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The Edinburgh International Book festival is in full swing and the Illustration department is on board too, proudly presenting ‘House Style 2019’.
This project saw every student, from Stage 1 to MFA2, and all members of staff choose a book published in the UK in the past 20 years and creating one illustration in response.
Everyone was asked to work in black and white as well as one out of 4 available spot colours which were randomly distributed after choosing a book, and part of the challenge was to work with this allocated colour.
The master-list of 150 books was assembled by literary critic Stuart Kelly, who helped us launch the project by giving introductory talk to the department. A big thank you goes out to him for his support.
The resulting works have been printed as postcards and exhibited at the Edinburgh Book festival as a full set, to represent the range of work coming from this Programme, in all its considerable variety.
All postcards are on sale now – grab one while you can!
IT’S DEGREE SHOW TIME AGAIN and we have a lovely eclectic mix of Undergraduate and Master students’ work on display. Don’t miss the chance to see it! The show is open daily from 11.00 – 17.00 until Sunday 9 June. Tonight is Late Night so we’ll be open until 20.00! Looking forward to seeing you on the 4th floor of Evolution House!
And here’s a wee sneak peak of what’s on display..
We just returned from the D&AD New Blood Festival in London where 17 of our recent graduates presented their work to the world. In preparation for the event the group designed their own stand with a ‘Pick n Mix’ concept, which reflected the variety of styles and approaches within their work. Apart from the opportunity of seeing what the rest of the UK’s fresh Illustration, Graphic Design and Animation graduates are up to, this annual event is also an opportunity for them to get valuable advice from industry professionals. Adobe offered portfolio surgeries and there were many other events to attend throughout the 5 days.
The show was a real success with many visitors picking up postcards and business cards and having conversations with our Illustrators about their work and future aspirations. Terri Po and Jo Ruessmann made it onto the ‘One to Watch’ list and were offered a place in the New Blood Academy for this week where they will learn more about how to start their careers as new professional creatives. We are very proud of all of our 2018 graduates and wish them the best of luck for their creative careers!
Earlier in the year our 3rd year Illustrators paid a visit to 4 different primary schools in Cumbernauld, as part of Edinburgh International Book Festival’s outreach programme booked! that delivers creative workshops to communities across Scotland.
The project saw the students working alongside the pupils, collaboratively illustrating stories that they wrote with the support of author Mike Nicholson, resulting in an exciting mixture of everyone’s drawings. As a follow up form this project students Terri Po and Madeleine Pinkerton were selected to do a live drawing event with Mike on stage at this year’s Book Festival.
The team worked in front of 350 primary school children with the aim to show how easy it is to develop a story about just anything. Mike, Terri and Madeleine responded to the children’s ideas with on the spot storytelling and illustrating.
At the end the pupils got to pick their favourite drawings and ask the artists questions about how they developed their drawing skills. The students explained that they were still learning and always would be, and that learning was an ongoing process. The audience was full of aspiring illustrators and storytellers, and we look forward to perhaps seeing some of them in our college studios in a few years time!
This year’s event took ‘landscape’ as a starting point, inviting illustrators, mapmakers, printmakers, travelers, tourists, antiquarians, ethnographers and experimental archeologists to share their journeys through Illustration.
Speakers at ‘Shaping the View’ explored complex and various interpretations of Landscape in research, academic study, and professional practice.
From an international submission of abstracts, Jonathan Gibbs and Desdemona McCannon chose 37 academic papers for presentation over two days at ECA.
Five key speakers enhanced this discussion and debate and the symposium concluded with musical pieces, projections and installations of landscape themes in the Wee Red Bar.
As a post-script, Saturday’s site-specific workshops added a new dimension, using the city of Edinburgh to explore further aspects of time, space, and location.
The complementary exhibition in the Sculpture Court has enabled all students and staff to show their work alongside invited artists, leading exponents of Illustration. The exhibition demonstrates a high level of academic study, research, and professional practice.
An international selection of work has been curated for a wider understanding and appreciation of Illustration. Shaping the View has been made possible by research funding from the University of Edinburgh and by Saskia Cameron’s excellent design work of all the exhibition pieces.
Landscape-based work by 2nd and 3rd year students as part of the ‘Shaping the View’ exhibition
All work is up, looking good and being admired by a curious audience of fellow graduates, educators and industry professionals.
There is much exciting work to see from institutions across the UK – wonderful to have so much creative energy concentrated in one place. How good that snacks are being offered to keep our group going!
It’s New Blood time again! Our students have packed a selection of their work and travelled down to London in order to showcase their talent and skill at this year’s D&AD New Blood Festival. Located in the heart of London, at the Old Truman Brewery just off Brick Lane, this annual event gives graduating design students across the country the chance to have their work seen by the creative industries.
During the next couple of days students will be given the opportunity to show their portfolios and receive professional advice as well as take part in various seminars and meet fellow creatives and potential future employers.
Our Graphic Design and Illustration students are currently in the process of setting up their stands and will later return to the private view, to which industry has been invited on their behalf.
It’s already looking great – but keep looking out as we’ll be posting more images once the setup is complete!
On Saturday students and staff of Illustration travelled to Glasgow to attended this year’s Picture Hooks Conference at the Centre of Contemporary Arts. Now in its third year, the conference gives illustrators the opportunity to hear from leading experts from the world of children’s publishing.
There was an excellent range of speakers involved in both the making and publishing of picture books who shared their valuable knowledge with the audience.
Tessa Strickland, co-founder and Editor at Barefoot Books spoke about the things she would like to see in an applicants portfolio. “Can you tell a visual narrative? There needs to be a visible transformation, a character that changes throughout the story – there are people who are starters and people who are finishers. You need to be a starter and a finisher.” She also gave some general advice to illustrators who are trying to find their feet in the world of illustration “Life is short. Become the illustrator you want to be!”
Joel Stewart, award winning author and illustrator of over 20 books, spoke about the synthesis of digital applications and hand drawing and how the two seemed to increasingly blend together seamlessly within his work. It was interesting to hear Joel speak about how he considered himself more of an observational than an imaginative draughtsman and how he felt the teaching of academic drawing was an important part of Illustration training.
Andrea MacDonald, Executive Editor for Picture Books fromPenguin Random House gave insights in to how picture books work to comfort, challenge and open up new worlds to their audience. She gave advice on how Illustrators can approach publishers and spoke about the pressure author/illustrators can face when making a second book after a first successful one had been published.
Nicki Field, head of illustration at Jelly Agency, shared her experiences on the many other opportunities for illustrators to sell and license their work. As a Brighton graduate of Illustration Nicki was able to provide a unique insight based on her diverse background. She suggested that illustrators should define their practice and “work on what you think is you, your niche.” She advised not to set up multiple identities for different aspects for your work (just imagine they would all be called in for meetings at the same time) but instead to “be the same person but channel multiple aspects of your work in different ways” and “to be innovative and to do what you can to keep ahead”. She also spoke about the value of self-initiated work and how small ideas can have a big reach.
We met a lot of established and budding illustrators as well as interesting speakers, each offering a different perspective on the many aspects of the picture book and publishing industry. Altogether this was a very inspiring day for us!
Tessa Strickland, co-founder and Editor at Barefoot Books
Joel Stewart, Illustrator
Andrea MacDonald, Executive Editor for Picture Books from Penguin Random House
Nicki Field, head of Illustration at Jelly Agency
Catherine Lindow, one of last year’s Picture Hooks mentees
Lucy Juckes and Vivien French, initiators of Picture Hooks
ECA Illustration students feeling inspired after the conference
Today a slightly different kind of life drawing has taken place in the Illustration department. Our studios have been cleared in preparation for the degree show, providing us with lots of space to organise a rather unusual drawing experience for our students.
Our special guests and life models today were Edward the european eagle owl, Bonnie the barn Owl, Percy the peregrine falcon, Kenny the kestrel, Blue the red tailed hawk and Skippy the Australian boobook owl.
Their keeper Archie McCrone introduced us to each bird and its individual character. He spoke about the birds natural habitat, and shared interesting facts about their anatomy and behaviour. Many of our students are involved in character design of both human and animal figures and being given the chance to study this wonderful range of birds from up close was something quite special.
Now in its second year, ‘Bird Day’ has become an annual activity which marks the end of the academic year through a rather fun and at the same time educational event.
We delighted to present R16, a pop-up shop and exhibition at the lovely Stag Gallery, part of Warburton Gallery at the top of Victoria Street in Edinburgh.
This weekend only the postgraduate illustrators and graphic designers will showing off new work and offering a chance at a sneak preview of their work before they exhibit at the college in August.