News magazine from the University of Wolverhampton

School of Art AND DeSigN

fresh

Animation • Applied Arts • Computer Games Design • Fashion and Textiles • Fine Art • Graphic Communication • Illustration • Interior Design • Photography • Product Design • Video & Film Production • Visual Communication

Spring/Summer 2013

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Welcome...Message from the Dean

Welcome to the new edition of Fresh, the School of Art & Design newsletter.

In October our graduating postgraduate students held their MA Show at The Public in West Bromwich. The exhibition is a culmination of the work undertaken by our students over the course of their studies and is an opportunity for us to celebrate their talent before they launch themselves into their careers. If you didn’t make it to the show, you can see highlights on pages five to eight.Also inside we’ve got all the latest news and success stories from our students, graduates and staff. I hope you enjoy it.

Dr Bryony ConwayDean – School of Art & Design

Upcoming events:

University Open Days

Saturday 6 OctoberSaturday 17 NovemberSaturday 9 March Saturday 15 JuneSaturday 17 Augustwww.wlv.ac.uk/opendays

Focus on Imaging

Sunday 3 – Wednesday 6 March www.focus-on-imaging.co.uk

Degree Show

Saturday 1 June – Friday 7 Junewww.wlv.ac.uk/artanddesign

New Designers

Wednesday 26 – Saturday 29 Junewww.newdesigners.com New Blood

Tuesday 2 July – Thursday 4 Julywww.dandad.org/talent/new-blood

Schools and Colleges Degree Show Tours

We are holding tours of our Degree Show exhibition exclusively for Schools and Colleges on Wednesday 5 June.

Please call 01902 322 058 for information.

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Front cover image:Christina Ludewig, MA Show 2012.

Welcome... School news

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A unique opportunity for young filmmakers and animators

The School of Art & Design is working with specialist arts college Thomas Adams School and Wem Town Hall in Shropshire to help develop the next generation of British film industry talent as part of an innovative new project: the national BFI Film Academy West Midlands.

The lead body for film in the UK, the British Film Institute (BFI), has launched the new programme to bring significant investment into talent and career development opportunities for young people, in both rural and urban areas of the region.

The new programme, which launched in January 2013, involves specialist media organisations from all over England running the new Film Academies for 16-19 year olds.

BFI Film Academy West Midlands recruited 35 of the region’s most promising young creatives to take part in the 8-week specialist programme with a focus on animation. There are two groups, one in Wem, Shropshire and one in Wolverhampton, and all participants have access to the University of Wolverhampton and Wem Town Hall’s specialist resources.

The Academy will cover everything from film history and theory, how to develop ideas and scripts, sound design and music, pitching and presenting, to practical animation techniques, editing and special effects. Participants will have the opportunity to work with support from University lecturers and media arts staff at Thomas Adams School, recent animation graduates and award-winning film and animation professionals.

Upon completion, participants will have a comprehensive understanding of animation (both art form and industry); will have made a short animation, and their achievement will be recognised with a certificate awarded by the University. In addition, learners can undertake an Arts Award and, most importantly, they will be one of the select few who have graduated from the new BFI Film Academy – and that’s great for their portfolios, UCAS statements and CVs.

Ross Winning, Leader in Digital Media from the University’s School of Art & Design, said: “We’re delighted to be offering this great opportunity for young people to

develop new skills that could set them on the path to an exciting career in the film industry.

“The University has excellent specialist facilities and a long history of success in this area. Our experienced and award winning animation staff are looking forward to working with the next generation of animation stars.”

Recent events

A Kaleidoscope of Imagery: exhibition of work from Bishop Walsh Catholic School

The School of Art & Design collaborated with Bishop Walsh Catholic School in December last year to hold an exhibition of student work at the University.

The sixth form students’ work was on display in the Ed Bird Gallery and recreation social space for two weeks.

Patricia Cooper, Associate Dean of the School of Art & Design, told us: “This exhibition is the first of what we hope will be many touring exhibitions at the School. We are committed to working with local schools and colleges to help promote art and design within the curriculum and to support the future lifestyle and career aspirations of students.”

Mr Taylor, Head of Art at Bishop Walsh Catholic School said: “Our students are highly motivated and hard-working. They have produced a range of outcomes in different media and styles. Their efforts are evidenced through the work on display.”

Creative short coursesThe School of Art & Design is holding 10-week creative short courses in jewellery-making, computer games design and life drawing which started in February.

The short courses are ideal for either complete beginners or more experienced practioners. Students are able to work at their own pace and take full advantage of our specialist facilities and expert tuition.

Taking a short course is ideal if you want to:

• tryyourhandatanewskill• brushuponanoldhobbyandrefresh

your skills • buildonyourcurrentpractice• developexpertisetohelpstartyourown

business • reviewyourcareer• buildaportfolioforcollegeorwork.

For more information about our short courses, email: marek.hornak@wlv.ac.uk

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Clothes Show Live 2012

The Fashion and Textiles team exhibited at Clothes Show Live last December, with our final year students presenting their new collection in the catwalk show.

Each year the students research trends and design and make a range of garments specifically for the event.

This year the students’ collection was named Aegis meaning ‘under the protection of a powerful, knowledgeable, or benevolent source’.

The clothing was edgy, sharp and structured to summarise the group’s thoughts on ‘protection’. They explored the contrast between soft and hard, fluid and rigid, cocooned and draped, through architectural, sculptural silhouettes. An edgy obscurity reinforced the theme of protection through the use of dark metallic, embellished and textured fabrics.

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Exhibition of glass art

Renowned Chinese artist and graduate of the University of Wolverhampton Professor Zhuang Xiaowei, held an exhibition Poetics of the Handmade at Wolverhampton Art Gallery last November.

Dr Bryony Conway, Dean of the School of Art & Design, organised the new exhibition. She said: “Zhuang Xioawei has had a major impact both on glass art and the glass industry in China. His beautiful and evocative art work has influenced a generation of young Chinese glass artists. At the same time he has nurtured small enterprises in China to develop glass giftware.”

Zhuang Xiaowei is Director of The Glass Studio at the Fine Arts College of Shanghai University, which has won global recognition for its achievements, and he has held exhibitions of his glass art in Hong Kong, Osaka, Munich, London and New York.He was also the Founding Director of the Shanghai Museum of Glass, the first contemporary glass museum in China.

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MA Show Showcasing talent

The School of Art & Design held its annual MA Degree Show in The Public Gallery, West Bromwich for the second consecutive year last October.

The exhibition was a culmination of the excellent work undertaken by the graduating Master’s students over the last year or two and shows the diversity of creative thinking, skills and professional approach to practice that they have achieved in that time.

Both full-time and part-time students have come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to contribute to the debates and extend their individual practices, with a good proportion of international students to offer enriched cultural understandings of art and design.

It was a particularly lively show from the three courses of Fine Art, Digital and Visual Communications and Design and Applied Arts, with multi-disciplinary work ranging from painting, sculpture, print, illustration and photography to audio-visual pieces, animation, glass work and installation.

Prof Dew HarrisonAssociate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies

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01 Gareth Jukes02 Laura Morgan03 Ashley Purmessory04 Andreas Olymbios05 Richard Anthony Woad06 Laura Morgan07 Julia Rowley08 Rachel Lambourne09 Everlyn Nyangiro (PhD student)10 Mirja Peters11 Fred Perry Munnelly12 Christin Bourjau13 Christin Bourjau14 Sven Jaeger15 Annette Pugh (Artist in Residence)16 Patrycja Grzywaczewska

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Top awards for student film-makersTwo projects by School of Art & Design students were successful at the regional Royal Television Society (RTS) Student Awards 2012 last December.

Filmmakers Phil Noakes, Daniel Anderson, Jamie Campbell and Jannicke Mikkelsen were victorious in the Fiction category for their short film Shoeless. While Jamie

Cartwright clinched the top award in the Animation category for his piece Cecil the Cat Burglar.

The awards recognise the best audiovisual work created by students as part of their course and the Wolverhampton students were up against nominees from universities and colleges from across the Midlands.

The winners will go forward to the national competition with the other regional winners, and if successful will be invited to the National Awards in London in Spring 2013.

Director-Producer of Shoeless, Phil said: “We are all ecstatic to have won this award. The film was a great project to work on as part of my University work, and it’s really exciting to have been recognised in this way.”

Jamie told us: “I’m thrilled to have received the RTS Student award. Working on Cecil the Cat Burglar was really enjoyable but

it also provided valuable experience of working on a live project.”

Tracy McCoy, course leader for BA (Hons) Video and Film Production, added: “We are proud of all our nominees and particularly pleased for Phil and his team. The opportunity the RTS Gala Awards offers for students and staff to network with broadcast industry professionals and their contemporaries from other universities is invaluable. This is the second time we have won in this a category and we look forward to extending the breadth of our submissions in future years.”

Steve Arnott, course leader for BA (Hons) Animation said: “A win at the national RTS could lead to a BAFTA nomination – BAFTA winners are automatically put forward for the Oscars. I may sound far-fetched, but that’s how Nick Park ended up with his first Oscar. Jamie’s film Cecil the Cat Burglar has huge commercial potential and I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more of him in the future.”

Student focus

Student World AIDs Day poster display

Eight BA (Hons) Graphic Communication students studying the Applied Illustration Practice module had their work selected for display outside the Students’ Union as part of the Staff LGBT Network and Student LGBT+ Society’s 2012 World AIDs Day awareness campaign last December. The exhibition took place with the support of the University of Wolverhampton Equality and Diversity Unit and the School of Art & Design.

Martin Evans, chair of the University of Wolverhampton LGBT Staff Network, presented the brief to the 64 first-year students who took part in the design competition as part of their module. The students were asked to create a poster to promote the World Health Organisation’s World AIDs Day campaign Getting to

Zero: zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDs related deaths.

Module leader Howard Read said: “This is a great opportunity for the winning student work to be displayed and seen by the wider academic community. The students showed real commitment and engagement with this brief, creating well researched ideas and positive individual responses for this important global issue. Working to a set size and format and integrating image and creative typography will help prepare students for real client briefs and future employability.”

The eight winning entries were by: pictured clockwise top left Jordan Kendall, Lucie Williams, Stephanie Neath, Zack Sealey.Philip Whitehouse and Kyle Wright. Deanna Kitts and Gabrielle Booth (not pictured).

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Student focus

Our Visual Communications division has recently hosted a group of international exchange students for a semester exchange. We caught up with two of them to find out how they found their experience in Wolverhampton and the School of Art & Design:

Omkar Khadamkar: “I’m a semester exchange student from India. My home institute is the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). Currently it has 15 centres and I study Fashion Communication (a four-year course) at Mumbai centre. I joined the School of Art & Design for one semester as part of an exchange for my seventh semester.

“I enjoyed the exchange as it exposed me to different levels of learning, system, culture and fun. Although only short, (three and a half months) the semester exchange helped to change my perspective and view a new direction for my career. I am thankful to NIFT and the University of Wolverhampton as this experience has been really fruitful.”

Bernard Aaron Dolecki: “I study Fine Art at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred, New York. I am here in Wolverhampton on an exchange programme studying Visual Communications.

“Design has always been a type of ‘visual candy’ for me; I find it stimulating and it ignites my curiosity. I chose Wolverhampton because the programme is positive, the cost is similar, and I can of course speak the language. I’ve embarked on this adventure to analyse, conceptualize and formulate new ideas to meld with my current knowledge.

“Traveling around the United Kingdom and having the chance to meet and study with some interesting people has been both wonderful and stimulating. It has expanded my mind and has been a delightful source of inspiration; nothing short of an amazing experience.”

International student exchange

Animator’s film success

Charlotte McCabe graduated with a First in Animation in September and has since had her film: Fragmented shown on all 21 of the BBC big screens across the UK.

Fragmented is an animated documentary about bullying, where it shows the feelings of a person literally happening. Charlotte told us: “It’s to try and give a better understanding on bullying and how it affects a person; and also to show that you can get through it.”

This is the second piece of work Charlotte has had shown on the screens; she was Assistant Director and Animator on the film Overtime by Gary Jones, which was shown last year.

Fragmented also earned Charlotte a nomination in the Animation category of the regional Royal Television Society Student Awards 2012.

Charlotte is currently freelancing in an

animation studio in Glasgow and is busy working on a few commissions. She told us: “The course at Wolverhampton helped me to broaden my skills in every way and taught us all the know-how of the industry and how to go about it. I’ve been lucky to go to networking events and I’ve had work experience, which contributes to where I am today. But I can’t even go into how grateful I am to everyone on the Animation course at the University of Wolverhampton.

Next year I really want to get my Master’s in Animation, then go back into the industry or maybe branch out to lecturing. First of all however, I want to make more documentaries about weird phobias, and shine a light onto them to give people a better understanding of how they can really affect people.”

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Students get the Harry Potter Experience90 students from across the School visited the Warner Bros Studio Tour, Harry Potter Experience in London last November.The tour took them behind-the-scenes to see the detailed sets, stunning costumes, props and animatronics and provides a unique showcase of the extraordinary Brit-ish artistry, technology and talent that went into making the most successful film series of all time.

24-hour design challengeA team of BDes (Hons) Product and Interior Design students have won a 24-hour innovation challenge in France.

The students took part in Innovation 24hr held at the University’s partner institution Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées (ESTIA) in Biarritz in October.

The event is in its sixth year and invites industrial partners like Total, ERDF and Radisson to put forward a challenge to innovate their existing products and services.

This year 3,500 people took part from 40 countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Senegal, Spain, Tunisia, UK, Uruguay and USA.

The students received over 30 design briefs via a video conference on the Friday

afternoon, and chose the ‘Rowenta- The Vacuum Cleaner of 2025’ brief. They then worked through the night on the project and presented it to the audience in France via YouTube the next day.

David Henley, course leader for Product Design said: “The value of this competition to the students is enormous – it gives them an opportunity to put their design skills to the test in a ‘real world’ pressure situation.

Their design solution was both creative and innovative, using leading edge research to design a product that predicts the future of domestic appliances in the home. It addresses technical issues as well as the wider social context related to health, ecology and enhanced independent living. This was an amazing achievement and will provide them with valuable experience for their future careers in design as well as enhancing their CVs.”

The team will now see their solutions progress through to more detailed designs with their respective industrial partner.

Final year BA (Hons) Illustration student Amy Evans has won The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Young Volunteer Award 2012.This award recognises volunteers who are between 18-25 and show great potential for a future career in the NHS, or have grown in confidence considerably since volunteering.

Amy has been volunteering as part of the NHS Trust’s Patient Wellbeing and Art Activity Programme since it began two years ago. This programme is part of the Trust’s Arts in Health Service.

The programme places art volunteers on wards to facilitate regular art activities with groups of adult patients. The programme aims to improve the patient experience, promote a sense of wellbeing and support patient recovery.

Amy got involved in the project via the School’s Creative Employability Studio.

Hilary Price, Creative Employability Studio co-ordinator told us: “The School of Art and Design has partnered with this arts in health project since it started and many of the art volunteers have been recruited from here. Students have welcomed the opportunity to experience art in a health setting and get some valuable experience and training on their CVs.”Amy, who volunteers on a specialist ward at New Cross Hospital especially for patients who have dementia and complex medical needs, told us:

“I really enjoy volunteering with the project, I love engaging with the participants and seeing the

enjoyment they get out of taking part. It’s fantastic to see the impact these sessions have on a patient’s wellbeing. Often they seem challenged by the idea of doing an arts activity at first, but when they see that they have produced something at the end of it they are pleased which is great to see. Even if everybody doesn’t want to participate in the activity and would rather observe, the social atmosphere that happens in the day room is really uplifting and therapeutic.

“Over the course of the two years the programme has benefited me too. My confidence has grown massively; I get to interact with all kinds of different people and I’ve learned to work in lots of different circumstances, had the opportunity to volunteer on the children’s ward this summer, and I have had the opportunity to attend training courses whilst being part of the volunteer programme such as de-escalation training and dementia awareness.

I am coming to the end of my University course now so my ambitions are to graduate and hopefully freelance illustration. ‘I intend continuing volunteering with the project with the hospital because it’s such a fantastic place to volunteer and such a great thing for the patients to get involved in.”

Anyone interested in the art volunteer opportunity at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust please contact Hilary Price, Creative Employability Studio Coordinator call: 01902 322433 or email: h.price@wlv.ac.uk

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Amy wins The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Young Volunteer Award 2012

Fashion and Textiles live project brief with Hill & CoNovember 2012 saw the conclusion of the first of a two-part industry project brief set by Hill & Co.

Hill & Co are established industry leaders in the design, manufacture and supply of hand tufted, hand knotted and woven area carpets and rugs to the UK domestic market, and are the preferred suppliers of the giant retail group, John Lewis.

The Fashion and Textiles department has had a long and fruitful relationship with the company for many years with Hill & Co employing three graduates as full-time designers in the last four years (Sukvinder Badyal, Heather Goodwin and Katie Haycock).

This year’s design brief for the final year students concentrated on Future Design Trends, which focused on three global themes and offered a broad scope for investigation and design development.

Yve Houghton, senior lecturer in Fashion and Textiles, said: “With a six-week deadline to produce a commercially viable range of eight designs from scratch, students really had to focus on the work in hand. True to form, the students pulled out all of the stops and relished the challenge.”

Hill & Co were delighted with the creative and considered responses to the brief which resulted in highly individual design ranges. They were also impressed by the professional manner adopted by the students towards their presentations. As a result, Abbie Crane won the Enterprise and Presentation prize of £100 and several students also had their designs selected for manufacture.

Bill Hill, Managing Director of Hill & Co, said: “The standard of design this year has surpassed expectations and we are really excited by the broad range of creative options submitted. We, as a company, are interested in cutting-edge designs which are commercially viable in today’s marketplace and were delighted by the students’ detailed and informed responses to their brief.”

The second part of the design brief, which focuses on outdoor living products, was formally presented by the students to Hill & Co in January 2013.

For further information, please visit: www.hillcorugs.com

All photos © The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Final year BA (Hons) Photography student, David Shepherd has been selected to feature in FORMAT EXPOSURE 2013 in Derby from 8 March to 7 April.

FORMAT is the UK’s leading international contemporary photography festival. Since it was founded in 2004 it has grown from strength to strength.

The festival presents over 200 international artists through exhibitions, a conference, talks, tours, masterclasses, special events and participation projects.

David’s series of photographs, Discarded, was selected by open submission and will be exhibited at Déda, a unique venue located in Derby city centre offering exhibitions and a dance-focused arts programme of performances, classes and dance development activity.

Discarded takes the form of a collection

of images, each one depicting a different metallic object (or objects) that was salvaged from a stretch of canal in the Black Country. Each object is presented in a similar, ‘objective’ manner with no titles given to inspire the viewer to invest a little time on each image and consider the former uses of each object and how they came to be discarded.

“My influences for this project were artist Mark Dion, photographer Bernd Becher and even the BBC sitcom Last of the Summer Wine!

“I couldn’t be happier about being chosen for the FORMAT festival; it still hasn’t fully sunk in. I visited the previous festival with one of my classmates and I saw Joel Meyerowitz, who is one of my biggest inspirations, give a talk. I honestly never expected my work to be featured in the next one!”

To find out more about the festival, visit: www.formatfestival.com

David Shepherd Exhibition

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MA student scoops top art prize

MA Fine Art student Justyna Ptak has won the top prize in this year’s West Midlands Open Exhibition.

The West Midlands Open Exhibition is a biennial collaboration between Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, allowing artists in the region to show their work at these prestigious venues. The work on show reflects the vibrant talent of the regional art scene.

It is a hugely popular exhibition in the Art Gallery’s programme and attracted over 30,000 visitors from across the country to Wolverhampton Art Gallery in 2010. This year over 150 entrants submitted work over five categories with Justyna scooping the overall top prize.

Justyna’s photographic installation is a collection of photographs which were taken as a part of a project to challenge day-to-day experience.

She told us: “These potentially banal and trivial scenes are brought together to present a vital part of our existence which is easily passed over; abandoned non-moments which are core foundations of our realities. Signification of visual effect and nature of transparencies explore the relationship between known and unknown, thought and image.”

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From left to right: Paul Hale, Jon Rhodes, Dr Max Stewart, Dr Marta Filipova, Don Adamson, Kathryn Partington, Dr Faramarz Amiri and Dr Bryony Conway, Dean.

International Glass CollectionStuart Garfoot, senior lecturer in Applied Arts is working with Professor Zhuang Xiaowei, a postgraduate from the School and now Professor of Glass at Shanghai University, to collect an International Glass collection for the new and recently opened Shanghai Museum of Glass.

In May 2013 Simon will also have a solo exhibition of his own work at the museum.

Postgraduate Certificate successCongratulations to the following staff for completing their Postgraduate Certificates:

Welcome to new staff

Dr Christian Mieves, senior lecturer - Fine Art (Painting) Christian started with us in January 2013. He has a BA (Hons) Graphic Design from the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz (2003), and a MFA (2005) and PhD (2009) from Newcastle University. His PhD thesis was on After the Exotic: the Beach and other Heterotopias in Contemporary Art. Since then he has worked as a Visiting Lecturer at Newcastle, Sunderland, Teesside, Lincoln and at South Tyneside College.

How to use typeVisual Communications divisional leader and course leader for MA Digital and Visual Communications, Lester Meachem, and former School of Art & Design lecturer Lindsey Marshall have released a new book: How to Use Type.

The book has received impressive reviews including:

For more information please visit: www.laurenceking.com and search for: how to use type.

Staff focus

‘‘All of the important aspects are covered and visually it is the most creative book in the marketplace

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Phil Hawks, Graphic Designer and Lecturer

‘‘A must for any typographer’s library.

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Robert Newman, The Savannah College of Art and Design

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Fashion graduate hits the high streetIt’s been non-stop for Karen Perry since graduating with a First Class Honours degree in Design and Applied Arts (Textile Design) in 2011.

Following graduation Karen headed to the New Designers Exhibition in London and was recognised by Texprint as one of their top 50 ‘highly recommended’ designers for 2011.

After the success of New Designers, Karen went on to complete internships at a number of Design Studios across the UK before starting her freelance career in the fashion and interiors market; securing sales in London, Paris, New York, L.A, Italy, Turkey, Japan and China.

She then became a member of the University of Wolverhampton’s Graduate Incubation Programme (GIP). The programme works to help graduates bring their business idea to life. The programme runs for nine months and includes office space, mentoring and specialised business advice.

Karen told us: “The programme is fantastic; with like-minded graduates coming together, along with business mentoring and tailored business sessions, the scheme has provided me with a great foundation to my business. I made real contacts during my time with GIP whom I feel will assist me throughout my career.”

She is now building up her own business and online store to launch her designs and products direct to market, whilst maintaining her freelance work too.

And it’s been going very well for her so far! Karen freelances for a London studio and one of her most recent successes include Marks and Spencer’s using one of these freelance designs for the production of various outfits and accessories. The first item, a lightweight scarf with tea cup design, has already hit the British high street. One of her quirky geometric prints was also chosen by Alice and Olivia, and is now available to buy from their stores too.

Karen believes her time at the University of Wolverhampton’s School of Art & Design gave her a good footing to launch her career. She told us: “The course is extremely industry-focused, with live projects enabling students to have a real taster of the demands placed on a designer. Specific modules helped me to create my professional portfolio, essential for New Designers, and to also produce promotional packs that helped me to plan my ‘exit’ strategy!

“I would highly recommend the course to other budding designers. The lecturers and technicians were great and still are – providing me with a good sounding board to bounce ideas off and offer advice.”

Alumni success Graduates selected for emerging artists exhibition Four graduates have been selected for a multi-sited exhibition in Birmingham next year, designed to showcase quality, innovative work by the best new talent in the region.

Led by Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in partnership with the Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham and artist-led gallery and studios Grand Union, New Art West Midlands 2013 will provide a unique opportunity for recent graduates from the region to launch their careers through exhibiting at these galleries in the spring.

Following a call for applications in April last year, three nationally renowned artists/curators selected the work for exhibition. The selectors were Jeremy Millar, Artist and Tutor in Art Criticism at the Royal College of Art; Lynda Morris, Chair of Curation and Art History at Norwich University College of the Arts; and Keith Piper, Artist and Programme Leader of MA Fine Art, Middlesex University.

The programme was open to students from the West Midlands’ five university art schools, and the four students selected from Wolverhampton were Justyna Ptak, Matthew Evans, Michelle Taylor and Rashid Khan. Rashid was also one of four graduate artists who received a bursary at Grand Union.

The exhibitions will be at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Barber Institute and Grand Union, Birmingham from 15 February to 19 May 2013.

Professor Dew Harrison, Associate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Studies said,

For more information visit: http://tpwm.squarespace.com

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‘‘We are delighted to have had four of our students selected for the New Art West Midlands exhibition of the best new talent in the region. This is testament to the quality of our student work and the excellent staff support they receive. We congratulate these four emerging artists and wish them every success with their promising careers.

‘‘

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Top awards for 3D filmJannicke Mikkelsen, BA (Hons) Video and Film Production has won two prestigious awards at the International 3D Society’s Creative Arts Awards - Europe.

The awards were for best 3D film and best live-action stereography work for her film Wickie and the treasure of the Gods.

Jannicke, from Norway, said: “I am over the moon about our 3D work being recognised by the International 3D Society. My team consisted of three other stereographers and myself, who never accepted anything less than perfect work.

“Now all the work has been recognised. Not only did we win an award, we won two of the most prestigious awards a stereographer could ever dream of!”

Tracy McCoy, course leader for Video and Film Production, said: “Jannicke has always shown a keen interest in stereography and has been doing much to network and garner experience within this niche sector of the film and television industry. I always had high expectations of Jannicke and so I am not surprised that she is already making her name in this way. I’m sure she will continue to both thrive and make her mark in this competitive, challenging and ever evolving sub sector of the creative industries.”

Accolade for fashion graduateFashion graduate and former technician for our Fashion and Textiles department Tamara Joseph was named Midlands Independent Fashion Designer Of The Year 2012 at the Midlands Fashion Designer Awards last October.

Her business, Catalyst by Tamara Joseph, received support from the University’s SPEED WM programme, which helps students to set up companies alongside their studies.Since establishing her business Tamara has gone from strength to strength and plans to showcase her collection at Paris Fashion Week

in February.

Her latest accolade was for her Unorthodox Couture Collection and the award was presented at a ceremony at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.

The 16-piece womenswear and menswear collection features Grecian style outfits inspired by the film: Sex and the City II. It incorporates techniques such as prints and pleats which Tamara learned while studying for her Master’s in Art and Design (Fashion and Textiles).

Tamara said: “I wanted the collection to be spectacular, and I was ecstatic when I won. I kept saying that I wanted to win this but I went with an open mind so I wouldn’t be disappointed.

“SPEED WM was my platform and has enabled me to get to where I am today. It gave me confidence in my product and helped me to live the dream. I realised that nothing was unachievable and I am always aiming higher.

“I have drawn on the skills I learnt during my Master’s in my latest collection, such as different dying techniques.”

Tamara was presented with a glass award by Gavin Douglas from the Young British Council, who has designed clothes for celebrities such as Kelly Rowland, and she will also be exhibiting her collection in the Great Western Arcade in Birmingham.

Graduate game-makers make their mark on Apple App StoreA group of University graduates who set up their own games development company earlier this year have taken their first steps onto the Apple App Store, with a new logo quiz dedicated to gaming: Guess the Game.

VOiD Games was set up, with the help of the University, by graduates Neil Cooper, BA (Hons) Interactive Media and the Web, Chris Carter and Adam Talbot, both BSc (Hons) Computer Science and Jake Rogers, BA (Hons) Computer Games Design in 2012.

In May 2012, Jake and Neil joined the University of Wolverhampton’s Graduate Incubation Programme (GIP) which helps graduates bring their business idea to life. The programme runs for nine months and includes office space, mentoring and specialised business advice.

Chris told us: “In June we started to take advantage of the hot desk area provided to us by GIP and development started on our first apps. By August we were a registered Limited company with the help of the SPEED+ project. And in December our first app hit the app store and the reaction was very positive.”

Their new app was inspired by the flurry of logo quizzes on the App Store. This app is styled in homage to retro gaming past and is designed to quench the thirst of a gamer’s appetite for solving visual trivia. There are up to 10 levels of logos and box art from gaming past and present and a hint system to get past the most obscure logos.

Neil told us: “We are extremely proud to have our first app in the app store. The reaction we’ve had from gamers out there from all over the world has been amazing, it’s why we want to make games.

“If it wasn’t for the culmination of courses that we all studied at the University of Wolverhampton, the start-up of the company would have been a longer and much more costly process; the different areas covered by the Directors of VOiD Games really complement each other, allowing us to create products and company assets that make such a young company look, act and be professionally responsible.”

VOiD Games are already working on their next game, Galactic Rush. This is an endless runner game, where the player plays as a spaceship. The objective is to get the

ship as high as possible using power-ups, avoiding the power-downs and enemies, whilst collecting a currency called stardust to boost scores as well as upgrade the ship’s abilities.

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T. 07828 144 343 | E. design@tamarajoseph.co.uk | W. www.tamarajoseph.co.uk

LOOK-BOOK 2012/13

The new game is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2013. In the meantime, if you’re a gamer and you want to test whether your gaming knowledge is as advanced as your thumb and finger dexterity, you can download Guess the Game for free from the Apple App Store now.For further information, please visit: www.voidgames.co.uk

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