MA show private view

On Friday night, Over 200 visitors enjoyed the private view for this years MA show at the Public in West Bromwich. Guests were welcomed by School of Art and Design staff and students and had the exclusive opportunity to view 3 floors of displays prior to the public opening on Saturday 29th.

Students feel Shattered

Level 5 Graphic Communication students studying the ‘Branding in Context’  module and Level 6 students undertaking their Final Project module were given a shattering start to their live assignment by attending a private gig by upcoming band Shatter Effect. The students are being asked to produce a campaign to build on the bands already impressive award-winning marketing.

Tutor Jeff Leak said,

“Shatter Effect are a five piece band who sound amazing and their performance was equally full of energy. We’re really pleased to be given the opportunity to work with them on this project and know that our students will pull out all the stops to produce some innovative work that exploits social media and creates new online guerilla marketing initiatives.”

Shatter Effect are due to release their new album - ‘Decade in the Dark’ – later this year. You can find out more about them here, check out their last video and maybe even go along to one of their upcoming national tour dates:

http://www.shattereffect.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/user/ShatterEffectMusic

http://www.twitter.com/ShatterEffect

How to Use Type by Lindsey Marshall and Lester Meachem

Discussing who uses type, where and when type is employed, audience and appropriateness of type and communication, Lester Meachems new co-written book, 'How to Use Type' has just been published by Laurence King.
How to Use Type includes illustrated activities and case studies linked to key issues discussed in the text. Find out more at http://www.laurenceking.com/product/How+to+Use+Type.htm

Unusual Sheet Music - by Lena Matthies

unusual sheet music from Lena Matthies on Vimeo.
Experience  the work of MA student Lena Matthies. She is passionate about music and finds inspiration in her surroundings. Working with a group of singers and musicians Lena has designed and produced posters, films and books that explore this idea.

This work can be seen as part of the MA exhibition at The Public in West Bromwich from 29th September

Free font DejaVu Serif

DejaVu Serif is a free font available in a very useful 8 weights. Designed by DejaVu Fonts, and brought to you by Font Squirrel, it can be downloaded free from here.

Latest location for Freebox

Freebox, the innovative freecycling initiative from MA student Dorothee Schmidt has a new home. During the month of October the newest Freebox will be located in the entrance way to the Public, West Bromwich. So if you visit the MA final show, remember to take a look at Freebox and if you have something you no longer need but others might, then bring it - or if you see something you like in Freebox, then take it.
Freebox is will also be located within the students union of Birmingham City University, during the coming academic year

http://freebox-uk.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/freeboxwolves
http://einherzfuerdodo.blogspot.co.uk/

MA Show Countdown 2

Here is selection of tempting examples of work that will be on display, as the MA show continues to take shape and take over the Public in West Bromwich.
The exhibition opens from September 29th - be sure not to miss it!
Designs shown here are by Richard Woad, Lena Matthies, Andreas Olymbios, Fred Munnelly and Dorothee Schmidt.

Bigmouth

Take a look at Bigmouth, as free display font from Timo Kuilder. It's a character set with limited punctuation. Is a free download available here at Behance.

Designer - FE Week, Greenwich, London

Designer

FE Week was a launched in September 2012 and is the only newspaper and interactive website dedicated to the further education sector.

Now in its second year, FE Week has quickly become a strong title in the sector and is expanding quickly.

We are currently looking for a designer to join the FE Week team. The successful candidate will have overall responsibility for the graphic production of the online and print edition of a weekly newspaper FE Week and general graphic design for the organization.

More information on the role can be found here: http://feweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Job-description-for-GD-17-09-12.pdf

Junior designer - Uniform, Liverpool

Uniform are hiring

We're looking for an exceptional junior designer to join our award winning brand communications agency.

What we are looking for: someone with a bag full of ideas, passion and ambition, a keen eye for layout and a sharp attention to detail. The successful applicant will be working on exciting brand, print and digital projects for clients large and small.

If this sounds like you we would love to hear from you today. Please send PDF portfolios (Max 5mb) to jobs@uniform.net

MA show countdown

The MA show is starting to go up in the pink light of the Public in West Bromwich. The images on show here are a just a few glimpses from behind the scenes. 

See http://www.visualcommunicationwolverhampton.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ma-show-at-public.html For more information 

Welcome new Visual Communication Students

Today marks the start of 'freshers week' and visual communication staff are welcoming new undergraduate students. The week is full of inductions, tours,  introductory projects and a divisional trip to Oxford.

It's great to have so many new faces in the department and staff hope that all new students have a very enjoyable and rewarding time studying in the division.

Sara Drawwater - From Zambia to Wolverhampton and back

So what does a girl do when she gets a 1^st Class degree in Graphic Communication and can’t land her dream job? She stops chasing the dream, goes it alone and builds an empire. Well, sort of!

I left the University of Wolverhampton in the Summer of 2005. I really believed my hard earned 1^st class degree was my golden ticket. Having survived a three year long distance relationship, I chose love. I moved back to Peterborough. Not to London as I had once planned. Peterborough is not known for being cutting edge, cultured or creative!

For what it’s worth, I had two Peterborough based jobs before I stood on my own two feet and they taught me a lot. I worked as a graphic designer in a marketing company that wanted to set up a creative department. By the time I started the job, the Creative Director brought in to start the department had left. It was just little me. Sink or swim time! When the company went bust I left just in time and landed a job in a publishing house. Design one magazine a week was the brief. Soon I was being challenged to get involved in developing new products and management. A clash of ethics left me no choice but to leave. That’s how it works in my world anyway.

So I started freelancing. I got involved in network marketing and learnt about residual income, scalable businesses and leading successful teams. I left networking marketing behind but I took everything I learnt from it with me.

By 2009 I was working with my brother, Luke Brown, and my parents Joseph and Julia Brown. Luke graduated with a 2.1 in Interactive Media from Portsmouth University.  Since then Luke has built the Something Beckons Content Management System to suit the specific needs of our company and our customers. He has also spearheaded our approach to web design and development.  Interestingly, as well as being techy, he is also an excellent graphic designer – this has proved incredibly valuable.

Today I wear many hats for Something Beckons. I am involved in sales and marketing, project management and delivery, social media training, product/service research and development, company management and development… From 6am to 11pm my week days are packed to the hilt. I have one full day off a week. I spend Sunday’s blogging and doing lots of marketing related work.

Whilst Luke and I are currently Peterborough based, my parents spend most of their time in Zambia leading thebestofzambia.com local office (currently a team of six). This website is the best online resource for products and services in Zambia. It is a prototype business profiling website and promotional package we designed and continue to develop specifically for the African market.

We have a keen interest in Africa. Joseph, our Dad is Zambian. We were born there and only moved to England in 1999. While the West is struggling, many African countries are growing economically. There is increasing demand for quality online content as Africans skip the PC and access the internet through their mobile phones. There is a hunger for information and choice. We give many businesses their first online presence affordably. For those with a website, our site generates traffic to their site. For both, we provide free web based marketing throughout the year (we promote their events, special offers, news and expertise). We do this through social media channels like Twitter and Facebook, alongside other communication tools like email marketing, our blog and online magazine.

We are not finished but have made a great start! Our current projects include making thebestofzambia.com more interactive, developing the site further and rebranding it in time for our launch into one or two other African countries (to start with).

Current and ex students my message to you is that building your own business is a lot harder that starting from the bottom as the faceless junior. Choose the junior designer option for simplicity! The road I chose is risky, very scary, demands a lot of sacrifice and makes you very broke. But if you want to shape your own future, expect an unlimited income and want freedom, then this is the way to do it.

My thanks go to my tutors at the University of Wolverhampton who made me believe I was really good at my chosen field.

Be the first to hear about 7 Seconds

7 seconds is a new energy drink made from natural ingredients. It has been originated by Vis Comm MA student Andreas Olymbios. Not only is each flavour packed full of great ingredients with refreshing properties but  each container holds a hidden moment of refreshment, concealed in the base.

Be one of the first find out more about this product and complete the market research questionnaire here.

Seven seconds will be on display as part of the MA show. click here for more details 

Leading Lights Lecture from Mark Palmer of Green and Blacks

On 25th September Mark Palmer will be giving the final Leading Lights lecture on The Global Power of Marketing to Drive Changes in Behaviour and Buying Habits. The lecture takes place at the Science Park and tickets are free, but have to be booked in advance.

Born in Wolverhampton, Mark held marketing positions with United Biscuits and Burger King before being appointed marketing director of Green and Black's organic chocolate in 2001, then a niche luxury product.

Over the next four years sales rose from £4m to £60m, ultimately leading to full acquisition by Cadbury. Mark also oversaw the rollout of the Green and Black's brand internationally to markets including the US, Canada and Australia. He is now a part-time non-executive director for the company, which was voted the UK's coolest food brand by Superbrands for four successive years and nominated by Sainsbury's customers as their favourite brand of the noughties.

For more information and to book tickets visit

http://www.wlv.ac.uk/default.aspx?page=29662 or telephone 01902 322 489 / 322 684.

Graduate success - Dan Muir

Congratulations to graphics graduate Dan Muir who will shortly be working for WTF Creative. The agency offer services including brand and communication strategy, corporate identity, product packaging, advertising, motion graphics and much more.

Find out more about WTF at: http://www.wtfcreative.com

Rick Poynor - a date for your diary

A date for your diary - On Tuesday 12th February at 6.00pm, Rick Poynor will be coming to give one of this years CADRE public lectures. Save the date, as this promises to be a really interesting event.

Rick Poynor is a writer on design, graphic design, typography, and visual culture. He began as a general visual arts journalist, working on Blueprint magazine in London. After founding Eye magazine, which he edited from 1990 to 1997, he focused increasingly on visual communication. He is writer-at-large and columnist of Eye, and a contributing editor and columnist of Print magazine.

In 1999, Poynor was a co-ordinator of the First Things First 2000 manifesto initiated by Adbusters. In 2003, he co-founded Design Observer, a weblog for design writing and discussion, with William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand, and Michael Bierut. He wrote for the site until 2005. He was a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, London from 1994 to 1999 and returned to the RCA in 2006 as a research fellow. He also taught at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. In 2004, Poynor curated the exhibition, Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties, at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. The exhibition subsequently travelled to four venues in China and to Zurich.

Poynor was a prominent interviewee in the 2007 documentary film Helvetica.

Graduate success

Congratulations to graphics graduate to Katie Howell who is now working as a packaging designer at CIC Photographic in Burslem. Katie is enjoying working on projects for many major houshold brands.

Congratulations to graphics graduate Alex Steer, who is now working for Verve in Shrewsbury as a print and web designer

The class of 2012 graduation

Graduation September 2012 has been a great celebration of achievement. Graduates have had the chance to publicly mark their success in the splendid surroundings of Wolverhampton's Grand Theatre. During the ceremony, the University has awarded David Watkins, Designer of the London 2012 Olympic medals an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Design in recognition of his significant local and international contribution in the field of design. 

The ceremony was addressed by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Geoff Layer, who began his address by discussing the power higher education has to transform peoples lives. His speech also went on to mark the heritage of the University, from its early roots in 1851, as the School of Art to the institutions proud status today, as the University of Wolverhampton. 

“We are proud to have developed as an educational institution, ensuring our graduates are ready to succeed in the global economy” 

The images featured here show just a glimpse of the event and the prize giving reception. Student awards were presented by Professor Dew Harrison.

Many congratulations must go to all graduates.

Daler Rowney Prize for Excellence in Graphic Communication

Daniel Dean

The Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Visual Communications
Alex Steer

The RotoVision Award for Excellence in Editorial Graphic Communication
Hannah Foy

The RotoVision Award for Excellence in Visualising
Brad Ankers

The Sheaffer Prize for Use of Language in Graphic Projects
Katie Howell

The Sheaffer Prize for Outstanding Work on Live Commissions in Graphic Communications
Jordan Jones