Live projects

It has been a very busy term in the Red Shed, amongst many things we have run 2 live projects. The first of these has been with Dulux. Our 2nd year print and surface design students have been working with the Dulux Colourfuture17 trends and developing wallpaper and other interior modules and materials inspired by the themes and colour palettes. A challenging first project for our 2nd years as they get to grips with more key technical processes associated with their disciplines.

Last week two members of the Dulux team, Marianne Shillingford and Emily Simpson came for a series of student presentations.

The work was then set up for an exhibition in our gallery space at Bucks New Uni.

First weeks for the first years

We've had the first 6 weeks with our first year students. Its been a lot of change and a lot of new things to learn. Drawing and developing methods of recording what we see are essential, so much of the first year is about exploring new techniques including drawing. With a visit to Wembley stadium, a digital printing company and lots of studio workshops it has been a busy term so far.

We have a Winner!

Congratulations to third year student Zeba Safdar on winning the Eastpak competition! A fantastic achievement.

Tent at the London Design Fair

Our graduates stand at Tent last week in London. A very professional looking stand amongst many established designers. 

Red Shed Graduates at the London Design Fair

A collective of some of our recent graduates will be showing under the banner of Red Shed Graduates at this years London Design Fair this week. Go and see their work at stand G25 in hall T1 of the Truman Brewery.

Take a look inside Cover

This months Cover magazine features one of our recent Surface pathway graduates Izzy Webb and her Colour Conversion project!



The editors of the carpet and textiles focused publication picked out Izzy's graduate collection for their round-up of the best new rugs and carpets. She's also be selected to exhibit at Talent 2016, a show at Crafts Central that brings together their choice of top graduate makers, as well as featuring on the Red Shed Graduates at the London Design Fair and on the Material Lab Hub at the Surface & Materials Show in October.

Molly Hutchinson on Confessions of a Design Geek

Recent Surface pathway graduate Molly Hutchinson has been featured on one of our favourite design blogs, Confessions of a Design Geek! Go to the site to read more about Molly's project DE:HABITUATION, her views on design and her favourite colour...

Textprint winners at Premiere Vision

Not only did a number of a our graduates show in Paris this week, but we were also lucky to have two of our recent graduates exhibiting as part of Texprint at Premiere Vision. 2016 graduate Emma Kendall and 2014 graduate Emmeline Kellet (graduated RCA 2016) both had their own stands at the show with the support of the Texprint organisers.

 Emma Kendall printed textiles setting up ready for the show.

Emmeline Kellet graduate from Bucks and the RCA. Knitwear.

Graduates exhibit at Premiere Vision Designs

This week saw a group of our recent graduates exhibit their work at one of the worlds leading trade fairs for fashion and textiles at Premiere Vision in Paris. The students showed alongside established textile design houses to an international audience.

 Set up day at Premiere Vision. Monisha Hussain and Roma Arora busy preparing.

The stand.

Indesign annual report

We're delighted to announce that we've been included in the Indesign annual report on the art school shows of 2016!




Illustrations by our recent graduates Emma Kendall, Monisha Hussain, Sheroze Iqbal and Phoebe Edwards were selected to help show the level of excellence and achievement being produced on our course.

Dulux Colour Futures 2017

It might only be a brief pop-up of a show but Dulux launched their Colour Futures trends this week and they look certain to be useful for the year to come. Myself and 2 of our recent Surface graduates worked on the Material Lab 'Think Space' room which bought the trends to life with fitting materials.



The trends come about as a result of lots of research by the Dulux colour team who get together earlier in the year to discuss human lifestyle trends and then figure how they relate to our built environments and with it, the colours that inhabit them.



There is always a Colour of the Year and in 2017 Dulux predict that we'll all be going blue, using Denim Drift and it's associated pallet in our homes and places of work. We'll see how our students take to this and the 4 other trends when we introduce our live project later in the year.

Get Voting!

Earlier in the summer Zeba Safdar was a finalist in the Eastpak Wildcard competition. The site is now live for the public vote. There is a fantastic film with Zeba talking about her inspirations and process and some great images. Please follow the link to support this fantastic entry. 

http://artiststudio.eastpak.com/wildcard/zeba-safdar

Graduation 2016!

We had a wonderful day yesterday with many of our graduates. They all looked great and lovely to see so many of their family and friends supporting them! Well done everyone!

Sheroze Iqbal and course leader Rosie Cate

Roma Arora and Rosie Cate

Phoebe Edwards

Colour & Vision - Natural History Museum

The summer is always a great time to get out and about and the Natural History museum never disappoints when seeking out inspiring exhibits and artefacts, even without the ticketed shows. However, the current Colour & Vision exhibition, which runs until 6th November, is well worth a look. It charts the development of sight and with it the need for innovations in colour within the natural world with some amazing specimens and chromatic delights ranging from 565million years ago to the present day.

Designer/maker placements

Continuing with the theme of work experience, two knit students spent time with designers at Cockpit Arts in London.
Frankie Horsfield a final year knit student worked with knitwear designer Carlo Volpi http://carlovolpi.co.uk, working on a concept garment which will be exhibited in Italy in conjunction with Italian Vogue.
This was a very hands on role, knitting structured panels and working on garment construction.

Lucy Minty who is just about to start her second year as a knitted textile student, worked with Zoe Miller assisting with accessory production for Autumn/Winter 2016.

Work Experience

 During the summer many of our students undertake work experience. Isabelle Jolliffe who will be starting her final year in September has been to Timorous Beasties for a great placement. Read her full interview with The Bucks Graduate http://thebucksgraduate.com/2016/08/23/isabelle-jolliffe/

Graduates help out at Material Lab

Over the summer 2 of our Surface Design Graduates have been helping out at London based material resource studio Material Lab. They've been drafted in to specifically assist with the launch of Colour Futures 17 - the amazing colour trend forecast that Dulux put together every year (and that our current students will be working with in a live project later in the year.)

The colours for the year to come are currently under lock and key so we can say no more, however they will be revealed at the CF17 show which will take place at 33 Fitzroy Square between Sept 6-8th 2016...keep your eyes peeled for more in the coming weeks!

Surface & Materials Show

As well as planning the academic year ahead I've also been working on an exciting industry project over the summer. I am heading up the design and curation of the Material Lab hub at this years Surface and Materials Show which will take place in NEC, Birmingham between 18-20th October.

The 125m2 space will be home to the staged seminar area, a live making space as well as an exhibition of some the leading surface materials around. Keep your eyes peeled for the fully revealed line-up in the coming weeks...

Designs off to Mood Brussels

The work of Phoebe Edwards and Georgia Cleeves has been selected to be exhibited as part of the innovation platform at Mood Brussels. http://www.moodbrussels.com/en @trendeaseintl
Sept 6- 8th. A trade show for materials, innovation, windows, wallpaper and moodyarns.

http://phoebeprim.tumblr.com

                                            http://georgiacleevesknitdesign.tumblr.com

Eastpak Wildcard Competition.

Current student Zeba Safdar is one of three finalists for the Eastpak Wildcard Competition. So we lookfoward to finding out how she gets on!

Eastpak Artist Studio is a joint initiative of the lifestyle brand Eastpak® and the charity organization Designers Against AIDS. Each year, a selection of the world’s most inspired designers are invited to apply their creative vision to transform for free a blank Eastpak® backpack into a unique work of art. All creations are subsequently auctioned off for charity. 

Zeba Safdar http://www.artsthread.com/profile/zebasafdar1/#next

Hand and Lock Prize for Embroidery Finalist.

Lottie Grierson has been selected by Hand and Lock as one of this years Embroidery finalists.
Her specialism is knitted textiles with a keen interest in embellishment techniques. All the finalists now have two months to develop their proposed idea for the final judging.
http://www.handembroidery.com/hand-lock/

Sustainable Thinkers Top 10 UK Graduates

Following on from success at the Creative Conscience Awards. Polly Redfern has been selected as one of 10 top Graduates by WGSN as a 'Sustainable Thinker'.

Publicity for our soon to be Graduates 2016

Georgia Cleeves and Anni Tavener have both been spotted by interior style blog designsoda.co.uk
http://designsoda.co.uk/designers-shows-2016/#more-8597 follow the link for the full feature.

Anni Tavener

....and it still keeps coming

More appreciation of our final year students form industry professionals.