It’s that time of year again – the sun is out (kind of), the University year is over and the new grads are looking for jobs. The first stop? New Blood, of course! I have been excited about going to New Blood since this time last year – I just love everything about it!
This year, I went with my girls Emma, Amber and Lucy (the orange arm owner!) and we stayed in London for a couple of days.
It was in a different location to last year and bit cramped too as it was basically a pop up exhibition inside the Old Spitalfields Market. It was a bit disappointing because it meant that it was really busy and there was not really any space to stand back and look at the work. I kind of felt under pressure to move quickly from stand to stand so that I wasn’t in the way of everyone else – there was a lot of elbow touching! But anyway, what it lacked in space, it made up for in work:
I saw a lot of work which I recognised from Behance and competitions including the above entry for YCN’s Fedrigoni brief by Jonathan Shackleton. I was really surprised to not find it on the finalist list – It was a winner in my eyes!
A curious response to the 4’33″ istd brief by Megan Brooks of University College Falmouth:
See it in action here. Another great piece of work from the istd briefs – this time The Waitress by Jack Bardwell:
…simple and sophisticated!
Also found some great Penguin Book Award covers, including a shortlisted entry (far right) from Matthew Hall.
Staffordshire University’s stand grabbed a lot of attention thanks to Rebecca Clemson’s beautiful paper craft work:
and Melanie Milne’s typographic picnic set reminded me of the comedy carpet:
Yan-Jung Hsu of Edinburgh College of Art (PostGrad) had some interesting business cards – tracing paper laminated!? Caught my eye anyway…
… which leads on to interesting work by Yu-chiao Huang (also PostGrad of ECA). ‘Journey in Progress’ had interesting typographic experimentation:
Beautiful and striking wooden blocks by Kudzai Dyirakumunda of AUCB:
My images don’t do them justice so make sure you have a proper look here!
Familiar faces at the Lincoln stand:
Alice Hines, Sam Hartill, Danielle Smith, Rachel Carter & Amy Barden. Notice the lovely yellow arrow pointing towards the name? University of Lincoln were awarded a Best in New Blood award again this year:
Well done Luke Turner!
Next door, at University of the West of England stand there were lots of nice things to look at:
Then, something caught my eye across the corridor:
Fresh Meat – where have I seen that before recently? Reminded me of my Limited Edition posters immediately!
Southampton Solent definitely won the prize for best free stuff (all will be revealed in next blog post)!
I hadn’t really heard a lot about DJCAD (University of Dundee) before last year, but they produce some great work! Really loved Kyle McPartlin‘s style…
… lots of clever layering to create interesting compositions and it was quite refreshing to see something just simply b&w too!
Kirsty Turpie‘s response to The Waitress (istd) left Lucy & I green with envy…
…and I was really not surprised it was awarded Best in New Blood – stunning work!
As always, the NUCA stand was jam packed with excellent work:
One piece that caught Emma’s (and my) eye was this innovative book/coffee cup design by Kerrie Scott.
We also loved Kerrie’s istd response to ‘The Waitress’:
I think this one was my favourite of ‘The Waitress’ work that we saw whilst at New Blood – wish I had done it!
I absolutely love the house illustrations and the menu style index:
Great typographic detailing!
Alison Bell of Gray’s Art School produced a beautiful 3D piece for the YCN Triumph brief:
From Nottingham Trent, Jessica Phillips‘ typeface ‘Bimbimbap’ influenced by her time in South Korea:
and Ruth Wood‘s interactive poster was intriguing:
and lastly from Nottingham Trent, something you might recognise:
I featured Lun Yau’s Fedrigoni work in Triangle Friday #1 – check it out here.
Spotted this banner by Heleliis Tume (Cardiff School of Art & Design) as part of her ‘Thifty Designer challenge’…
… sounds right up my street!
And finally, just finishing on some interesting publications from Bath Spa University:
Above right – Rosie Cullen‘s National Trust work looked great.
And breathe… I definitely got to see a lot more work this year! Sorry if I have got anything wrong name/university/website wise. If I have, let me know and I will correct it.
I had a great time again and picked up a lot of good free things which I’m going to do a separate post about. It’s so scary to think that the next New Blood I go to I will be seeing the work of all my competition because I will be going into the big scary world! My fingers are crossed SO tightly that I will be lucky enough to exhibit at New Blood, but I know I will go and visit anyway even if I don’t get chosen for Lincoln’s stand!
Oh and I mentioned the last time I was in London the Troika V&A sign was broken, however:
Ben informed me it was up and running again and he was right =a happy Tasha!
