The Graphic Student

After a year break from school (to work in the real world), Eoin Stanley has gone back to school in Dublin, Ireland. His work showcases a collection of fun and clever designs (I especially like the one featured above, which you can buy here). He has great use of colour, and every piece in his portfolio is candy to the eyes. Go check it out, buy things from him, and read his blog!

I came across Student Creative today while on Youtube. The website/magazine is for students, by students (very much like thegraphicstudent.com). There isn’t much happening with it yet, but they’re asking students to submit work, and trying to get the support of Universities. Go help them out - it’s something that could be really great for all of us students!

More often than not, when you’re playing, something wonderful comes out of it.
This great part 1 of a 4 part series of Designing Minds, features the students of The Art Centre of Pasadena. The graphic design students collaborated with the illustration students to put out a magazine, wrap, with some fantastic results. Watch this episode, and then catch the next 2 here, here, and part 4 should be released onto Youtube any day now.

I’ve always loved the idea of collaborating with students from another department. We have an advertising department somewhere in our school - I would love to receive art direction from them and see what happens… But I think what would be most exciting, is to team up with kids who publish our school paper. Send the graphic design students in for one issue, and see what happens. This video series really shows what potential collaboration has with students. Inspiring!

At the Institute, we envision a place where students, teachers, industry and community experts come together not only as creators and designers but also ambassadors of hope. We imagine how to live, learn, work, and play together as a global community. Our goal is to find alternative development patterns and a viable path to a sustaining future, and allow the world to re-envision the designer as a problem solver with the ability to effect positive change for humanity.

How incredible does that sound? Institute Without Borders is a program run out of the School of Design at George Brown College where students interact with professionals to solve world problems. Their first project, Massive Change, explored all things about the future of global design. Their second project, World House, explores methods and practices to developing sustainable shelter for the future. Incredible projects, and what I can only imagine would be an incredible experience. This program is an opportunity for students to learn an incredible amount, and to apply what they’ve learned in a meaningful way. They can step away from using their talents to sell shoes, and do something they are honestly passionate about. 

If you can see yourself doing this, check out the website. Students must have an undergraduate degree, and the tuition is around $13,000 - $22,00 (depending where you live). 

Graphic design student, Heather Russell has recently gone into business (another student starting a business!) creating handmade toys. Pictured above are her Veggie Deaths: small, morbid - and adorable - fimo characters. She also pumps out handsewn dinosquares; square, plush dinosaurs. It’s always exciting to see students succeeding in creative fields outside their main study - you know they’re passionate. They aren’t for sale online yet, though I’m sure they will be at some point (follow her blog, and maybe they’ll become available there eventually). 

But wait! This post is actually featuring two students. The packaging, designed by Heather, was printed by a fellow student, Uhrgalo… his blog is absolutely worth checking out as well.

I work part-time at a small art supply shop and this weekend I helped a customer who owns an advertising/branding agency. We started talking about his schooling back in the 70’s compared to what I’m experiencing today. He had one complaint about schools today (well, he had a number of complaints actually) - he was upset that schools are now teaching how to design and not why. He said he gets hundreds of portfolios and resumes from students who are great at knowing how to design a webpage - but not enough who know why they designed it. I can’t stop thinking about this and what it means…I love getting customers like this.

I was reading up on The Designers Accord recently, and something struck me as odd… Why isn’t sustainable design given the same priority in school as colour choice, paper weight, or font selection? “Green” design is treated more like a gimmick than necessity. There is a great WWF campaign out right now, telling people “the world has changed - so can you” referring to environmentally damaging things we used to do, but don’t have to do anymore (riding a bike to work, hanging clothes out to dry, etc.). The same holds true for design school. The industry has changed, and our generation of students is vital to improving our impact on the earth. 

The Designers Accord guidelines Education section, suggests college and universities do the following:

Publicly declare participation in the Designers Accord.

Initiate a dialogue about environmental impact and sustainable alternatives with every student and colleague in your educational program. Rework curricula and assignments to emphasize environmentally responsible design and work processes. Provide course content, lectures, and assignments that focus on strategic and material alternatives for sustainable design.

Undertake a program to educate your colleagues about sustainability and sustainable design, and plan the integration of these concepts into course curricula.

Measure the carbon/greenhouse gas footprint of your institution, and pledge to reduce your footprint annually.

Advance the understanding of environmental issues from a design perspective by contributing actively to the communal knowledge base for sustainable design.

In this election year of 2008, Kevin O’Callaghan decided it would be important to have MFA design students comment on political and social themes. Yet how they make their statements was the real challenge. O’Callaghan had this 3d class create fashion collections that would be functional and metaphorical, as well as polemical. Model Citizen, is a runway show and exhibition that addresses through clothes and accessories the critical issues facing citizens everywhere.

This looks like a fantastic project from the MFA design students at the School of Visual Arts. I love when projects take on a practical challenge (in this case creating wearable clothing), while incorporating a political or social aspect. There are millions of people who know how to sew, how to use photoshop (or think they do), know how to code websites, etc… but only a small number of people who should actually do all that, and this project is helping to create more of them.

The above collection was designed and constructed by student, Hyun-Jung Hwang.

This is a showcase of what the School of Media Arts‘ students put out in 2007. I don’t think the work is very great. It looks like another class heavily trained on where to click and drag the mouse - but not why. Have a look for yourself and tell us what you think.

Awesome newspaper design for a NYC high school. I’ve always wondered why newspapers produced by journalism classes aren’t more conceptual and risk-taking than professional newspapers. If you’re going to try something, might as well do it in school when multiple salaries aren’t on the line.