Never mind the heat, I spent three hours trawling the halls of New Designers part one at the Islington Business Centre. By the end I was thoroughly exhausted (I’m 39 weeks pregnant today) but excited, as always, by all the fabulous graduate designers I discovered. I’ll be covering my favourites in a few separate blog posts: first up, abstract textile and surface design, in a celebration of the many dashing variations of this forward looking and vibrant theme.
At London College of Communication I adored painterly abstracts by Laura Worrall, adapted for use on a variety of mediums, including textiles and tiles.
Miriam Bridson put on another beautiful display of bold abstract design.
Aisha Khan at Bucks New University created an intriguing metallic wall installation.
Bold brights were put together in this strong wall display by Alice Ward.
Next up, I really liked this ‘Soft Bling‘ collection of digitally printed designs on crepe satin and cotton drill by Logan Kelly at Falmouth University. The broad strokes and zingy colours have a hint of the 80s and I loved the fresh use of white.
I always look forward to seeing the work of Leeds College of Artgraduates.
This year I particularly loved the great colours and shapes of Jenna Coulthard who was given a Tigerprint Golden Ticket to come show her portfolio and also recommended for her use of colour by Global Color Research. I am not surprised she got so much attention!
Marvellous patterns by Benjamin Craven made for a strong collection.
These juicy colours are by Jessica Taylor.
And brilliant splashes are by Sarah Gibson.
Beautiful textural copper filigree weave in rainbow colours is by Laura Elizabeth Coles of Central Saint Martins.
Georgia Fleck created unique carpet designs. Make your own combination with the pieces!
Natasha SamaSuwo at Glasgow College of Art made a series of lovely delicate collages, showcasing the resulting prints on some fab photo collages.
Love the zingy colour combo! Textiles by Caitlin Miller at Duncan of Jordanstone.
Designs by Shauna McGregor called to mind the 80s with their neon exuberance: overall the standard of design coming out of the Scottish colleges was exceptional throughout the show.
Elidh Howie specialised in metallic 3D accessories design for handbag applications. Very slick and professional.
At Swansea College of Art Chloe Pullin combined all sorts of techniques to create a fabulous wall of her designs – as you can tell I was really feeling the bright abstracts this year!
I also loved this display by Naomi France at Swansea, utilising laser etched doors that echoed her textile designs.
Anna Trainor at Ulster Uni designed optical textiles with a modernist flavour.
Anna Collins created standout textiles at Birmingham City Uni.
Finally, Jan Kingsman at Bath Spa Uni showed on the craft stand, but I thought her gorgeous textiles deserve to appear in this blog!
All of these images first appeared on the New Designers instagram feed (they very kindly asked me to guest post a favourite selection from both part one and part two of the show) or on my own my instagram feed: follow me there to catch my discoveries as I make them!
Categories ,Aisha Khan, ,Alice Ward, ,Anna Collins, ,Anna Trainor, ,Bath Spa Uni, ,Benjamin Craven, ,Birmingham City Uni, ,Bucks New University, ,Business Centre, ,Caitlin Miller, ,Central Saint Martins, ,Chloe Pullin, ,Duncan of Jordanstone, ,Elidh Howie, ,Falmouth University, ,Georgia Fleck, ,Glasgow College of Art, ,Global Color Research, ,Golden Ticket, ,Islington, ,Jan Kingsman, ,Jenna Coulthard, ,Jessica Taylor, ,Laura Elizabeth Coles, ,Laura Worrall, ,Leeds College of Art, ,Logan Kelly, ,London College of Communication, ,Miriam Bridson, ,Naomi France, ,Natasha SamaSuwo, ,New Designers, ,Sarah Gibson, ,Shauna McGregor, ,Soft Bling, ,surface design, ,Swansea, ,Swansea College of Art, ,textiles, ,Tigerprint, ,Ulster Uni
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