This year’s MOBO awards saw a fantastic triumph for BA Graphic Design graduates Tim Brown and ‘Us Design’ – Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor with Tinie Tempah’s ‘Frisky’ winning the best video award. Tim, who graduated from the course in 2007, was the Director of the award winning video having previously directed the video for Tinie Tempah’s single ‘Pass Out’. Joining Tim as Design Directors are graduates Chris Barrett and Luke Taylor who also teach onto the course.
Producing creative designs for large scale TV entertainment productions is a highly specialised area that requires a very different approach to designing for drama – particularly with the increasing use of technology such as LED screens in the sets. Paul Houston, a graduate from the MA Production Design for Film and TV course which deals with both aspects of screen design, is currently working as Art Director with Production Designer Patrick Doherty on some of the most high profile productions.
Patrick, pictured above on the left with Paul on a break from the studio, is one of the most experienced designers in this field in the UK. Many will be familiar with his design for Strictly Come Dancing being broadcast at the moment. Now one of several projects Paul is working with Patrick on is the forthcoming Royal Variety Performance which is due to be recorded at the London Palladium and transmitted on BBC1 in December.
Paul’s role in the past has been to do with the developmental stages of the design but now he is enjoying the responsibility of overseeing the building of the set and liaising with lighting and LED contractors and the production team.
He says of his role ‘ My favourite part will always be the brainstorming of ideas and playing with shapes and compositions, finding a strong theme and developing it…..although art directing in a studio environment comes a close second – being able to orchestrate and construct a vision which on most occasions only you and the (Production) Designer have – I think this is where the real art comes into the job!’.
Architecture alumnus Adeline de Vrij was part of a team that triumphed at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale,“People Meet in Architecture”. Adeline was project leader for the exhibition of Office KGDVS, a young Brussels based architecture practice, who received the Silver Lion for the most promising young participant of the exhibition. Office KGDVS have been invited to lecture to the School of Architecture and Landscape as part of this year’s “Thinking Building” lecture series, date to be confirmed.
Starting this month, artists from the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture and fellows of the Stanley Picker Gallery can be seen exhibiting as part of the British Art Show 7.
Duo Cullinan Richards can be found alongside previous Stanley Picker Fellows Elizabeth Price and Milena Dragicevic, the brand new fellow Matthew Darbyshire and the upcoming Muybridge in Kingston Contemporary Commission artist Becky Beasley.
The British Art Show is an exhibition of the most ambitious and influential contemporary British art from the last five years, across four UK cities. All artworks included have been produced since 2005 and encompass sculpture, painting, installation, photography, film, video and performance.
More information can be found at:
Academics from the School of Architecture & Landscape and the School of Surveying & Planning have secured a three-year, Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded by the Government’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB) worth a total value of £331K to the University.
The project is being led by Dr Stephen Pretlove, Reader in Architectural Science and Technology and Director of ArchiLab, and Miles Dobson, Chairman of the mspace Group, the company partner. The project aims to develop and embed sustainable and environmental strategies in the design, construction and management of domestic and commercial buildings. The recruitment of the two Associates is underway and the project is expected to start in mid-January 2011.
The mspace group are a multi-disciplined organisation incorporating architectural design, building construction and ownership and maintenance of a significant portfolio of domestic and commercial building stock. This makes the project unique and enables a critical investigation of the impact of sustainability in the design, construction and occupation of buildings within a single organisation. It will enable a true cradle-to-cradle approach to be developed within the group and will allow feedback mechanisms to have a real impact on the processes involved.
At a time when the film and TV industry is proving increasingly difficult to enter, graduates from the MA Production Design for Film and TV can be found throughout the industry. Seen above is recent graduate Chantelle Valentine at her desk in the Art Department of ‘My Week with Marilyn’ where she is Assistant Art Director. Set in 1956 this is a feature starring Michelle Williams and Judi Dench to be released in 2011. Chantelle is working once again with BAFTA award winning designer Donal Woods who she first worked with on Downton Abbey – another period drama set in 1912 being released late September.
Chantelle says ‘ I’ve realised that I have become the biggest geek as I have loved researching into the period props, interiors and way of life to the extent that I can write Morse Code and know how they installed a telephone in 1912!’
Since leaving the course in 2009 Chantelle has also worked on BBC comedies (Catherine Tate and Mitchell and Webb) and short films- and has even designed an advert for ’George’.
Alex Chase-White BA(Hons) Photography and Peter Georgallou BA(Hons) Fine Art, two recent graduates from the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, will be taking portraits with their unique experimental photographic device, “The Last Pigeon Instentaniomatic”, at Late at Tate this Friday 1 October 6-10pm. Their project forms part of the Muybridge in Kingston programme accompanying the first major UK retrospective of Eadweard Muybridge, currently on show at Tate Britain.
As one of the world’s most innovative and influential photographic pioneers in the 19th century, Muybridge’s extensive studies of human and animal motion played a critical role in the history of photography and the moving image. Alex Chase-White and Peter Georgallou’s intriguing ‘photocopy camera’ certainly has a distinctive Victorian flavour, with its heavy vintage camera lens at the front of the outer casing, and a host of hidden machines inside the box. The two artists designed and built their unusual device using a combination of photocopier and camera parts. The unique black and white portraits produced by the camera are created after just a few minutes and are presented to the sitters as a unique record of their visit to the exhibition.
Originally commissioned by the Stanley Picker Gallery, the “The Last Pigeon Instentaniomatic” proved a great success on the opening day of this year’s Degree Show, with staff, students and members of the public queuing up to have their portraits taken. The camera and some of the portraits taken were later exhibited as part of the Stanley Picker Gallery programme at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, as part of the International Youth Arts Festival.
For further information on the events programme visit www.MuybridgeinKingston.com