Pixel perfect precision

Today ‘Gyppsy’ from interface and App designers UsTwo visited the FdA studio to offer technical advice on designing for screen. He went through a system he created for UsTwo that enables ‘pixel perfect precision’ and talked about the life of a ‘visual designer’. Lots of really invaluable insight into future career options for both illustrators and graphic designers. Thanks Gyppsy!

Typography Bootcamp

FdA Graphic Design students recently completed a 4 week project designed to help them develop their typography. Industry demands that graduates have highly developed skills in this area and it has been proven that graduates who are able to use type effectively quickly find employment. With this in mind we invited Zoe Bather (ex partner at Design Week Top 50 agency Studio 8) to run an intensive ‘typography bootcamp’. Over 4 weeks students were introduced to the basic skills, before examining macro/ micro aesthetics, incremental hierarchies, baseline grids and how to achieve ‘consistency without uniformity’. At the end of the project they designed a 16 page 2 color booklet, which was exported as a print ready PDF, printed and bound as a studio mock-up. 

Chrissie Macdonald

Peepshow illustrator and creator of the recent Orange ‘I am everyone’ campaign Chrissie Macdonald ran a series of workshops with the FdA Illustrators earlier this term. Students were asked to explore the mantra ‘draw to understand, make to understand – make to manifest your ideas’. Final outcomes from the project included 3D constructions, costume and performance.

Sounds Visual 02

Students from the FdA in Illustration and Graphic Design worked in teams to create record packaging for independent record labels such as Warp, Brainfeeder, Greensleeves and Trojan during January. The project was designed to build collaborative working skills and get students thinking about how to market music at a time when most young people download it for free.

Alt/Shift-ing

Apologies for the break in blogposts, but in the aftermath of Alt/Shift we have been very busy. Feedback from the event has been excellent and we are already planning a follow up. For Alt/Shift 2.1 we will be working with the digital agency, UsTwo http://www.ustwo.co.uk. The event will take place in the afternoon of Wednesday 17th April from around 2pm and consist of a round table discussion between representatives from design education and a panel of industry experts chosen by Joe Macleod from ‘#Includedesign’. The discussion will explore how creative education could better prepare students to work in the digital context and will be recorded by the Camberwell Press for future publication. After the event UsTwo will be hosting an informal social event with drinks. Further Alt/Shift initiatives are planned to include a collaboration event with Institute of Education, University of London and a book. More on this as it happens – in the meantime here is a round up of some recent projects on the FdA.