end of last year, students from the School of Communication Design were invited to exhibit their personal collection of STUFF. This collection could be one which has been added to over time, bequeathed to them, multiples of objects accrued as a result of habitual buying, a chance encounter at a boot fair.

MOTH: design & death has been interested in working with staff and students instigating projects which encourage enquiry using objects and artefacts as triggers for hidden memory, micro/macro, parts and whole, constructing and de-constructing, a passion for ‘rejects’ and fragments. This projects extends into The Studio Society which seeks to promote opportunities for the community of the Graphic Design Course to share, comment and contribute to the course beyond the curriculum.

Over the last four weeks students have shared some of their collections, giving insight as to why they have this STUFF and what it means to them.

Collection_01 | Jocelyn Affleck | Story Book

‘Everybody has a story to tell, but it’s tricky to find it. I take this book with me everywhere as a conversation starter and from there on people feel like they are part of something – part of this wide network of stories all held within the broken binding of this book’  Jocelyn Affleck

Collection_02 | Louise Osborne | Royal Memorabilia | Victoria Boyle | Black Cat & Socks | Chris Rees | Keyrings

‘No amount of frills, ribbons or official crests can disguise the naffness of these objects. Such an ornate form of tat, they are simultaneously beautiful and hideous. Quite an impressive combination in all honesty. Essentially I find them amusing, a completely bizarre thing to have in your home. However for such a simple object they open a variety of discussions and memories’ Louise Osborne

Collection_03 | Su Lee | Eating Habits | Sylwia Cwieczek | Trophies | Ciaran Saward | Calendar of Blades

‘I could never even think about my trophies as a collection. You can’t buy those objects, get them as a gift or find them in the middle of the field. Even though you might like their shapes and colours it’s not why you own them. You don’t decide to collect them, they’re actually only a side effect, a proof, something that reminds you what happened.‘ Sylwia Cwieczek

Collection_04 Friday | Charlotte Skerratt |Sea Glass | Lucy Carpenter | Bottles | Armelinda Beqiraj | Imperfect Images

‘I’m so in awe of how nature has managed to create something so alluring, turning our waste into beauty. Although mere fragments of glass, they’re special to me as they remind me of happiness, the feeling I got when I found a special piece or rare colour. The people I was with, how the beach looked and sounded one evening. Within each piece is a snippet of time holding years of history and wonder.’ Charlotte Skerratt