Hasta La Ideas

James Tye and co from graphic design agency three&me visited ‘This Is’, the Graphic Design Degree Show at University Campus Suffolk in Ipswich. Here are their favourite projects from across the show.

After graduating ourselves from UCS three years ago we have always been keen to keep an eye on the latest talent coming out of the BA (Hons) Graphic Design course and into the world of work. We visit these shows each year and always have high expectations… this year we weren’t disappointed!

First up, we were drawn to the work of Jessi Louise who created a visual identity for ‘Shift Press’ – a publishing house, working across both print and digital media. The branding was cleverly executed in a clean and dynamic manner emphasizing the movement concept across a range of materials. Jessi’s portfolio was full with exciting branding projects, which certainly seems to be a great strength of hers.

We were intrigued by Gary Reedman‘s idea of ‘Screen In’ – a drive-in cinema experience based at a large shopping centre car parks in the UK. Yet again we were impressed by the logo idea, which portrays the concept simply and cleanly through shape and good use of colour. The branding works consistently across packaging, brochures and animation.

‘Olde Idioms’ was the response by Gail Greatrex to the brief of communicating ‘what epitomizes English?’. The book demonstrates idiosyncratic English idioms and sayings that ooze Englishness, presented with fine attention to detail and typography and illustration. Gail certainly isn’t pulling anybody’s legs, this is a fine piece of design!

Whilst the weather is nice, we give you… On the Huh’ – A Suffolk based ice cream company created by Daniel Barnes. The USP of the brand is to utilise local dialect and phrasing throughout its design and marketing communications, which gives it a quirky and distinctive feel. (Also see lead image at top of article).

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 for a particular film season. With an internship at TCM up for grabs we were sure to see some impressive work here.

The internship award went to Cassie Perkins and her hand drawn illustrative TCM poster for the “Life Lines Season”. Also a Commendation Award went to Alex Rawlins for his poster design representing the “Uncharted Collection”. These happened to be our favourites from the selection of posters on show due to their style and execution, relating well to the movie genres.

And if one internship wasn’t enough, the students also had the opportunity of winning an internship with BBC Worldwide. The project brief was to create a range of merchandise based on the Dr Who theme.

Alex Rawlins won an internship award for his Dr Who Convention titled ‘Who Con’, which involved creating a range of branded materials including badges, clothing, posters and tickets. Jacob Bossom also received an Internship Award for his t-shirt concept, which converts the plain white tee into exclusive designs relating to the Dr.

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 is still time to view the show. It is open until June 15th, find all the details here. Also be sure to follow the students on twitter: @this_is_2014

There will also be a second showing at the Coningsby Gallery in London from 9-15 November.