New Designs

Last week I was in London with my graduates for New Designers, at the Business Design Centre, the annual exhibition of graduate design talent from across the UK. It is a massive event which showcases some really fabulous talent. Week One of the show focusses on textiles, jewellery and contemporary applied arts.

T29 Bradford School of Arts & Media

I am so proud of all the girls and their hard work. They picked up some great press, gallery and business contacts during the week and Tiaz was a finalist in the Absolut competition - Well done girls!

Below I have included a couple of new designers that caught my eye:

Megan McGinley

Megan McGinley - 'Beyond the Sea' collection

Megan McGinley studied Jewellery and Metalwork Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. Her work has involved exploration of coastal landscapes and collected materials;

"The inspiration for this collection stems from my connection with the Scottish coast and the naturally occurring beauty that is found there. Whilst on my journeys on the Scottish coast I intuitively gathered objects, photographic evidence and also kept a travel diary of my time spent within each landscape. I discovered mirroring qualities in the objects themselves and the landscapes they were taken from. This was true for each place I visited and I found these reflective qualities fascinating and tried to identify how I could portray these differences through my designs in the final collection."

I loved the presentation of Megan's work and the way she had set up her jewellers bench in the exhibition, complete with journals and found objects; such a nice way to make the connection between artwork and making.

Natalie Ratcliffe from Leeds College of Art & Design, instantly caught my eye in the textiles section. Her surface pattern designs combine traditional printmaking, design and digital processes. Her Woodland Wall Panel with over-sized mono-print style plant print is stunning and her use of colour were right on trend. Her collection caught the eye of judges and she was awarded the John Lewis prize and the Wilkinsons award.

Natalie Ratcliffe - Gum Arabic Print

Malin Ødemark, originally from Norway, studied Textiles and Surface Design at Swansea. I was struck  by her beautiful natural dye and shibori fabrics. She also has a blog here.

Malin Ødemark

Finally I was struck by the paper designs of Abigail Udale, who works with print, collage and text. Her cheerful work inspired by letters included personalised mail and these beautiful paper jug sculptures. I thought her use of colour, text and composition was really fun and I am sure she will have lots of commercial success in the future.

Abigail Udale - display at New Designers

Abigail Udale