The standard of the 2014 degree show was high but some designers had particularly creative formats alongside sleek, well thought out displays.
Stephanie Lawton
Stephanie presented a wide variety of work and utilised a limited colour palette well to highlight material qualities and form a cohesive collection. Her wooden ladder formed a focus for professional display and made it easy for viewers to visualise products in their homes. The wallpaper was most visually engaging; the single colour focuses attention on patterns which emerge depending on your distance from the work. Fabric swatches were shown in small ringed books, which are a good way to show ideas to clients. Pantone references mean colours could be easily recreated. Context images showed ideas well, though some edges were uneven.
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| Stephanie Lawton detail |
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| Stephanie Lawton presentation |
Jessica Brown
Jessica created an eye-catching, shop-like world filled with designs on various products; this successfully demonstrated her prints' versatility. Her colours are appealing and on trend, but experimenting more with scale could yield more interesting results. A business card on her portfolio linked it with her collection; this made it easy to find. Branding work with a logo gave it a professional identity. Each sketchbook page is composed carefully with white borders left around drawings; they are visually appealing and each can be appreciated individually. I need to apply this to my drawings as they tend to be crowded; by spacing them out each one receives attention.
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| Jessica Brown |
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| Jessica Brown 'shop' (left), notebooks and folio (right) |
Emily Woods
There was a good range of drawings and design ideas in Emily's portfolio and she used a variety of media to achieve this. Simple marks worked well, especially when used at different scales. The large scale drawing is amazing, using bold, pure colour. Selective foiling on fabric adds a glamorous touch and contrasts well with background colours. This caught my attention from across the room, and I could use foiling to show contrast and make designs stand out. Presenting scarves in front of wallpaper works well; it demonstrates a wider range of colour, and shows how wallpaper could coordinate with other designs.
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| Emily Woods scarves and wallpaper |
Tamara Andric
Tamara's colours are beautiful and clear, (achieved by hand-dyeing threads) co-ordinate well and have been used in interesting proportions. Textural variation is impressive, but doesn't distract from the sense of colour and movement. The display is simple but allows samples to be seen in different contexts. Tamara's sketchbook is well laid out, and boards are well done, with images grouped creatively. Her photographs are of professional quality, so including enlargements would show off the detail in her work to its fullest. Having photos of different samples on one sheet demonstrates how they work well as a collection. Presenting colour ideas with a stripe, photograph, setting and palette shows her good eye for colour, and this preparation comes across in her final pieces.
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| Tamara Andric samples and display |
