Hasta La Ideas

It’s that time of year when we head to the degree shows seeking fresh talent. I visited the Central Saint Martins show at Nicholls & Clarke on Shoreditch High Street yesterday to have a mooch around. Here’s my pick of the work I saw…

One of the first things I saw was this huge, undeniably attention-grabbing (it’s about 8 x 8 foot) image by Fran Marchesi – who is something of a hand lettering specialist.

Next I snapped Henry Griffin‘s football scarf project in which he used knitted blocks of colour to represent various footballing facts.

Kirsty Collar exhibited illustrations of various East London neighbourhoods. Swimming pools, alms houses, crowds of kids, drunks and ducks abound…

Love these brilliant screenprinted, monsterific club posters by Lolita Do Peso Diogo made in collaboration with Gabriel Weber.

This poster (and the alphabet shown below) shows off Fernando Rodrigues‘ Parallax typeface, the design of which, he says, “draws equally from tradition and innovation; it owes as much to the works of Gerard Unger, Fred Smeijers and Matthew Carter as it does to works of Christophe Plantin, FH Pierpont, JM Fleischmann, Philippe de Grandjean and Stanley Morison.”

These cosmic cats by Boya Latumahina caught my eye. As did her self-promotional poster displayed below:

These two posters led me to the display of Jonathan Seary – at which I found issue one and two of a one colour newsprint publication entitled The Changing Face of the Modern Gentleman. Issue one was printed monochrome black, and issue two monochrome red. Here’s a closer look:

Ji-ah Park displayed a large scale illustration of strings of hand drawn type made up from various objects. Underneath was a selection of felt tips and an invitation for visitors to the exhibition to colour in or write stuff and generally interact with the piece. jiahxpark@gmail.com

Illustrator Ellie Wintram created this series of images called The Beauty of Geometry

Jan Bielecki may be just graduating yet his work feels highly accomplished. Here is a selection of his work on display:

The above image, entitled Overprotective Parenting, was commissioned by GöteborgsPosten earlier this month.

The above illustrations are designed to encourage people to eat less meat.

Of all the photography on display, this image by Catriona Maciver (her graphic work was also great) was my favourite.

In advertising I quite liked Joanne Shum‘s spec ad for Parker pens (above) and also Henry Dinkel & Olga Krasanova‘s wall-painted Economist ad, created in response to a brief from McCAnn Erickson. “We wanted to break away from the brand’s monochromatic look and elitist stereotype to try and say something different,” they say. “The thought was to show people that global issues, small or large, have an effect on people and how they live their lives – hence the Economist is more about your life than you might think.” To see more of the pair’s work, visit trustmeimrussian.com.

Central Saint Martins graphic design degree show runs until Wednesday June 22 at Nicholls & Clarke, 3-10 Shoreditch High Street, London, E1 6PG. For more info, call 020 7514 7022/3