SDC global design competition: UK final

Nancy Taplin, of Colchester School of Art (pictured back row, third from left), was one of six finalists to beat over 80 students from around the country to make it through to the UK final of our global design competition last Friday in Bradford. At the awards dinner on Friday night, she was announced as the UK country winner.
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Earlier in the day, the six UK finalists met with the judges to discuss colour and sustainability in their designs (as per the brief). Impressed by the level of the entries, the judges (L-R pictured in front row) – Natasha Kerr (textile designer), Malcolm Campbell (chair) (Holland & Sherry) and Allanna McAspurn (Made-By) – had a tough time choosing a UK winner. Of the winner's work, they commented, 'Nancy used digital printing for her fabrics, with patterns that were designed, scaled and cut in a way that ensured little or no wastage of fabric.'

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Each of the students' entries who made it through to the UK final are profiled here, some of which will now also have a chance to be showcased at Graduate Fashion Week in collaboration with Fashioning an Ethical Industry.
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LONDON: Nancy Taplin, Colchester School of Art

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MIDLANDS: Samantha Metcalf, Loughborough University
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N ENGLAND: Judith Nunn, University of Huddersfield

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N IRELAND: Aiofe Twomey, National College of Art and Design

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SCOTLAND: Alice Snedden, Edinburgh College of Art
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W ENGLAND,S WALES:Harriet Curtis,Winchester School of Art

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All the finalists were present at the awards dinner, where they were presented with a gift from the NCS Colour Centre by the SDC president (pictured below).

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Nancy will now go forward, along with the other country finalists, to the grand final in India at the end of June where the winner will be announced on 26 June in Goa (which coincides with the SDC conference, with the theme of sustainability). The details of the 10 country finalists will be announced soon.

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by CMcN

Music and colour as compositions

Image (c) Kevin Laycock

Since the time of Aristotle – who famously ascribed colours to the individual notes of the music scale – artists, writers and musicians have explored the relationship between music and visual perception. One such artist is Kevin Laycock, a lecturer at the School of Design at the University of Leeds, who in his previous work engaged a rigorous approach to colour theory (see his gallery in issue 1 of the SDC online journal Colour: Design & Creativity here).

In his new artworks, he has produced a show that aligns the theory of music with the colour scale. The exhibition entitled entitled ‘Collision’ features abstract paintings and digital projections, produced with the composer Michael Berkeley. Kevin’s visuals will form a digital wallpaper based on the formal elements of composition found in the accompanying musical scores before the composer replies in turn with four electronic responses – his first serious compositions for electronic and electro-acoustic instruments.

Michael Berkeley explains, ‘Kevin painted several oils but also decided to create computer-generated patterns to rhythmic and individual lines in several of my pieces. The work, which lasts 45 minutes, can be played with live musicians or recorded sound but, either way, the pieces are linked and surrounded by new electronic sounds created by me in response, as it were, to Kevin’s response to the original pieces.’

The live premiere of Collision takes place on Sunday 26 April as part of Fuse Leeds. The exhibition then continues at Gallery Oldham, Oldham, until 27 June 2009.

by CMcN