Dezeen promotion: a graphic novel based on a 1920 science fiction play and a creative platform encouraging students to collaborate feature in Dezeen’s latest school show by students at the University for the Creative Arts.

Also included is a botanical magazine that explores the popularity of the houseplant industry and an app designed to highlight fake news stories.

University for the Creative Arts

School: University for the Creative Arts
Course: BA (Hons) Graphic Design

School statement:

“Visual storytelling shapes the way we respond to information. This year’s graphic design and communication graduates from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) have created brilliant and thought-provoking projects, from editorial design and branding to motion graphics, book arts, and visual narratives through various mediums and platforms.

“Adopting a hands-on approach to conveying messages and meanings, these graduates have carved out their styles. Explore their works below and on UCA’s 2021 Online Graduate Showcase and discover their unique voices as they emerge ready to take the graphic design world by storm.”

Roisin Knappert

“From the anti-authoritarian battle in Hong Kong, the global success of Extinction Rebellion demonstrations, to the Black Lives Matter movement, we have seen unprecedented levels of political dissent on the international stage, and we have seen it unfold through our screens.

“My Book ‘Dangerous Symbols’ communicates this cultural phenomenon and encourages young people to be politically engaged through the socio-political value of symbols.

“As a designer and social communicator, I have created stencils in the book which my reader can use to engage in protest creatively. Given the tools to create, these symbols can go on to unify movements and broadcast their messages effectively.”

Student: Roisin Knappert
Course: BA (Hons) Graphic Design: Visual Communications, UCA
Instagram: ricky_knappert_

Josh Wijsveld

“In these challenging and often uninspiring times, I have created the X Collab, a unique platform bringing together creatives from universities throughout the nation to provide exposure, networking and a means of making artwork in an alternative manner.

“It is designed by creatives for creatives to be a catalyst for multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary collaborations. Our first digital showcase was 01/Blue – named because of the colour’s connection with inspiration, creativity and hope.

“We understand how much of a challenge it has been to create throughout the pandemic so this platform gives an outlet to the multitude of creative students out there.”

Student: Josh Wijsveld
Course: BA (Hons) Graphic Design: Visual Communications, UCA
Instagram: jwijsveld

Grace Anderson

“The Descendants is a graphic novel based on future predictions of our world and inspired by the 1920 science fiction play R.U.R  written by the Czech writer Karel Čapek, in which robots turn on their creators after being given human emotions.

“With my mechanical and creative mindset, I refused to reduce these machines to a word – robot – that in Slavonic means servitude or drudgery.

“A machine can have ten times the intelligence of a human and if given emotions they might not act as selfishly as we humans do and succumb to a macabre fate. It is this contradiction I’ve based my story on.”

Student: Grace Anderson
Course: BA (Hons) Graphic Design, UCA
Instagram: gmmart_

Aryana Deen

“My final project is inspired by my heritage and looks at the tale of ‘Mirza and Sahiban’, one of the four popular tragic romances of Punjab.

“By fragmenting the original story, I created my version of it using the Image Two Platform, combining digital drawing and collage. I have always had a passion for image-making and various illustrative techniques. The image platform allowed me to create more experimental pieces of work for this project.”

Student: Aryana Deen
Course: BA (Hons) Graphic Design, UCA
Instagram: ad_gdesign_

Caitlin Carter

“For my final major project, I created a magazine called Botanical to explore the popularity of the houseplant industry.

“Tailoring it for a generation of houseplant lovers and those interested in supporting the independent magazine industry, my magazine is an upmarket, minimal and clean publication displaying gorgeous imagery as well as information as to how best look after houseplants.

“The first issue is themed as the ‘beginner plants’ issue and comes with a collectible set of care cards that give a condensed version of how to care for each plant, and come adorned with painted illustrations of each one.”

Student: Caitlin Carter
Course: BA (Hons) Graphic Communication, UCA 

Emma Colyer

“Fake news has been a topical issue that has garnered a lot of press attention in the last five years. News can be overwhelming, especially for younger generations, which can make it less engaging.

“With this in mind, I designed the Reaction Spot app. An app where young adults can react and engage with news stories and other viewpoints using icons to relate to different types of fake news.

“I also designed ‘Real Reaction’, a limited print newspaper to go alongside the app. It runs stories around the topic of fake news and is heavily image-based with augmented reality interactions.”

Student: Emma Colyer
Course: BA (Hons) Graphic Design: Visual Communications, UCA

Joe Wilsden

“Wilsden’s final project saw the creation of an entire brand identity for Vert, a sustainable graphic t-shirt clothing company. At the heart of the brand is a passion for ethical fashion production.

“The graphic t-shirt designs feature satirical slogans highlighting ecological issues. The project explores the story and identity of the Vert brand, its visual aesthetic and assets, products, packaging and marketing collateral.”

Student: Joe Wilsden
Course: BA (Hons) Graphic Communication, UCA

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and University for the Creative Arts. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

The post Seven graphic design projects from students at University for the Creative Arts appeared first on Dezeen.

A gentleman is defined by the products he carries on himself and uses, which are an extension of his own personal style. These little belongings add to his aura, charisma, and of course, incorporate value and functionality into his daily life. Hence striking a unique balance between functionality and style is extremely important – especially when it comes to men’s lifestyle designs. And we do believe we may have found a collection of product designs that harmoniously capture this balance! From a portable shaver with ceramic blades to give you the perfect clean shave to a luxury timepiece made almost entirely from sapphire crystal – this collection of designs are essential must-haves for all the gentlemen out there. They promise to up your style quotient while helping you take better care of yourself and carry out your daily tasks with much more ease.

Deemed the Erazor, this portable shaver promises to do everything its name signifies! It was designed to erase the stubble right off your face. It’s supposed to be the first shaver amped with ceramic blades! This portable grooming device comes in a nifty and compact form, making it extremely easy to carry around with you, but also super comfortable to use. The unique ceramic blades neatly and swiftly trim down your pesky stubble, leaving you with a completely clean shave, without hurting you or causing any razor burns! These ceramic blades are a wonderful addition to the shaver, as traditional shavers are usually equipped with metal blades, which are coated with DLC for sharpness. But over time the coating wears off, leaving the blades dull and prone to nicking you. Erazor’s innovative blades are created from Zirconium Oxide, a material whose durability is second to only diamonds. Pretty cool, no?

A Parisian watchmaker called Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the Tourbillon almost 200 years ago, little did he know it would become one of the most luxurious and premium additions that could be made to a watch in the 21st century. However Japan-based watchmakers ZEROOTIME are creating their own economical and affordable Skeleton Tourbillon Watches. Their 2021 series is called ‘The Archer’, and it comes in two styles – the T1 Archer which has been equipped with a circular body, and the T2 Square which features a square body. Both watches boast of an elegantly bare skeleton design that lets you see the artistry underneath the dial. The watches showcase the tourbillons at the 9 o’clock position (which is rather rare, given most watches prefer to put it at the 6 o’clock position) and have double-springs located at 1 o’clock and 5 o’clock positions, giving the watch a power reserve of 72 hours.

The Seeon 180° backpack is easily the most advanced bag I’ve ever seen. The fact that it carries your luggage from point A to point B is an incredibly small part of what the Seeon 180° backpack does, but an incredibly important one too. You could be a businessman carrying important documents, a woman with her valuables, or just someone unluckily venturing through a shady neighborhood. Seeon 180° has its own surveillance system to keep an eye on people approaching you from behind, a motion sensor that can detect objects or people moving towards you, an alarm system that activates in emergency situations during altercations, assaults, or muggings, and a GPS tracking device that can send your location (or your bag’s location) to an emergency contact list in case of an emergency. The bag even has solar panels and a built-in power bank to allow these features to operate, as well as to charge your gadgets

The Bellroy Mod Case features a stunning non-slip eco-tanned leather exterior that perfectly clads and protects your iPhone, while also making it look aesthetically pleasing. The case is accompanied by a snap-on card wallet that can hold 3 cards in one go. The Mod Case has been designed to work with the MagSafe feature found on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. A flex polymer bumper and a microfiber-lined inner pair up together to completely protect your phone and cards from scratches. Unlike Apple’s MagSafe accessories which tend to slide around, once snapped into place, the Mod Wallet does not move around at all. This is due to two anti-slide grooves that ensure your cards are always safe and secure, no matter where you place your phone!

The Spotify x Reebok Zig Kinetica Ultrasounds Collection features three super cool sneakers (each inspired by the city of Atlanta, Houston, and New York), each one printed with a Spotify barcode that can be scanned using a smartphone, allowing you to access a playlist inspired by one of the aforementioned cities! You can listen to each cities’ unique style of music on the Spotify app. The three styles of the collection include New York Minute – a black upper with the colorful midsole, the lemony Atlanta Lemon Pepper, and the grape punch-style Houston Candy Paint. These stunning sneakers not only celebrate the beauty and culture of these cities but also transports you to them, allowing you to immerse into them, without even entering them!

Playing on the concept of a skeleton watch (where the watch’s inner mechanisms are exposed instead of being concealed behind opaque materials), the BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire comes with a proper skeleton motif on its watch face. Staying true, however, to the idea of a skeletal watch, the skeleton motif is made from sapphire (with a tinted orange back), as is the rest of the watch’s body. In fact, probably the only things that aren’t made from sapphire are the hands, mechanism, screws, and watch straps. Every element that’s either decorative or is a part of the watch’s casing, is made from sapphire crystal, making the BR 01 Cyber Skull Sapphire look like a jewel on your wrist.

The Tool Ring is a nifty EDC that you slip onto your fingers, and instantly gain all sorts of superpowers – from opening bottles to tightening screws, and even signing documents! Built from Titanium, you can fit a whole set of hex-bits into the Tool Ring (they come along with it). These hex-bits include a Philips-head screwdriver, a ballpoint pen, a box-cutter, and a flashlight. Three hexagonal slots in the ring allow you to slide the various hex-bits into it, enabling you to use the instrument of your choice! The top slot offers the most functionality, allowing you to do things like twist screws, point the flashlight, or even cut open boxes with a fair deal of dexterity. The Tool Ring is an amazing piece of EDC, incorporated into the form of jewelry, allowing you to utilize a variety of tools, without having to handle the actual instruments. How cool is that?

If you have a pair of pants that you completely adore, but can never wear because they almost always slip off your waist, then worry not, Bucqle is here to the rescue! It’s a metal buckle that clips around the waist-rim of your pants and tightens it by as much as 2 inches. The Bucqle’s radical redesign isn’t just different, it’s exceptionally better. The Bucqle slips right into your pant and clamps shut, showing up as just a minimal-looking silver bar right above your pants. It works equally well with formal pants as it does with shorts, skirts, and even pajamas if you’re determined.

It’s safe to say that the DUPLEX bags bring a rather new definition to the term ‘expansion packs’! With their unique shape-shifting design, DUPLEX’s bags can go from compact to spacious in roughly 5 seconds, covering a wide variety of use-cases. Maybe on some days you need a tiny shoulder-sling, on other days you need a backpack, and on some special days, you could use a duffle bag. Well, DUPLEX’s design was made to cover just that, with the way it’s built. The bags are designed in a way that they tuck into themselves, transforming into a new type of bag altogether. This essentially means you’ve got two types of bags in one single design, and that no matter what your needs are, the DUPLEX’s versatile build has you covered.

The Copper Clean Wallet comes with a slick, highly polished exterior, and a spacious interior that holds over 10 cards and 10+ notes without expanding in thickness like a leather wallet. It’s about as thick as an AirPods case, making it perfectly pocket-friendly, and aside from being able to self-disinfect, it blocks RFID too, keeping you safe from digital theft. A simple metal clasp keeps the wallet compact and shut, allowing you to pop it open when you need it, and the inside of the wallet is equipped with a bellow-shaped pocket system that fans open when you pop open the wallet, letting you easily access your cards and cash when you need them. The wallet lasts longer than traditional flexible bi-folds, and never really needs any maintaining, because it automatically cleans itself!

The singer-songwriter, musician, producer and scholar on laments, loss and the lack of hierarchy in her new music

Nite Jewel—aka singer-songwriter, producer and scholar, Ramona Gonzalez—is poised to release her first new album in four years. No Sun (out on her own Gloriette Records tomorrow, 17 August) is a vehicle not only to express the impossible to express, but also to explore and experiment with genre and song creation. The LA-based artist set out to make the record with just a Moog synth and a keyboard, and the result is stunning. The rich but spare music on the record feels awash with both sorrow and strength, and Gonzalez’s featherweight vocals engulf listeners with emotion.

Recorded in part as her 12-year marriage and creative partnership broke down, this album—wherein the hierarchy of pop music is both rebuffed and reimagined (for instance, vocals take the place of drums and percussion replaces chords)—also led the multi-talented artist to her most recent academic deep dive: the women’s lament. For her PhD in Musicology at UCLA, Gonzalez has been researching the lament—a musical form that traditionally uses women as the body and voice to express collective and personal loss, grief and pain. We spoke with Gonzalez about her layered, multi-faceted, conceptual project: an album that’s simultaneously otherworldly, temporal and transformative.

Can you tell us about your approach to making No Sun? Did you set out with a fully formed intention for the record? 

So the summer of 2018 was when I first recorded any vocals for the record, but six months before that, I bought myself the Moog Mother Sequencer that I use on the whole record, and I started a sort of framework for how I was going to go about recording. I pretty much do this every time, just because it’s worked for me as a creative process—to choose a set of instruments or tools that I’m going to use and then study them and study records that were kind of made in a similar way. Keeping it really confined to those few elements. So it was a Fender Rhodes [piano] that I had, the Moog sequencer and recording improvisations with those two instruments into Ableton.

I recorded into Ableton Live [digital audio software]. Ableton comes with a set time grid, which is 4/4 at 120 beats per minute. I basically worked without a grid in Ableton Live, so that means that you don’t have any sort of meter that the computer is deciding for you. There’s no metronome, anything like that. It’s like kind of like the equivalent of playing with a live band on tape or something like that, where you’re just playing to the feel of the musicians. I was trying to recreate that, but on my own, experimenting in my house.

It leads to all sorts of accidents and errors when you’re not working with a digital workstation to decide how a song is supposed to be structured. So that improvisation, working without the grid, and working with these few tools was a very, very conscious choice that I set in the beginning. Later, as I started to record vocals I had already set up this framework so I could improvise completely from the very depths of my soul. As far as the lyrics I wanted to create, the melodies I wanted to create, the concepts and the feeling. It’s two elements happening at once: a very coherent vision of how I want the music to go, while also keeping that base very solid so that I can express how I feel.

So those accidents and errors became songs?

I’d say almost every song is kind of an improvisatory accident—except for the Sun Ra cover. But every other song was definitely constructed through a long improvisation, sometimes the improvisation would be 20 to 30 minutes. I would try to really keep all of the accidents, weird timings, playing something maybe slightly incorrectly, free-styling words. The first song on the record, “Anymore,” was me trying to come up with lyrics for 15 minutes. And I was just like, “I can’t describe anything anymore.”

On those lyrics, it’s obviously a very personal album that, among other things, traces heartbreak. You’re also working on a PhD with a focus on women’s laments within contemporary pop music. Can you explain a little about traditional laments and modern-day versions? 

There has been a lot written about laments in general—ritual lament practices in different regions of the world, ancient laments, early modern lament pieces. Although that’s been studied, it’s not been studied that laments still exist, and that they exist in popular music, and that women perform them. So that’s why I’m doing my work—because I really want to think about how this history is being carried out in popular music.

When we think of a woman lamenting and how women have been depicted as lamenting—by male authors in ancient tragedy, by male composers and even by musicologists—they’re seen as visceral performers of hysterical emotion, and they’re seen as bodies. They’re framed that way. You know, the composer is the mind, the author is the mind, and the woman is the body. I’m very interested in how that perpetuates gender stereotypes and how women aren’t considered agentive thinkers, even though they’re “just” singing—I mean, singing is hard, singing takes a lot of skill and intellect. So my research tries to talk about “What if we saw these singers—these wailers, these mourners—as intellectual, creative, performative acts as opposed to just some sort of physical sensation.”

It’s surprising how little has been written about that. Because when we think of Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston or Sade, we think of them in a very multifaceted way, but lots and lots of scholars do not see them like that.

From ancient laments to contemporary pop—your area of studies and the music you make gathers inspiration and information from so many eras. Tell us a little about the hierarchy within pop music. 

I have taken many courses from medieval manuscripts and medieval music and early modern music. I would say that studying that kind of music—chant, madrigals and motets—is very modal, in that it doesn’t think about music in terms of harmonic progressions and “goal-oriented-ness.” Early music is all about melodies and interlocking melodies. There was a shift in music history in which chords became a thing and harmonic progression became a thing and structure and goal-oriented-ness became a thing. Before that, people were kind of just chanting and hoping they didn’t make a super-crazy dissonant error—it was just all about melodies and interlocking melodic lines. That’s modal music.

I definitely was influenced on No Sun to hold that music up in my mind and think about music in terms of melody more than harmony. A lot of songs on No Sun are really focused on the melody—and the chords, if there are any chords, came after. Not only are chords and harmonic progressions more a pop music trope than anything, but also they kind of confine you—they create sort of a hierarchy.

Can you explain a little more about that hierarchy, and how you wanted to reconfigure or eliminate it on No Sun? 

Dispelling hierarchy was a huge part of my initial impetus to work with improvisation, [and a] lack of rhythmic hierarchy, 4/4 time, beats per minute, certain digital metronomes—to not start with percussion, to not start with a beat. I think a lot of popular music is built on drums, bass, keyboards, guitar and vocals and it goes up like that. I wanted to think: what if the drums were just like a voice? Like any other voice? What if the drums came last? What if I wrote the entire song, and then brought in a percussionist who could think like a singer—and have his drums become a melody.

I’m not trying to get too grandiose here. But there is a sense in being a woman and being a woman of color that sometimes music, it’s hard to express how you feel and how you feel marginalized and how you feel different. Sometimes it requires deconstructing music itself on an instrumental level, or on a structural level, to express how you feel and what your position is in society. It was a super-important conceptual point with how I came to make the album.

You also explained laments, in part, via a playlist. Can you tell us a little about the music chosen for that?

Not counting Solange—I just love Solange—the other people that I have on that playlist are people that are my case studies for my research. The people that I’m investigating as professional mourners of today that pique my interest. I mean, the list that I have of professional mourners in the 20th and 21st century is so long, it’s insane. But I’m particularly interested in these artists because I think that within the genres that they’re working in, they bring certain controversial issues to light, whether it’s Rosalía retooling flamenco, Sade retooling lovers rock, or Lana questionably using blues tropes. These people I find very fascinating, and I want to know more.

The songs from early music, I included those because those are sort of these centerpieces for me—about a certain period of time in music, in Western art music. There was this neo-classicist revival where composers started using texts from Greek tragedy to compose operas and madrigals and things like that. They went to laments, obviously, because that was a huge part of these tragedies.

So there were tons of laments being made and they were always about a woman being scorned or abandoned or something like that. They were at a time that composers were trying to think about how to get music to mirror a lamenting woman… Trying to figure out how music expresses sadness, particularly for women. So these pieces are important for me to study because they are really ingrained in the popular imagination—a lot of the tropes that are used in these songs we still see today. Their particular music techniques have stood the test of time in the popular imagination. It’s a transhistorical playlist, for sure. I also just really, really love these songs. They’re sad songs that I adore and think are really beautiful.

It speaks to an unspeakable power to express what’s inexpressible, not only personally, but culturally and collectively

No Sun is partly about you attempting to answer the question, “What does it mean to be a professional mourner?” Have you gotten any closer to an answer? 

It means different things—every historical time period has a different kind of professional mourner. I guess that’s what I’m trying to figure out. What does it mean for me to actually be a working mourner, at least for this record? But I think what it might mean—if I could universalize it, slightly—is that it speaks to the empowered position that women have throughout time. It speaks to an unspeakable power to express what’s inexpressible, not only personally, but culturally and collectively. It does point to a particular power that exists for these vocalists that hasn’t been codified in scholarship necessarily, or delimited in any way. I want to know more about what that means to have that power.

Images by Tammy Nguyen

iPhone 13 is slated for launch next month. The sad reality is that much of what we expect to see in iPhone 13 is already released through rumors; we can’t help but wish for Apple to do something groundbreaking and shock us! For example, what if Apple could do this!

This concept, courtesy of ConceptsiPhones’ YouTube channel, is a very futuristic idea that, if you have followed Apple’s intent of delivering products, would never see the light of day. But then, creative liberty promotes the thinkers to conceive the impossible and leave the masses bewildered. That is exactly what this new iPhone 13 concept delivers.

The iPhone 13 conceptual design showcases a curved display that wraps around the screen on all four edges. The phone body looks pretty much iPhone 11-ish and compromises the metal frame in iPhone 12 for the flowing display. Interestingly, the concept highlights a very Android Phone-like vertical camera array on the back, comprising a quad camera setup.

The 6.4-inch Full-Edge Display of the phone is basically the highlight of this concept. There is no notch but a 13-inch under-display camera makes its debut, and the physical buttons on the side have been embedded into the overflowing display on both sides. On the left of the conceptual iPhone 13 are the volume rocker and virtual power button, while on the right you get shortcuts to interact with the phone more seamlessly.

iPhone 13, though, is rumored to launch with a triple camera configuration, which at this point feels more realistic in Apple’s favor.
The 6.4-inch Full-Edge Display of the phone is the highlight of this concept. There is no notch, but a 13-inch under-display camera makes its debut, and the physical buttons on the side have been embedded into the overflowing display on both sides. On the left of this concept are the volume rocker and virtual power button, while on the right, you get shortcuts to interact with the phone more seamlessly.

As cool and futuristic as this concept iPhone 13 may look, Apple will not announce anything on these lines in the fall event next month. However, from the features mentioned in the idea, we will see the integration of A15 Bionic chipset and the debut of iOS 15. Other than this, the concept is far-fetched and only pleasing for the eye and little to the analytical mind. After all, how would one comfortably hold this phone?

When the iPhone 13 launches next month, it is expected to arrive in four variants like its predecessor with faster 5G and a design more or less like the iPhone 12. The big difference in appearance is expected to be a sleeker notch, as the in-display fingerprint sensor will also be missing. In addition, the Pro models are expected to be upgraded to 120Hz ProMotion displays while the camera array will remain identically to the iPhone 12 lineup with the LiDAR scanner is likely to make way into all four models! As with every Apple event, September can’t get here fast enough!

Designer: ConceptsiPhone

Dezeen Showroom: electrical brands Focus SB and Lutron Electronics have collaborated on the Palladium Bespoke Metals collection, which gives lighting controls a metallic finish.

The Palladium Bespoke Metals collection gives Lutron Electronics’ keypads a finish resembling textures like tree bark, antique metal or cork, and in colours including aged bronze or nickel silver.

The collection enables interior designers to match Lutron’s lighting controls to other fixtures or accents, creating continuity throughout an interior.

In addition to the range of 19 standard finishes, there is the potential for designers to create custom finishes, by working with Focus SB’s project support consultants. The designer has to provide a physical example of a piece of metal or ironmongery that they’d like Focus SB to match.

The liquid metal finishes come from British premium electrical accessories manufacturer Focus SB’s recently launched Nature Inspired collection and are all applied by hand.

The finishes are applied to Lutron Electronics’ HomeWorks QS Wired Palladiom raw brass faceplate kit, which feature one- or two-column keypads with buttons in white or black polymer.

Product: Palladium Bespoke Metals
Designer: Focus SB
Brand: Lutron Electronics
Contact: sales@focus-sb.co.uk

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