Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Jill Calder Lecture

We are very excited to announce that the wonderful Jill Calder will be paying us a visit on Tuesday 24th April to do a lecture at 1.30pm. She will also spend time in the studios'. Please check out her website and blog.

Thursday, 2 February 2012

Chris Madden at The Southbank Centre

Graduate Chris Madden has completed a project with the design team at The Southbank Centre to illustrate the annual children’s literary festival ‘Imagine Festival 2012’, taking place in February. The event hosts events and workshops aimed at encouraging children to read more.

Chris was initially one of three illustrators considered for the job… and he got the commission. His job was to produce a cover and 13 additional double page spreads for a brochure to accompany the event. The main illustration was also used in an advertising campaign across London to promote the festival. What a wonderful achievement, it looks awesome.

To read Chris's experience of working on this job see his blog post.

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Nicola Slater visit

We are lucky to be having a visit from Nicola Slater on Friday 27th January. Nicola is a published illustrator of children's books and young adult books. She has been on the judging panel for The McMillan Children's Book competition. She will also be teaching Level 4 students later on this year. Click here to see more of her work.

Friday, 6 January 2012

The Fish Tank

Keep you eyes peeled on this website, it is the results of a project set by design studio Music. You may recognise some of the work by our students - past and present! The guys at Music also sent us a delicious see-through poster.

Monday, 21 November 2011

Krakow 2011

A whirl-wind tour, of our enriching, fascinating and action- packed trip to Krakow.

Wednesday 16^th November

We arrived at 12.30pm and after a quick freshen up, navigated ourselves straight into town. First stop was The Jan Fejkiel Gallery. This as full of stunning print work by artists such as Władysław Pluta , Jerzy Panek and Wiesław Skibiński. We just love the polish sensibility and natural graphic aesthetic.

After getting our barings, in the main square, we looked inside the spectacular St. Mary's Basilica. It was so ostentatious on the interior and we just sat and took in the view.

We visited the home of Jan Matejko, a very famous Polish painter. He was a prolific artist and collector of objects. the Academy of Fine Arts in named after him. We then meet other staff to eat and relax, in a bar with swings at the bar and drawings on the wall.

Thursday 17th November

An early start for a meeting with, Professor Adam Wsiołkowski at the The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts. We were taken through to his offices, which were very grande. He welcomed us and gave us some books as a gift for making the effort to visit. We then watched a film about all the courses taught at the Academy. Next we were taken to another building nearby to meet with a professor called Joanna. She showed us around all the facilities for poster design, animation, screen-printing studio and the vast spaces dedicated to lithography, etching, lino – beautiful hand-made techniques that I wish were fully utilised at our college. Lots of skill, time taken to produce work and understand of process was evident.

We hunted down the small but cosy Galeria Plakatu - Poster Gallery, lots of purchases were made as we drooled over the wonderful work.

Friday 18th November

Auschwitz left us all very speechless and emotional. An excellent and moving experience, which is hard to put into words. Best just to show pictures.

Friday 19th November

Hunting Down the Modernism. The Prohibited Arts in the Third Reich at the International Culture Centre. A fitting exhibition following yesterdays trip. This was a rich and wonderful exhibition, showing work by German artists, writers and composers who were persecuted by the Nazi authorities during their time in office from 1933 to 1945. There was a wide range of work includingprints, drawings, sculpture, literary works and musical pieces. Artists work on show included Emil Nolde, Max Ernst, Georg Grosz and Otto Freundlich. It had real impact and power.

A personal favourite museum was the delightful Ethnographic Museum. Set in a former Town Hall there were authentic reproduction of a folk interior from different regions of Poland, stunning folk costumes, an extensive range of implements used by people from Poland's countryside. The objects were displayed really well and it didn't matter that all the information was in Polish. We all nearly had a fit when we saw the Puppet Theater's and costumes for traditional folklore - lots of connections made about the current Year 1 project.

We then took a walk to MOCAK via the Ghetto for Heroes Square. After a look round the gallery, we meet in the cafe with Karol Gadzala and Marta Podkowinska.

They each have developed a distinctive style with their passion for letters and eye catching type illustration. Their work lies somewhere between the collision of Graphic Design, Typography and Illustration. They have both worked with various clients all over Europe and spoke of their experiences of the design industry in Poland. They have both used the Behance network as a platform to showcase their work. They recommended that we contact: