Hasta La Ideas

Camberwell’s degree shows are always a visual treat and this year was no exception. Here’s a look at some of the highlights from the college’s graphic design and illustration shows…

Illustration

One of my favourite projects from this year’s illustration exhibition was Amy Glover‘s 100 Dens by 100 Children, a study into the importance of space and play in educational development. Glover held workshops with children aged 5-15 and gave them basic materials with which to construct mini-dens. The results have been compiled in a newspaper alongside children’s thoughts on living in inner London, and you can view more images on Glover’s website:

Also eye-catching was Jessy Money‘s Sew a Seed of Happiness installation, a plant-inspired soft sculpture room designed to relieve stress and improve happiness:

Several students had experimented with pattern, including Camilla Frankl-Slater, who applied a range of digital prints to textiles, and Chloe Greenfield, who created ceramics, textiles and prints for her installation, the Greasy Shrine

And Joseph Keeler had created a range of plant and animal-inspired designs:

Pat Macdonald’s work was particularly striking and included some great black-and-white and colour prints:

As was Frederick Tam‘s, whose cyanotype and mixed media portraits (top image and below) are inspired by light and shadow:

I also liked Yvonne Wiecek‘s Year of the Flood prints:

Gaurab Thakali‘s jazz-inspired illustrations, which featured a great use of colour:

And Daryl Rainbow‘s portraits of rail passengers on their smartphones:

One of few interactive projects on show was Lindsay Hanes’ interactive graphic novel, Bloom’s Fortress, created with the help of creative technologist Tim Crook and co-written by Neil Clarke. Hanes created a bespoke typeface and animated text for the novel, as well as a series of layered artworks, allowing readers to swipe interact with different elements in each scene. You can read more about the making of the project on her Tumblr page:

Pic via inplacepeckham.co.uk

The Camberwell show has now closed, but students are also hosting an exhibition in Peckham from June 27 until July 5 – for details, see inplacepeckham.co.uk

Graphics

This year’s graphics offering was equally diverse and included some stong typographic, photographic and mixed media projects. My favourite pieces included Melissa Cross’ Folded Reality series, which uses folded and sculpted paper to create optical illusions within architectural photographs (more images on her website):

Rachel Treliving‘s Gray typeface, based on an 1890 edition of Oscar Wilde’s A Portrait of Dorian Gray,  which was created by scanning and enlarging images of the original book, housed in the British Library’s archives:

And Sylvia Moritz‘s stereographic cityscape etchings, designed to reflect the chaotic pace at which modern cities develop, and can be viewed from any way up:

Renata Latipova‘s Biro drawings, inspired by Amazon reviews of Bic pens, were also charming (and occasionally quite macabre), and question the reliability of what we read online:

Another interesting project was Oliver Boulton and Samuel Jones’ Particitype, a digital experiment where users submitted online instructions for creating a typeface (such as what material to use), and students responded via a livestream during a one-day event. The finished results aren’t particularly polished, but Boulton and Jones say the aim is to explore the idea of participation and attract people of all interests, ages and backgrounds:

Photogaphy

Camberwell’s show is vast, and also includes painting, sculpture, photography and drawing. Photography projects that caught my eye include Benjamin Whiteley’s images of subjects in motion:

Mike Merkenschlager’s photographs of various balls:

Rayne Kirpalani’s images of architecture in Southeast London.

And Katie Pankowski’s shots of chalk and rock formations: