Hasta La Ideas

The finest work from Ravensbourne’s class of 2013 was on display this week at the college’s Greenwich Peninsula campus and included some impressive graphic design, motion graphics and digital photography projects.

Work from Ravensbourne’s 26 graphic design graduates included experimental typography, striking infographics and innovative apps.

The most unusual product on display was Soofiya Chaudry’s ‘A Book for Two’ (below) – a book in two halves that can’t be read alone. Each half contains only a selection of words from each page, and some sections (indicated in green) must be read together. “We share almost everything we do today online and on social media, but reading a book is still a solitary experience. A Book for Two makes it a social activity,” Chaudry explained.

Alazne Ceberio Scobie also experimented with editorial design and created a fashion newspaper that uses clever layering instead of glossy textures to create visual impact. With strong type and photography, the paper included some lovely touches such as a sheer insert for an accessories page and black and white shots layered over colour images (below).

Calum Hale and Felix Mooneeram’s portfolios included a response to a brief set by the International Society of Typographic Designers exploring regional dialects.

Hale’s book (above) includes typographical representations of Scottish accents – Glasgow is represented by jagged type while ‘Ah-berdeen’ has a softer, more rounded look – while Mooneeram’s (below) explores the Industrial Revolution and manufacturing industry’s influence on Manchester accents using greyboard, industrial type and metallic ink, and received an ISTD commendation.

Hale has also created a striking infographic highlighting US gun crime statistics in a design that references the stars and stripes of the American flag. “The star for each state is also designed to look like a bullet hole – I think it could work well as a billboard campaign,” he said.

Each of the graphic design students at Ravensbourne are encouraged to experiment with digital apps and creative coding as well as typography and print design. Liam D’Arcy’s zombie-themed fitness app (below) featured some great illustrations, and Trevor Morris (creative director of this year’s Degree Show) has been working on a reading app for children with learning difficulties and visual impairments which allows users to select colour combinations, fonts and type sizes to suit their needs.

James Greenaway’s BBC Mobius app (below), designed in response to a D&AD student brief to make BBC’s online service feel more alive, allows users to watch and interact with live content and his sleek UI has earned him a yellow pencil nomination.

In response to another D&AD brief – this time to design an advertising campaign for Marmite – Antony Victor targeted 21 to 30 year-old professionals who may have grown out of the savoury spread by emphasising its vitamin B1 content, which is known to reduce stress. In a series of posters (below) highlighting stressful situations (such as running out of fuel, trains being delayed or over sleeping), he uses the tagline, “It’s OK, It’s a Marmite Day”.

Ravensbourne’s BA Digital Photography graduates had also produced some lovely work, including Andrew Morgan’s landscape and portrait shots capturing ‘small town Texas’ (below) and Irene Tonnessen’s promotional shoot for musician Axel Kacoutie’s second EP, New Type (above). You can find a selectio of work from all 12 students on their collective website, The Dozen.

Stand out showreels from the motion graphics graduates included Jacques Parys and Mateusz Napieralski’s. Parys’s portfolio (below) includes some clever infographics visualising Facebook user data and demographics, an excellent series of promotional animations for BBC Radio 4 programme in our time and an animation calling for students to take over website It’s Nice That for a day, which you can watch the making of on his site.

Napieralski’s work (below) includes inofgraphics explaining how Twitter works, a title sequence for Royal Shakespeare Company production I Cinna the Poet, an animated book promo, Type in Motion, and one for Sky Arts using wooden shapes, acrylic paint and motors. He’s also produced some impressive posters for ciruses and theatre productions which you can view on his website.

Pink Floyd fans may recognise the cover of our June issue. It’s the original marked-up artwork for Dark Side of the Moon: one of a number of treasures from the archive of design studio Hipgnosis featured in the issue, along with an interview with Aubrey Powell, co-founder of Hipgnosis with the late, great Storm Thorgerson. Elsewhere in the issue we take a first look at The Purple Book: Symbolism and Sensuality in Contemporary Illustration, hear from the curators of a fascinating new V&A show conceived as a ‘walk-in book’ plus we have all the regular debate and analysis on the world of visual communications.

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