This Thursday evening, 23 January, Eric Kindel will join Fraser Muggeridge and Tom Bloor for a discussion and tour of nearly five decades of posters designed for Modern Art Oxford, now on show in ‘Notice! Modern Art Oxford in Print’. Details here … see you there!
Author: Test User
Funding for doing a PhD
Typography is part of the AHRC Doctoral Training Centre, Design Star.
Design Star invites applications for full- and part-time Arts and Humanities Research Council studentships which include fees and a stipend.
Find out why you should join us, and how to apply at www.designstar.org.uk
Design Star brings together world-class research in design for industry, interaction design, design process, communication design, sustainable design design history, curation and creative practice. Its spread of design disciplines is linked by a common approach to research that encourages the integration of history, theory and engagement.
Design Star research training is innovative, stimulating and relevant supported by a broader range of expertise and covering more methods than within any one single institution.
Funding for up to 12 PhD studentships is available for 2014/15.
The deadline for applications is Friday 28 February 2014.
Recent student awards
We are very pleased to note recent awards to students in Typography & Graphic Communication.
Chancellor’s Awards
Undergraduates Kate Goudsmit and Rob Lowe, currently in their final year of study, together with Ryan Lee and Peter Loveland, in their second year, all received the Chancellor’s Award for their overall performance in the academic year 2012–13. Sir David Bell hosted the award ceremony on Monday (25 November) and commended their high achievement. Award winners received a commemorative book featuring short interviews with each recipient.
Warm congratulations to our four winners!
- Rob Lowe and Kate Goudsmit with Sir David Bell.
Sign Design Society
Undergraduate Emily Whiteside, currently in her final year of study, was awarded a commendation for her submission to the Student Work category of the annual Sign Design Society awards. The submission was her ‘Designing a journey: the Chatsworth Shuttle’ project, completed under the direction of project tutor Sara Chapman. In their comments, the judges praised ‘the expertise and evident quality of the solution’, which involved the design of a map and timetable for the Chatsworth shuttle bus service, deployed as a poster, flyer, and downloadable app.
Also receiving a commendation was MA Information Design student Joan Zalacain for his map of Amsterdam’s tram system, created during his studies at Reading in 2012–13. In their remarks on his design, which emphasized the location of barriers at system access points, the judges noted that ‘the graphic solution had been carefully thought through and the result was functional and stylish.’
Warm congratulations to Emily and Joan, too!
Success for Vermillion
Typography alumna Anne Brady’s company, Vermillion, has scooped success at the annual Institute of Designers of Ireland by winning not one, but two awards in the digital category.
The two winning apps come from the two ends of Vermillion’s client spectrum. The first explored the fascinating world of singer-songwriter Pierce Turner and concentrated on the writing and production of his much-acclaimed song Snow, from his album Songs for a Very Small Orchestra. The second win was in the academic area and is called Books of Dublin. It showcases a selection of rare books from two of Dublin’s most renowned antiquarian libraries and includes commentaries from leading academic specialists. You can download both free to your iPad from the App Store.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, IDI President Andrew Bradley said that the awards “further demonstrate the impact of design in the area of new media. It proves beyond doubt how creative design skills can add value and indeed change the dynamics within the exciting and constantly developing field of digital communications and marketing.”
Visit from Mushashino Art University
Marking the University’s new connection with the Mushashino Art University of Tokyo, two staff members and four students visited the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication for an intensive week of typeface design. The group, led by Reading alumnus Professor Yoshiro Goto of the Visual Communication Design Department, used their time in Reading to conclude a collaborative project devised by Prof. Goto and Gerry Leonidas, and delve deeper into the Department’s research-informed approach to typographic practice. Their schedule combined dedicated sessions, as well as shared tutorials and seminars with current BA students. The group also took part in sessions of particular interest by Professors Michael Twyman and Gerard Unger. Assisting generously throughout the week were fellow alumni Julian Moncada and Toshi Omagari (also a MAU alumnus).
Design Star: funding for research students
We are delighted to announce the success of the Design Star Consortium, one of AHRC’s new Doctoral Training Centres. Along with design departments at Brighton, Goldsmiths, Loughborough and the OU, we have secured funding to support around 60 PhD studentships over the next five years.
CIDR out and about
The Department’s Centre for Information Design Research (CIDR) has popped up in a couple of places on the web, recently.
You can see a talk by Alison Black to Oxford Academic Health Science Network on the Centre’s projects on the design of information for dementia care here.
And you can read Alison discussing the communication of uncertainty in meteorological forecasts here as part of CIDR’s NERC-funded collaboration with the University’s Departments of Meteorology and Psychology.
More about both at CIDR’s blog
Standing out from other graduates
Professional assignments – ‘real jobs’ – are a special part of our BA programme, and get the thumbs up from graduate Laura Slater in this month’s Creative Review. Real jobs were “totally worth it. It did seem a lot of effort sometimes but it boosted my confidence at pitching and my experience has made me stand out from other graduates.”
Monologue explanations
Students in the Department are used to discussing design issues with staff in small groups, or one-to-one settings. This allows us to adapt to the students’ experience and perspective, and gives us the opportunity to build a lesson around investigation and inquiry. But sometimes we have to address large audiences, and build explanations for unfamiliar listeners. In most cases our students don’t witness this side of our work.
Although more lectures are captured than ever before, it is often the case that the camerawork is not great, or – more often – the audio is lacking. Fortunately, the good people at Besquare did a great job at the Ampersand Conference in Brighton. The just-uploaded lecture by Gerry Leonidas on Vimeo is an excellent introduction for new students on the kind of monologue they are unlikely to experience in the Department.
2013 Monotype Studentship goes to Slovenian student
This year’s Monotype Studentship, awarded to an incoming MA student through the generosity of Monotype Imaging Ltd, has been awarded to Slovenian student Teja Smrekar, who will study Typeface Design. Teja receieved her first degree in Fine Arts from the University of Maribor, where her dissertation topic was ‘The socially engaged poster’. Teja has developed an interest in typeface design and attended workshops run by Gerry Leonidas and Reading alumna Veronika Burian. In her professional practice she has designed poetry books, an identity for the Association of Slovenian Artists, and has exhibited her work at EDUZGRAF in Zagreb, Croatia.
Dan Rhatigan, Type Director at Monotype, said ‘We selected Teja because of her overall enthusiasm and particularly her research interests in the Cambodian Khmer script. It’s always our hope that the Monotype Studentship will encourage the student who benefits from the opportunity and enable them to contribute to the wider body of typographic knowledge.’
Paul Luna, Head of Department, said ‘The support of industry partners is vital to allowing students from all over the world to study at Reading, and we are very grateful to Monotype for this continuing generous contribution to design education.’