Graduating to the FAB gallery: Design students showcase end of year work in ‘Text and Texture’
Floyd RobertWhat: Bachelor of Design Graduate Show 2017
Where: FAB Gallery
When: Now — April 8
Tickets: Free
For those studying in the Bachelor of Design program then, the opportunity of free reign offered by the annual graduation show is a welcome breath of fresh air.
The Bachelor of Design Graduate show is one of the sole opportunities for students in both the Visual Communication Design (VCD) and Industrial Design (ID) programs to showcase works featuring their own personal intentions and visions. This year’s showcase is titled Text & Texture, and as fifth year Industrial Designer, Chad Hore explains the show is aimed at unifying both sides of the design program and giving student works a platform they typically don’t get.
“(This show) is an opportunity for VCD and ID students to showcase their work together,” he says. “(But) it’s also really the only public opportunity we get to showcase our work.”
This union of VCD and ID artists and their works doesn’t disappoint. Text & Texture houses a variety of pieces from 32 designers in the Bachelor of Design program including: Hore’s minimalistic functional “Modern Coffee Table,” the detailed modernistic “HUB Mall Signage Project” by Dane Santos, Jenna Mclean’s topography-aesthetic “Topography Lamp,” and Ashna Jacob’s effectively minimalist “Brand Loyalty Brand.” With the show containing the works of so many different designers, and without the need to fit into any explicit theme, the works are both diverse and cohesive, as Hore explains.
“The idea behind Text & Texture as well is to just bring together the two sides of design under a unifying theme … it’s this idea that it’s the final step of our degree where we get to share what are considered to be some of our best pieces with the public and friends and family,” Hore says.
This fusion is also represented in one of the works of Visual Communications Designer Dane Santos’ “HUB Mall Signage” group project, which involved the creation of a new visual signage system to update the outdated signage present in the HUB Mall building. Drawing on user heavy aesthetics, Santos placed a lot of emphasis on accomplishing effective communication in her work.
“A lot of my design work relies on the importance of effective communication,” Santos says. “I didn’t realize how hard it is to effectively communicate, you think making a poster is a lot more simple than it is, but it isn’t.”
Also, with the show being an opportunity for students to display their best works, personal themes and experiences are prevalent throughout.
“I think, all of us get into design to solve problems,” says Industrial Designer Jenna Mclean. She takes this idea to heart, exploring the process of seeing things in a new light or innovation in processes through her work. Her line of jewelry created out of recycled skateboards is an efficient example.
Hore follows up on Mclean’s sentiment, stating that being in design has “given (him) a greater knowledge of the ways (he) can apply problem-solving skills.” His minimalist steel coat racks, involves a bit of this exploration, as it was his first time using a lazze, and had to do some milling to do complete the metal joints, he explains. Also, his red coffee table, an exploration of Kareem Rasheed’s furniture, which used repeated forms of plywood, attempts to solve the problem of fusing functionality with design, as he includes the element of motion with the sliding wheels along with the grand design of the repeated plywood.
Text & Texture captures the innovations of the U of A’s student designers and possesses a diversity of artistic vision that is sure to compel when experienced. As each student prepares to finish their degrees, their works displayed in FAB marks the opportunity for their personal explorations to shine through without restriction. This final freedom shows that truly the sky is the limit.
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