The End of the Beginning

As courses end, careers start.

A showcase of over five hundred
young creatives at this pivotal point,
the end of the beginning.

From fabric to photos, art and
arm chairs, this is a chance to
see the new generation of talent,
at one of the few thriving independent
art Colleges in the country.

Image © Leeds College of Art and Design

This degree show at Leeds College of Art and Design was the best by far, so much so infact that we spent almost a whole day walking around all of the degree shows from all of the creative courses at both the Vernon Street and Blenheim Walk sites.

As we ran round all the exhibits we picked up lots of post-cards, business cards and flyers and took a TON of photos documenting all the best bits to see. Here are some extra spicy photos and links to cool portfolio sites that'll get your creative tastebuds tingling:

Image © Sammy Dowgill BA (Hons) Visual Communication

'From Little Acorns, Big Oaks Grow...' © Laura Jordan BA (Hons) Visual Communication

Johnny and I both attached 'acorns' to this tree with a small message on each about what our dreams and aspirations are. The responses will be used as inspiration for illustrations in the zine 'Raise Your Hand, Raise Your Voice.' The zine has a blog too, check it out.

'Class of 2008 - 2009 (Rogues Gallery)' © Peter Kesteven BA (Hons) Fine Art

Costume © Jessica Bull BA (Hons) Costume with Textiles

Image © Claire Pullan ND Graphic Design

Image © Claire Pullan ND Graphic Design

http://www.clairepullan.co.uk/
http://clairepullan.blogspot.com/

We both recognised Claire's art from last year's degree show and were really blown away by this piece of work. It's 3 metres by 1 metre and looks amazing! Be sure to check out her portfolio website and blog for lots more illustrative masterpieces.

Image © Ken McFarlane

http://kenneh.deviantart.com/

It was a nice suprise to come across Ken's work as it was one of so few examples of sequential art (or comic book art) appearing in exhibitions. We'd like to see much more of this kind of work on display at these events so cheers Ken and nice artwork!

'Kevin Bacon is the Centre of The Universe' Image © Vicky Smith

http://www.vickysmithisnice.co.uk/

Image © Aric Arthur

http://www.aricdesign.co.uk/
http://aricdesignpractice.blogspot.com/

Image © Steph Baxter

http://www.stephsayshello.co.uk/
http://stephsayshello.blogspot.com/

Steph is an Illustrator and Graphic Designer and also part of the Collective Custard Cream Creative. Yummy! We loved her work and will definitely keep checking back on her websites for updates. Take a look at her images on Flickr too!

Image © Joe Kelly

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joekelly


Related Blog Posts:

Leeds College of Art and Design End of Year Show 2008: Blood, Sweat & Tears
http://koojicreative.blogspot.com/2008/06/blood-sweat-tears.html

Portfolio Websites: A collection of links found on business cards from the show

http://www.nataliapasquino.com/
http://www.mitashpatel.com/
http://delightfullybritish.blogspot.com/
http://www.leedsviscom2009.co.uk/
http://www.kylebibby.co.uk/
http://kylebibby.blogspot.com/
http://www.will-campbell.com/
http://thingswhatihaveconsumed.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dogsndoodles/

Site (1) Arts Festival 2009

The Leeds School of Contemporary Art and Graphic Design hold an annual end of year show celebrating their graduating student's achievements and we always make sure to get a look in on the artwork on display.


This year's degree show, Site (1), is part of the Leeds Met University's Arts Festival and is across 3 'Sites' from The Faculty of Arts & Society including the Leeds School of Architecture, Landscape & Design and the School of Film, Television & Performing Arts. There was plenty to see and lots of inspiring exhibits to get our creative juices flowing. Here is a selection of what we saw as we wandered around:

© Carine Brosse
© Carine Brosse
© Alex Monaghan, Untitled, Print Outs on Board, 15' x 11'

© Alex Monaghan, Untitled, Print Outs on Board, 15' x 11'

© Nicholas Pierce, Centaur, Graphite on prepared board

© Laura Havenhand
© Laura Havenhand

LDS09 Fine Art Degree Show

Being greeted by a handshake, a "Thanks for coming" and then a very European 'Kiss Kiss' on either cheek was a surprise, but also quite a refreshing change at this year's Leeds University Fine Art Degree Show. We're not usually welcomed in this way to an exhibition, but we're not going to knock it either - it was very arty!

What was even artier was the 'Art of Queuing' installation. We headed up a staircase, found ourselves in a queue, someone whispered "they're letting two in at a time," so we patiently waited and made chit chat. When we were allowed in we were met by a long, dark corridor with a TV at the end. On the display screen was a live recording of all the other mugs patiently waiting in the queue - the small plaque read: 'The Art of Queuing (and Conversation).' Clever :D


© Emma Melton
'Fig. 8', Hysteric Beauty series, 2009
Oil, acrylic, make up, sweets and glass paint on canvas.


We found this on the way out. A pile of letters, part of which formed the word 'White ³.' I wonder what it means...

http://www.lds09.co.uk/

Blood, Sweat & Tears

I studied at Leeds College of Art and Design many moons ago and so when one of these final year degree shows turn up I like to pop over and see what the new crop of creatives has to show. This year was nothing less of what you'd expect from LCAD, a really inspiring show from a range of creative disciplines. We had a swift run round after the talk by Jimmy Choo at Creative Networks. Since it was so late on in the evening it meant turning back on some of the lights to see the exhibitions, but we weren't disappointed when we did.

Image © Leeds College of Art and Design

One of the best exhibits we saw was by an illustrator called Claire Pullan. She had some absolutely fantastic illustrative work on display and a ton of MOO cards with her artwork on, so we took one of each design. Check out her artwork here:

http://www.clairepullan.co.uk/