Just Have to Share - The Church of Type

Just have to share, The Church of Type is a full-custom art and design studio run by Kevin Bradley, working exclusively in authentic handset letterpress.
It houses one of the most extensive wood and metal type collections in use today.

Jessica Glaser's new book - designer and student contributions

Jessica Glaser’s second edition of The Graphic Design Exercise Book contains inspiring examples by a range of designers from around the world. Some of these projects kindly submitted are by Wolverhampton visual communication students and alumni. See a snapshot of some of the pages from her book here:

Alex Golubovs

Left page, designs by Clive Moore. Right page, illustrations by Ben Kelly

Designs by Visual Communication alumni Lena Matthies

 Right page, designs by Visual Communication alumni Jonny Costello

Left Page  designs by Visual Communication alumni Sean Bird of Daredevil Design and right page designs by alumni Zoe Hern

Many thanks must go to visual communication students Sarah Collins, Alex Golubovs, Christy Guan, Craig Hancock, Abigail Irwin, Sian Pryce and Kyle Visser for their contributions

The Second Graphic Design Exercise Book by Jessica Glaser

With the quest to expand knowledge and skills often at the forefront of their minds, graphic designers love the excitement of an inspiring, creative project. 

Many varied disciplines come together to give this unique profession great breadth, however, it can be hard to gain experience and insight in all areas. The revised, second edition of The Graphic Design Exercise Book by Jessica Glaser is about to be published in the UK by Frances Lincoln, providing not only a wide spectrum of briefs and working methodologies but also design examples and insight from a variety of international designers. This new book is divided into 4 sections, each focusing on a specific design genre: packaging, visual identity and branding, layout for print and screen and design for music. Interviews and in-progress work are included, while a number of fully realised projects illustrate possible outcomes.

Spread featuring designs by Visual Communication Alumni Robin Walton Of Narrow House for Just Juice, Aceites Clavero and Clesa Fresh Milk

Find out more about the first edition of The Graphic Design Exercise book here

FreeFont Fira Update

In Janauary 2014 this blog reviewed free font Fira. Designed by Mozilla, Fira was then available free in a very useful 10 styles. Fira has since been updated and is now available in an amazing 32 styles - far too many to show each weight here. Download your new Fira family here

Just Have to Share - Lisa Barrett Birmingham's group of Good For Nothing

Visual Communication graduate Lisa Barrett has been instrumental in establishing the Birmingham group of Good For Nothing.

Good for Nothing is a community of thinkers, do-ers, makers and tinkerers applying their skills and energy to accelerate the work of cause-led innovators and change makers; it's about diverse groups of people collaborating together, working in new, faster, fun and better ways by supporting ideas and people that are leading the way to what a flourishing 21st century society might look like.

They are trying to solve challenges collaboratively – on and offline. There are a number of ways to get involved, but for starters you could get stuck in to a challenge or check out  upcoming gigs and socials on the calendar

To find out how to get involved visit:

http://www.goodfornothing.com/how-it-works

New Designers successful opening

Visual Communication students show at New Designers is now open and attracting much attention. Many thanks must go to all involved in staging the exhibit.

New Designers is open from 10.00am daily until July 5th

More information information is available here

Student Success - Josh Grice

Congratulations to Josh Grice, Visual Communication student who has designed the trophies for the West Midlands Institute of Directors’ award ceremony, at Edgbaston cricket ground.

John Phillips, Regional Director for the Institute of Directors said: “This was an important project for us. Our director awards are very important as many of our members have achieved great things sometimes under difficult circumstances and they deserve to have their achievements rewarded.

We were delighted to commission Josh to make our trophies and he was a pleasure to work with and quickly became involved in the detail and spirit of the project.

It was great to have individual art pieces as trophies and much more personal than buying an ‘off the shelf’ product.

“I am sure the young designer will have a great future as a commercial artist and we will do our best to give him a lift along the way."

“This is definitely a new experience, working with a huge company and presenting the awards to some well-known directors is an experience in itself, let alone knowing I have designed the actual trophy they are so proudly holding.” said Josh

Exhibiting at New designers

Visual Communication students will be exhibiting within part 2 of this years New Designers show.

The event is the UK's most important exhibition for emerging design, full of innovation and fresh thinking. It takes place over two weeks, with each Part focusing on a different set of design disciplines and featuring its own Awards Programme.

The show sees over 3,000 of the most talented, newly graduated designers from the UK's leading universities come together to exhibit in one spectacular venue - the Business Design Centre, London.

For more information  click  here

Good luck to all participating