Inside Central Saint Martins
Words by Sophie Ronald
Graphics and Illustration has recently had quite a surge in popularity. An accessible artform you can see all over the place, popularised by the work of Kate Morros, SoMe and Justice and a bunch of others who know good design. Graphics is now officially cool, with big ‘names’ coming out of the industry like never before. As Central Saint Martins celebrates its 20th birthday we thought it only fitting to look to the preeminent art school to see what there 3rd year Graphics and Illustration students are doing as they fix up their final projects.
We caught up with 4 of CSM’s 3rd year graphics students on their return from the ‘City and Art project’ in Istanbul. There work was displayed in Istanbul and in Bishops gate Square in London, following this collaborative trip with Turkish Design students.
Jack Staniland, 22, Graphic Designer.
http://www.jackstanilanddesign.blogspot.com
Jack is one of the primo students in this year’s Graphics class having already won a much coveted D&AD award (student category), as well as having his work picked up by Trojan records. Typography is Jack’s niche; with a healthy obsession for all things type, it varies from a very colourful style with clear Ed Banger references to work that is more influenced by the world of Mod and 70s/80s Britain.
We asked Jack how he thinks graphics has progressed in recent years and this is what he had to say. “It has obviously gone down a more digital path, looking at the music industry - a 12” has gone down to 12cm to a thumbnail on the screen of an iPod. The challenge is to make something look good and stand out at that size. Other aspects such as merchandising and tours are becoming much more important graphically”.
Staniland’s classmate and several times project partner, Joeseph James Robinson, works predominately on product design, moving graphics into a 3D world to create something altogether more tangible, by using graphics to solve everyday design problems. Robinson’s work in is quite contrasting to many others emerging from the Graphics world at the moment, highlighting a playfulness and practicality in his pieces rather than a heavily digital portfolio that would often be expected from the course. As well as his furniture and artefacts Joseph has a strong body of Photographical pieces largely done in black and white with a masculine subtext. His work is full of considered pieces with subtle ideas behind them rather than an overtly ‘graphic’ style of some of the big names in the field at the moment. Instead his design rests on architectural and design knowledge and a really considered view of the idea of an ‘image’.
I talked to Joe Saul, an illustrator at the college, what he loves about working at CSM.
“I think it’s probably the variety of work that everyone produces that is the best thing about being at CSM. In Illustration everyone has there own very strong interests and styles. It’s far more interesting and worthwhile being surrounded by people who enjoy trying to think of new ways of doing things.”
Joe, 21, is a documenteer, specialising in line drawings and scratchy illustrations. These images document a subversive gothic take on the working class, dealing with the everyday in a simple way. His illustrative style is that of sketchy line drawings, as well as some beautiful letter-press prints thrown in. In Saul’s work he the naivety of the line drawings by dealing with subjects such as society’s subversives and sub-cultures. Saul’s Zine ‘Winos’ - about Winos obviously - or his prints on the Hobo code, following the disillusioned in a charming lyrical style, are typical of his look into these worlds outside of conventional society. It is not just people that Saul illustrates but architecture is also converted into distinctive illustrations with such technical skill and it isn’t a shock to hear that he is “a bit obsessed with the type of paper I use.”
Check his stuff out at http://www.joesaul.blogspot.com
As well at 2D and 3D, graphics has started making shapes in the video world with the use of moving image becoming advertising bread and butter. Another St Martins D&AD winner Sam Pilling is working within this realm; creating music videos and having his own ident bought and aired by MTV, which you can see along with the rest of his work on http://www.youtube.com/user/sampilling. Piling mixes a bit of animation with its more serious mise en scene, drawing out the serious undertones in a more stylish way and adding to the drama of his pieces without stamping around. It is this slight of hand and layers of textures within his pieces that make them exciting and put him up there in his year as doing new interesting things One of the most important textures in Pilling’s work is sound, which he works on to really get some emotion in his work. As well as sound, he is obsessed with 16mm film to achieve authenticity and longevity in his work, rather than the fleeting spontaneity of digital imagery. Focusing on the moving image, over typography or alike, is intriguing as graphics itself moves into the moving image. Pilling considers this not a sub section of the industry but rather the mainstay, “In my view, this is the medium of the future and it is evident that advertising particularly has started to take advantage of this medium - from internet virals to video billboards on the underground.”
Posted Mon, June 08, 2009