Glyndwr University At New Designers

For my last post of the week I thought I'd so a bit of a show and tell of who joined me in representing Glyndwr University at ND 2015.

As I've previously mentioned here I travelled down and stayed with fellow illustrator Jonny Garrett (JonnyMGIllustration). Jonny has been my illustration bestie from the 2nd week of uni (I avoided him during Freshers) and we spent far too many lonely Fridays as the only ones in the studio together which resulted in us having the same working process but luckily vastly different styles. I even set up his Instagram for him which you can find here (he does run it himself now!) Jonny has a really loose style of working, in watercolours and digital and has cracked editorial projects through his use of humour within his work.

Website: jonnymg.squarespace.com

Twitter: @jonnymgdraws

Instagram: jonnymgillustration

Jonny and I stayed with Tania Clarke when we went to ND who is primarily trained as a Graphic Designer. During our first year of university we had lessons with Graphic Designer under the umbrella of 'Design Communication' and even though we were eventually split up, we all remained friends and spent countless lessons shouting at each other/dancing in corridors and hovering in doorways to each others studios. Tania has a really unusual graphics style and hand draws better than some illustrators I've seen and is currently working on developing her new role as an 'illustrative graphic designer'.

Website: tclarkedesign.co.uk

Instagram: @tclarkedesign

Emma Bebbington was once told off in studio for being childish, despite being one of the eldest of the class. She is a tattoo artist who has worked in more shops in the 3 years I have known her than I can count and is currently based in Envy Ink, Liverpool. Em is a graphic novelist with a really quirky child friendly style and nails the use of a limited colour palette.

Website: emmabebbington.com

Twitter: em_doodles

Facebook: Emma Bebbington Tattoo Artist and Illustrator

Tom Dovey was the best caricature artist in our class and once drew all of us to a likeness you wouldn't believe. For our final degree show he produced a set of all 12 Doctors from Doctor Who which were so unbelievably accurate my Dad took him aside to say how amazing it was and raved about it all night. Not about his own daughter's work-cheers Father. Tom is a master of all trades and also works on comic strips, graphic novels and children's books.

Website: tomdovey.squarespace.com

Instagram: doveysdoodles

Facebook: Tom Dovey Illustrator

Albert Ing (more commonly known as Bertie) is a graphic novelist with a crazy imagination that saw him write and illustrate a story based on foxes fighting homeless people. His style is graphic and his colours are stark and eye catching-just don't involve him in a conversation about Batman because he WILL beat you. Always.

Website: albertingillustration.com

Jamie McGaw joined us in third year after completing a foundation degree and came with us down to London. Whilst being part of the illustration course, his style is very graphic and relies heavily on the use of shapes and block colour. He completed a series of work based on album covers which went down really well at ND and also did a few one off pieces to celebrate the anniversary of Alice In Wonderland.

Website: jamiemcgawillustration.com

Twitter: JM_Illustration

Facebook: Jamie McGaw Illustration

Also joining us at New Designers, as well as all the BA were 4 lovely ladies from the MA Design Practice and Art Practice courses at Glyndwr. Whilst I didn't know them personally before we went to London, we still had a really fun week together.

Adele Phillips is an illustrator and comic book artist who completed her BA in Glyndwr in Graphic Novels before taking on the MA. Adele's work is really intricate and really realistic and is often hard to work out whether they have been painted traditionally or digitally-made even more difficult when you find out she can do both!

Website: adelephillips.co.uk

Twitter: _AdelePhillips

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Joanna Clark is also taking part in the MA at Glyndwr and brought along a selection of work including a beautiful book she had created. She worked through the book using traditional materials like print and stick and ink in black and white which made the book really interesting visually and got a lot of attention. She also brought along her husband Wayne who works for the art school and kindly helped us set up the show and her adorable children!

Facebook: Joanna Clark Illustration and Print

Mellisa May exhibited one of the two installations we showed at ND which drew loads of attention at the show. For her MA she worked on a series based on invisible illnesses and created a character which embodied that idea. From that she started making more models and for ND she presented her version of the Jub Jub bird which was incredible and I will never know how she held her nerve whilst putting it up/taking it down.

Website: mellisamay.com

Twitter: @mimiillustrates

Becky Knox absolutely stole the show with her installation of Violet Small. Violet Small is a character which Becky created and wrote a story about. She lives in a lighthouse, no where near the sea and was born on a leap second on a leap minute in a leap year and this allowed her to jump through time and place. Becky created an installation including Violet Small with her pet mouse in her back pocket and a pack of little rats including lead secret keeper the King Rat, the whistle blower (and his little canary) and a swat team. They were everywhere (even hanging from the ceiling) and attracted the most fuss on the stand. Becky even held her nerve in front of all the judges and came 4th for the ND award out of 3000 students during the week!

Blog: violetsmall.blogspot.co.uk

Also from Glyndwr exhibiting at One Year On was Cosmo Mulford who graduated last year. After such a good reception at ND 2014, Cosmo was invited back to exhibit on his own and sell some of his work in the process. Cosmo's work is massively intricate and detailed and patterned and he works solely in black and white. His current project is a series of Major Arcana Tarot Cards based on traditional Japanese artistry.

Website: cosmomulfordillustration.com

Twitter: @CosmoMulford

Facebook: Cosmo Mulford Illustration

And last but not least, Stacey Jacqueline Ward who sadly couldn't come to New Designers with us but whose work was displayed anyway (read about that here!) Stace came to join us in Glyndwr after completing a foundation degree for our third year and slotted in like she'd been there from the start (we bonded over her blue hair and my pink hair on the first day). Stacey illustrates a range of work from children's books to wedding dresses and fashion but she has really found her feet with hand sewn embroidered illustrations. From flowers to buildings to cakes and teacups, Stacey has even produced 4 hand stitched books on the history of the duffle coat which was made of duffle material and bound with a toggle! Her work is 100% one off and unique to each customer.

Website: staceyjacqueline.com

Twitter: @staceyjacq

Instagram: stacejacqx

It was an absolute pleasure to spend the week with a bunch of my best friends and a whole load of talented designers representing our university.

Blogger and Illustrator

Glyndwr University At New Designers