The Graphic Student

I don’t know about you… but it’s usually around this time when I start to long for school again. Come the end of April, I don’t want anything more than to be done with the semester, but once summer’s half way over, I’m more than ready to go back. This terrifies me, as I don’t know what’s going to happen when I’ve graduated and still miss the classroom.

Clement Gallet, a graphic design and new media student has some great stuff on his site. Flip through the print work for sure - but if you only look at one thing, watch the videos on his site. Great work.

It’s nice when we get polite eMails from students asking us to add a link to their portfolio in the sidebar, but it’s even more pleasant when we discover that the work on the portfolio is top quality. Ilke Gers’ work - who is studying Visual Communication Design at Massey University (New Zealand) - is a perfect example of this.

We’re loving Ilke’s 3D Type book and the tight type on you buy (featured above).

Keep it up Ilke. The Graphic Student salutes you.

This promotional video for Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design deserves nothing less than your undivided attention, enthusiasm, and passion. We’ve sorted through dozens of videos for art & design schools, and so far this is the only one of quality. No voice-overs, no cheesy music, no student reading a script about how great their school is. It’s just quality design. Enjoy this one, because from here on out, the weekly school promo videos (SPV) are embarrassing in comparison (just look at last week’s).

We’ll be posting one new SPV every week. If you’re school’s made one for its design program, send us the link and we’ll play it in an upcoming week.

Billy Blue College of Design student Felix Lobelius has some fantastic work on his portfolio site. Check him out along with all the other student portfolios listed in the sidebar to the right under “portfolios”.

While browing the web tonight (smallrspcs to be specific), I came across this great talk about creativity and education by Ken Robinson. In his presentation, he talks about how schools and education are basically killing the creativity out of students. He’s mainly speaking about students in elementary school, but I think his point is also valid for college/university - especially in design programs. He makes a number of points that I completely agree with, but one that really stood out was when he said “creativity… happens through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things”. It makes you wonder how much more beneficial it might be to attend a design school where you are surrounded by artistic, creative people from other fields. Robinson’s entire talk is fascinating (and very funny thanks to his jokes), so if you have 20 free minutes, watch the video. In my opinion, he’s hit a nail right on the head.

Hochschule Darmstadt’s website isn’t in English, so I don’t understand a word of it. But a fluent friend of mine directed me to the faculty of design section. I love seeing student work from around the world. It all has such a different feeling and voice to it. There seems to be something so practical about the work coming out of the school. The type is legible, the decoration is limited, and production isn’t glamorous - it’s just enough. At the same time, this is the type of work I’d have a hard time convincing a local (Ontario, Canada) client to go with… and that might just mean it’s better work than anything you’ll see in my hometown. The above piece was designed by student Frederic Beier (you can see other images of this work here).

Liam Crockard has updated his blog/portfolio with some great work. Maybe more art than design, I have no doubt there is some advertising guru out there searching endlessly for work like Liam’s. His use of colour and texture is incredible and he clearly has an eye for composition. He’s currently studying at OCAD. 

I met an OCAD (Ontario College of Art & Design) student tonight who told me I can find a bunch of OCAD Student work on their website. I went there, and found a great archive of work from students, alumni, and the faculty. If you’ve got a few minutes, you should visit the link and have a look around. There is work from many categories, including graphic, industrial, and environment design, illustration, photography, printmaking, and many more. The piece above is a space designed by Victoria McGlade. I thought the illustration work was phenomenal. I don’t know how I feel about much of the graphic design pieces - a lot of them seemed cold. But still, some beautiful work by talented students.

Welcome to the new identity of your old favourite dorm-furnishings store.

note*

I was at a sustainable packaging awards gala earlier this year and witnessed a spokesperson from Walmart talk about how great they are for the environment. His speech only made me less likely to shop there. I do not support Walmart…but I understand why students might have to.