onwards and upwards…

And here we go again…UCAS time! Our second year students are currently busy applying for university places for next year, to further their quests for fame, fortune, and employment as graphic designers! We have people applying for courses as far away as Coventry & Loughborough, and of course, there is a number of our guys who want to keep it local, and are applying to go ‘across the road’ and study at The University Centre at Blackburn College. They are also starting to get busy with preparing their (soon to be) marvellous portfolio's of design work, ready to wow the interviewers and gain the university places they are hoping for. Good luck guys, and watch this space for updates on where our second years are all going to be heading to next year…

something old, something new…

On Tuesday a group of the staff from Creative Arts went over to our brand spanking new building, to get a bit of a guided tour of our new homes. The foyer is very big and impressive, looking very fancy… there was very little furniture or fittings in when we visited, but we got to see the library (which will be huge!!), the new mac suites, the staff rooms, and most importantly our new EDGD classrooms! There was lots of ‘ooooooooooohs’ and ‘aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhs’, and we have started planning what areas are getting used for what etc… all we need to do now is finish packing up all the boxes at our old space, in time for the Big Move next week…roll on Monday!

living in a box…

Cupboards have been emptied, boxes have been packed, and reluctantly, lots of things have been thrown away. We are nearly set to start moving into the brand new Art & Design building, which will get underway next week hopefully!! It has been a long time coming, and we are equal parts excited to get a much needed new home, but also a bit sad to see the old place go - there have been lots of action in our three little rooms over the years! We will try and get photos up of the move and the new space as it all happens, but for now, it's “back to the sketch” as we try to finish getting packed up…

Yesterday was our official Movember day, so what better thing to do than don a moustache!! Everyone got involved, staff, students, even Spongebob!! It's hard to not smile when you are wearing a moustache, fake or not, plus we all helped raise a bit of money for some worthwhile causes. Hope everyone has joined in at some point this month…

Check out the official Movember page here

attention seeking ads…

Here's some food for thought for all the second years with their current advertising project. Is your campaign currently missing something? Does it 'do' enough to sell your product? Does it have a great idea at the centre of the campaign? If not (or even if it does), take a look at this article published by Adweek back in June. It focuses on 10 magazine advertisements that don't just have good looks, or have clever copy and straplines - it looks at ads that do something, or make you do something about them…

You can take a closer look at the article, and all 10 advertisements here.

this thing of ours…

Have you been following the Computer Arts Studio Life series? Well we have, and can greatly recommend it for anyone who really wants to get into the design industry, because it can give you a great insight into what working for some of the bigger names can actually be like. The second video in the series stays down in London but wanders over to interactive media company Ustwo. A bright, fun-looking studio co-founded by John Sinclair and the seemingly singular named Mills. During the interview with Mills, he drops one very simple, yet inspirational statement (at least we thought so anyway):

“The business of design is simple: Do great work…”

Don't get carried away with learning the entirety of Photoshop, or becoming rich and famous… concentrate on good ideas, that produce fantastic work. You can take a look at some of the work that Ustwo produce, by visiting their website here.

You can also watch the whole Studio Life clip here.

a nice glass of red…

Just a little bit of extra help for the second years, who are in the middle stages of their packaging project. For some more inspiration with your designs, there is a really great website called The Dieline that you could check out. It is a blog style website all about really clever and beautiful packaging. It is even broken down into specific areas of packaging, one of them being wine and champagne! Another good website you may want to check out is called Packaging Of The World… hope this helps a little bit and we are looking forward to seeing your finished designs.

You can check out the Dieline website here

You can check out the Packaging Of The World website here