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..
“Don’t use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry.” – Jack Kerouac
Our first year Illustrators spend the first half of their semester working on a number of poems they were first asked to write and then illustrate. Sources of inspiration were Surrealist word games, biographies linked to Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and Political Protest. The main focus was image and text relationship and composition on the page. As part of this our students also learned to put together the pages of a book digitally and get it printed to a professional standard. Come to BOOKMARKS on Wednesday and you’ll be able to see some of these gems at our first year stall!
Muriel Spark 100 – student work exhibited at the National Library of Scotland.
This collaborative project between Edinburgh College of Art first year Illustration and Graphic Design students was inspired by the current exhibition ‘The International Style of Muriel Spark’, which celebrates the life and work of Muriel Spark one hundred years after she was born in Edinburgh.
Small groups of students formed a collective and worked on a series of tasks including creating a collective archive box inspired by Muriel Spark’s personal collections, the development of one character at different stages of their lives, a tunnel book in response to a piece Muriel Spark’s writing and a piece to help promote her work to a new, young audience.
Throughout the collaboration, the collectives were asked to research into the life and times of Muriel Spark, and to create different responses to their findings. The collaborative nature of the project meant that students had to find a common ground and identify common values to work with one another while delegating various tasks amongst the group.
The students attended a series of workshops and crits led by author Vivian French and artists / designers Brigid Collins, Mary Asiedu and Astrid Jaekel, which has influenced the work they have created. We are delighted to see the work displayed in the foyer of the National Library, where it will be on show until 29th May.
Our first year illustrators have taken pen to paper and made their own series of illustrated poetry while exploring inventive layout, new methods of research and experimental image-making.
Inspiration was found in different genres of poetry, such as personal, nonsensical, satirical, political, dada, surrealist and beat poetry to name a few. Illustrations were based on students own writing, some of which was generated through word games, and explored the complex relationship between word and image.
During visits to the Scottish poetry library, ECA’s artists’ books collection as well as a drawing and research trip along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile students were able to gather further inspiration and make first-hand observations which fed directly into their projects.
For many of the group the project served as a first introduction to creative writing and digital page layout. At the end of the project students were asked to submit a printed artefact which frames all the work they have done; to build a sequence or structure which communicates their creative journey.
Do you like food? Illustration? Maybe even books? Yes? Excellent – sharpen your knives and get the pans out, because our 2nd year student Liv Wan is about to publish her first cook book, Home-style Taiwanese Cooking.
Liv was born and raised in Taipei where she trained as a chef before moving to Edinburgh, where she now lives with her husband and baby. Liv’s illustration work is just as beautiful and layered as her cooking, and her book is well worth checking out for fans of illustration and food alike!
Home-style Taiwanese Cooking is out June 16th through Marshall Cavendish Cuisine, and available for pre-order from your favourite book shop.
First and Second Year students have been teaming up over the last week to produce small editions of books about Edinburgh’s famous Grassmarket as part of a collaborative book project between the Illustration Students at Edinburgh College of Art and Analogue Books to celebrate Book week Scotland.
Julie from Analogue Books did a splendid job of starting off our students last Wednesday and Thursday by showing them around her shop, and it has been very exciting to see their projects develop from early sketches and location drawings into fully fledged books and zines.
Come along at 2.30pm tomorrow, Friday 29th November for the book launch and students’ presentations in room 2.13 of Evolution House – samples of the books will be on display at Analogue Books from Saturday 30th November until Saturday 7th December. Come and have a look!
