Graphic Design Show at The Forum

National Diploma Graphic Design students (2nd Year) recently put on a display of their work in The Forum, Norwich.  Here is a review of the show.

Where the past is always present

Contemporary design, as City College graphics students can demonstrate, seems to be a fusion of past and present.

From the psychedelic '60s colours of 18-year-old art student Hanna Sparrow with her Swatch watch designs to the earth tones of Ryan Harrold's illustrations for today's video games market, the Design Show at The Forum in Norwich reveals a pool of imaginative talent to ensure that the advertising market will never lack innovation.

And that talent – from year two of the National Diploma Graphic Design course -  has already been put to good use by one support group tackling domestic violence. Bradley Bell, 17, has designed a new look for Waveney Domestic Violence & Abuse Forum by creating a simple logo from photographs of people forming a heart shape with their hands -  and created the slogan, Open Your Heart.

The best ideas are always the simplest - and that is the stated principle behind the unnamed creator of project 20EX - a poster designed for the Victoria and Albert museum's exhibition of the 20th century. A simple but effective use of typography grabs your attention - and then invites you to spend a little more time admiring the artwork.

It was in the 20th century that radical graphic art exploded on to the scene and one of its best exemplars was the album cover. And – as vinyl is back – Annemarie Sewell, 19, has jumped on this trend.

Her interweaving of retro concepts and progressive alternative rock is superbly illustrated by her delicate hand-drawn figure of Canadian rock bassist Melissa auf der Maur emerging from an undulating wave form. Its elegance is enhanced with an edginess that only a computer can give.

In this exhibition, almost every medium is used on almost anything you can draw on or photograph to illustrate almost any commodity - objects like T-shirts, cushions, packaging, wallpaper, watches, magazines.
 
Retro? It’s the only way forward.

Review by Patrick Prekopp, Lecturer Journalism, School of Creative Arts