Hasta La Ideas

Screenprinted pub sign by Jamie Marsh (see below)

Studio three&me were privileged to be invited to the private view of University Campus Suffolk’s graphic design degree show, where we witnessed a feast of illustrative treats and strong collaborative projects from around 15 students…

Being UCS graduates ourselves we jumped at the chance of photographing some of the best works from across the show. Here’s what we found.

One of the first projects that caught our eye was this well presented branding for Hideous Sounds by Lewis Tucker. The branding for a dubstep record label uses a flat geometric logo with a contemporary colour palette set alongside… well, hideous photography!

It’s not quite Movember yet! However, Ben Theobald‘s branding and packaging design for a Heritage Barbershop puts the Mo’ at the forefront. The Heritage Barbershop identity has a traditional feel with a quirky edge that would certainly set it apart from many of the other grooming products we’ve seen.

Urban Forest is a graphic identity for an indoor forest in London. Chris Pullen‘s strong typographic identity, paired with effective photography and clean layout really helps to sell his idea. With a guide map in hand you can be sure to explore the urban forest of the great indoors!

Now, we loved Egle Vainauskait’s illustrative style – which her branding for Trend, blending coffee and fashion, makes great use of. The identity itself is clean and works through a number of products, all of which have been carefully considered from the packaging right through to the cup and saucer.

We found some right little gems inside the covers of Jade Redford‘s portfolio. We took a particular likening to her illustrations for a children’s Story Day. Jade wanted to “make a day where children were encouraged to be creative and make their own stories, especially through drawing”. These cute illustrations are extremely well executed and have an all-round appeal.

The sound of a new brewery is music to our ears and with the name Gambrinus – the mythical “King of Beer” – how could you go wrong? Jamie Marsh’s collection of illustrated beer mats tell the story of Gambrinus, the narrative enhances the brand and shows great attention to detail. We were very impressed with his screen printed pub sign (shown top of post); a nice touch.

We really liked Rachel Milner’s work for the concept behind her project, Twelve. It’s a charity based scheme selling high-end fashion products, with each month’s profits going to a different charity.

And as if that wasn’t enough – as part of a BA (Hons) Graphic Design module each of the student’s also took part in the Turner Classic Movies project which involves designing posters that a film season. With an internship at TCM up for grabs we were sure to see some impressive work here.

Firstly, we would like to introduce to you the work of Sarah Haskins with her poster for Moulin Rouge as part of the TCM Obsession Season. Whilst flicking through her portfolio we could certainly see that Sarah had a distinctive hand-drawn style that she makes good use of in this beautiful poster.

We also admired the poster by Joe Littleworth for The King and 4 Queens as part of the TCM Gambling Season. We enjoyed the simplicity of the illustration and the incorporation of the TCM logo as a design element rather than as a foot note.

And finally, the Turner Prize Award and internship went to Hannah Campbell and her poster for The Wicked Lady as part of Bad Girls Season – and deservedly so. Her clever idea of incorporating the female gender symbol into the barrel of the gun is simple and to the point, while the feel of the poster is fitting for film noir genre.

Needless to say we have picked our favourites here. There was a range of other great stuff we didn’t have time to pull together for this post. And if you didn’t manage to make it along, there will also be a showing at the Coningsby Gallery in London from 11-14 November (weekdays: 10:30 – 18:00).

James Tye is managing director at three&me.

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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