Ready Or Not Here We Come

This year's Graphic Design degree show 'Ready Or Not Here We Come' at Leeds College of Art wasn't to be missed and so we both dashed from one display to the next grabbing business cards and taking photos. We're always pleased to see such creativity and come away feeling inspired.

What was really interesting for us was the hand-drawn element we found recurring in several graduating student's work. We both seem to gravitate towards the more illustrative design work when we attend shows like this. It adds a touch of magic to a design and gives you a hint at the personality behind the work.

Here's the snaps we took this year as we buzzed around from one honey pot to the next:

Image © Chris Matthews www.immunityfromdestruction.com

Image © Charlotte Riley www.helloimcharlotte.com

Image © Nichola Tiffany www.nicholatiffany.co.uk

Image © Mille Haugnaess http://millehaugnaess.co.uk/

Image © Ollie Saward www.olliesaward.co.uk

Image © Leigh Wortley www.leighwortley.co.uk

Image © Jonny Packham www.jonnypackham.co.uk

Read our blog posts from previous year's degree shows here:
http://koojicreative.blogspot.com/search/label/EndofYearShow

For more tasty morsels of inspiration:
Check out our bookmarks of links found on business cards from the degree show: http://www.delicious.com/KoojiCreative/EndofYearShow+2011

Graduate shows - What is the point?
Target Print is a Leeds based digital and litho printer. It's owner, Peter Biggins, wrote a blog post about his experiences at this year's shows. Read it here: http://leedsprinter.blogspot.com/

Brand New Talent

It's here again! As unbelievable as it may seem it's been a year since Leeds College of Art's last End of Year Show. This year's exhibition entitled 'Brand New Talent' was full to the brim with creative work from the newest crop of graduating students.


Out of all the creative degree shows Leeds College of Art's are our favourite. We've never been disappointed in the standard of work on display and there's always sure to be a select few that really stand out. It's a chance for us to see what's new, which trends are trending (or being over-trended!) and who are the new kids on the block.

Johnny perusing a portfolio :D

Here's a selection of pics from the BA (Hons) Graphic Design course that caught our eye:

Image © Nick Birch

Image © Nick Birch

Image © Rob Cope

Image © Rob Cope

Image © Gemma Grainger

Image © Claire Nicholson

Image © Dean Gray

Image © Dean Gray

Image © Olivia Greaves

Image © Kate Prior

Image © Kate Prior

Image © Kate Prior

Image © Kate Prior

Image © Sam Putera

Sculpture © Jennifer Burton

This little fella escaped from the Fine Art department!

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

Sara Yates
Hayley Kavanagh
Lucy Hawkins
an& design
Adam Sneade

and if those aren't enough we've bookmarked a whole bunch here

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/

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/