Although ‘Covid’ has had an impact on much of the curriculum, our Graphic Design students have continued with their studies using Adobe Creative Suite at home during periods of lockdown. Dudley College has made sure that all art students have access to Adobe software for the duration of their course in order to support their studies both in college and at home. The work on show here is just a snapshot of some of the work produced over the past two years. While our students are taught digital skills, they also learn traditional art and design skills in order to develop a broad portfolio of art and design for their progression onto higher education. Some of our recent students have gone on to study at degree level in subject areas such as visual communication or graphic design, but also illustration, animation, fashion illustration, automotive design, architecture, interior architecture, jewellery design, digital media, and many other creative pathways.
Over the past few months all our students who made university applications were accepted (as usual), and generally on their first choice. Some have chosen to begin their studies at degree level, and others have decided to stay on at Dudley College for a Foundation Year. Well done all – it’s been great working with you. Good luck for the future.
The 1950s and 1960s are my favourite decades for simplicity of lifestyle, the hope people had after the war and also for the great art and music. In addition, by following the vintage photography from this period, I could feel the nostalgia. I wish I could live in the 1950s decade. For my project, I had the aim of creating dramatic and cinematic photographs in a Fim-Noir theme. I was trying to express the moody and more significantly dramatic feelings and moments which I created by hard lighting in black and white and low-key. My portraitures are more classical and every image can tell a story about its character. Shadows and highlights play an important role in this genre.
I paid attention to the clothing style, background, and face direction/expressions for my close-up portraits.
For my personal investigation I decided to gain my inspiration from Digbeth in Birmingham. My project was based around the bold graffiti found on the walls. I found that experimenting with the embellisher complimented this project perfectly as it enhanced the nature of graffiti as it looked like sprays from a spray can. I also explored bold lettering, hand stich and machine embroidery to conduct my final piece. Positive words and phrases really inspired me through my project, due to such uncertain times in the world due to coronavirus I thought spreading positive messages for people to see on things such as their daily walks was beneficial to the indefinite times, we are living in. Clouds became the dominant theme from my original photographs to spread the well-being quotes in the local area. I then began to turn this into a garment of a dress to allow it to be showcased on the runway for people to see. The clouds became detachable form the piece to be able to place them in other places to be available for as many people to see as possible. To spread the message even more I also decided to make my own Instagram page to allow my work to be shared as much as possible.
My project evolved into work based on fast food, its aggressive marketing and the results of these ending up in the appearance of excess body fat. I looked at the packaging of fast-food items and started to manipulate them in different ways, gravitating towards the heat-based samples that shrunk and bubbled plastic materials like crisp packets. I used hand stitch work to add words onto these samples, words like EAT and CONSUME that reflect the immoral aims of food marketing.
I used tights, stuffing and rubber bands to create these 3d pieces that I intended to replicate to look of body fat, I used heat transfer techniques to put red lines onto the fabric that mirror the blood vessels in body fat, and then stitched into the largest sample with the text work. With these 3d pieces I also produced two masks constructed from the heated plastic and the stitched text-work, the focus being around the mouth area was intentional as the project is based around food consumption.
I took inspiration for my personal investigation from predominantly the Black Lives Matter movement. I decided to choose this as I felt it is an important topic that needs to be brought to light and talked about more. I was mainly influenced by the protests I attended and the protest signs for my final piece, so decided to go with a patchwork hanging piece. For this I used a variety of techniques such cut and fray, machine embroidery, hand stitch and melting plastic. I also wanted my piece to have an imperfect feel to it as many of the protest signs were rushed and messy and I wanted that to translate through my work.
For my personal investigation, I was heavily inspired by the construct of landscapes, after having visited Wales in the summer of 2020. I realised its intricate textures such as the water, rocks and mountains allowed for much versatility regarding different forms of experimentation. While experimenting with several different techniques, my main focus shifted to fabric manipulation, as well as prints. I personally really enjoyed exploring different ways I could work with fabric to create a wide variety of textures that would relate to the concept of nature. Throughout the entirety of the project, I wanted to ensure that my final piece would capture the raw and natural essence of nature through the form of a fashion piece. It was pieced together by the different elements of landscapes that could easily be rearranged and I thought this was an effective way of presenting my ideas in different ways.
