Last night Sarah Jane, Jonathan and I visited Edinburgh Napier University for the launch night of this year's School of Creative Industries Degree Show.
The Show covers Graphic, Product, Interaction and Digital design, as well as Interior Architecture and Photography across Undergraduate and Masters programmes.
We were hugely impressed with the standard of work and diverse range of projects on show. We also got the chance to speak to young creatives getting ready to begin their careers in the industry. I could probably post about at least a dozen projects that really interested me but I’ll keep things brief:
We particularly enjoyed the work of Thomas Wightman, a series of sculptures produced from book pages that formed an OCD awareness campaign called ‘Anchored.’
“OCD can be a life disabling illness however it can also be a beautiful thing, in the ways people obsessively arrange things therefore I want to portray the subject as bleak, but strangely beautiful as well.
The juxtaposition of beauty and anxiety is where I will place my work visually. This campaign will ultimately be for young people, in need of help, who when they see the subject portrayed in this way, using very personal stories, and the visual language used, will feel less fearful, anxious and alone. So through the combination of a poster series and sculptural artefacts forms my campaign”
Reminiscent of the style and detail of the various book sculptures found around the country in 2011 / 12, these pieces are fascinating in their detail and execution and really drew a crowd at the Show!
We’ve been discussing social media a fair bit in the studio recently, with a number of high profile social media meltdowns in the media recently, Sarah Vance‘s piece, ‘Mind Your Pokes and Likes’ felt rather topical to us!
“As communication has changed over the past decade with the rise of social networking, a new understanding of etiquette is called for. Whilst most people are brought up to remember their Ps and Qs, how is one to know when they’ve gone one ‘like’ too far? To avoid embarrassment in the online world, I have created the project ‘Mind Your Pokes & Likes’ to help guide users as to the correct etiquette of Facebook.”
We thought this was a nice mix of humour, potentially valuable information and well executed design.
What was particularly interesting was to see how new technologies were being used, Nikki Morrison had made use of laser cutting in her ‘Craft is…’ project. While a number of product students had made use of rapid prototyping techniques (which have clearly come a long way since I used one back in 2006).
The range of work on show was incredibly diverse, with other projects looking at the trust we put in the media and news stories, adaptable furniture that could become a table / desk / stools / lamp yet be folded up into a case and even a handbag made from tripe.
As an alumni and ex member of staff I always enjoy going back to Napier each year to see the work on show, particularly this year as I actually taught some of the graduating class back when they were first years! We would all recommend heading along to check out the show, it’s held at Napier’s Merchiston Campus, open to the public from today until the 2nd of June, 10 – 6 during the week and 10 – 5 at the weekend.
