Steven Swinney is a designer from Elgin, in Glasgow, not in London. He graduated from the Glasgow School of Art with a degree in Communication Design.

Since graduating from GSA, life has been super crazy and hectic. In the best way. Right after our Glasgow and London Degree Show exhibitions, I was employed by GSA to be in charge of coordinating and curating the Design School’s presence at the Commonwealth Games. My concept for this was an egalitarian art school which offered the public the opportunity to get involved with some of the processes involved in creative practice through a series of workshops led by graduates that I wanted involved in the project. I curated an exhibition of selected graduates’ work and this was available to buy at public-friendly prices – an attempt to further dispel the myth surrounding galleries and the cost of owning original artwork.

Since then, I have been nonstop grafting as a freelance designer, which is super, super hard work but really rewarding. I’ve been fortunate enough that I have had incredibly exciting cultural sector jobs come my way (hold tight Neil and Steve) that are rad to work on and keep offering up more opportunities.

I have been working as the designer for My Bookcase a new social initiative dedicated to the understanding, appreciation and dissemination of books. Being entrusted as the sole graphic designer and design advisor on a job as important as this has been really daunting but is really gratifying when you see your ideas being successfully implemented in the real world. This project has also led to off–shoot jobs, for example, myself and My Bookcase are running a collaborative workshop as part of Analogue Social’s 11 Mitchell Lane event at the Lighthouse in Glasgow – something which fits with my interest in design and education.

A recurring medium in my art school work was books and I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to continue working within this medium since graduating. I’m currently working on two publications different cultural clients. Designing the book for the Fashion Cultures Festival has let me collaborate with the photographer Callum Rice and the illustrator Ailsa Sutcliffe, which has led to a really rich body of content to work with and the freedom the client has offered is crazy but great! I’m also producing a 3-volume series of books for the fashion designer Tommy Zhong whom I met whilst at GSA. There’s also the smaller jobs that you find out about through chatting to people in pubs or at exhibitions. I ended up redesigning someone’s business cards and a bar’s menus just through striking up a conversation with people.

I would like to offer the best advice I received in the run up to Degree Show, “Art School is a frame of mind.” – Neil McGuire, 2014. Big up.

Comment below or on Twitter using #LifeAfterArtSchool & mentioning @CenSta with your experience after art school.

Stay tuned for updates from art school graduates all this week. In the meantime see a what to expect from the upcoming Life After Art School features here.

More: Website | Twitter

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Looking for more blogs? Visit here.

The souvenirs, designed and manufactured entirely in Scotland, aim to offer a lasting material legacy of both major events.

The following artists, designers and companies have made prototypes: Atelier and Marc Camille Chaimowicz with Begg Scotland and McRostie of Glasgow, Claire Duffy with Tunnock’s, Emlyn Firth and Angharad McLaren with Johnstons of Elgin, FOUND with Chemikal Underground, Katy West with Highland Stoneware and Rogano Oyster Bar, Neil McGuire and Marianne Anderson with Carlton Die Casting and Jewellery Prototyping Services.

The souvenirs will be developed for sale as a part of the cultural programme for the Commonwealth Games. They will be available to buy in Glasgow and across Scotland in 2014.

Scotland Can Make It! is commissioned as part of Scotland’s Cultural Programme for London 2012 and Glasgow 2014.

Left to Right: Neil McGuire, Emlyn Firth, Marianne Anderson, Fiona Hyslop, Kirsty Cunningham (Johnstons of Elgin), Lucy McEachen, Stewart Henderson (Chemikal Underground), Catriona Duffy. Photo: Neil Thomas Douglas.

Find out more:
Website | Facebook | Twitter

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Last week I walked to London in order to, amongst other things, see the Royal College of Art graduate show (2).

The show was a highly polished affair, a topic i’ll return to later, but as a result it made me think more about whether this type of exhibition is the best vehicle for communication art and design, product and interaction design, and so on. What the alternative would be, i’m not sure, but i can confirm that spending a week looking over the Communication Art and Design (CA&D) publication and associated websites (not a solid week, obviously, as a clarification for any pedants out there) proved a far more interesting experience than the show itself. However I’m not denying that it was a very pleasant day out, and perhaps as good a route into the work as any other.

For an overview of individual students work, these reports offer more detail. Plus: (Interaction Site / C&AD site)

A hot topic of debate around CA&D at the RCA is the imminent arrival of a new head of department. Readers of Creative Review (amongst others) will be aware of the art vs design rumblings (aside: probably best steer clear of the detritus in the comments section, a more accurate analysis of blog-comment-structures here) and the machinations about big-names vs unknowns and false dicotomies of practitioners vs theorists. There are various sides to these arguements, but one thing they possibly have in common is to locate the head of department too centrally (or at the top of a big pyramid) in the eco-system of this course. Interaction design is an interesting case-study at the RCA, as though much of the work is intriguing and engaging and does open up questions of sorts, this year it all felt very much in the mould of a particular type of critical-design, as practised by the course leaders, and though my visit was brief, I didn’t see much which challenged this world-view. Another point to return to later.

Tucked away, and modestly presented, some very interesting projects were on view as part of the RCA/V&A MA History of Design Course, and I’m interested to know how this course interacts with the others.

On that note, I was also very interested in Department 21 which was in evidence at different points and in different departments in the show. A student-led initiative, it took a temporarily empty painting studio and used it as the focus for an ongoing programme of inter-departmental projects, talks and events. This for me is another ‘indicator’ of a desire acrossformal and informal educational experiences for a inter-disciplinary approach. I am not trying to claim that this is a new or radical thing, but am suggesting that the desire is strong and does exist, and that institutions (in their heirarchical, top-down mould) seem incredibly ham-fisted at delivering them, prompting interesting experiments like this one to spring-up.

One particular aspect of dept21 that interested me was a workshop and seminar on ‘de-skilling’. I’m fascinated by the idea of amateurism (in the best sense), and the prospect of an ‘amateur masters course’ (or masters in amateurism) is one i’d (perhaps mis-guided) sign-up for.

In a circular fashion, this brings me back to the emphasis placed on the new head of C&AD, the professionalism of its show, and a wondering about whether the significant developments in the course are likely to happen at its boundaries, and away from any one individual.

With the appointment of Neville Brody, I would hate the CA&D course to come to mirror its leaders. There are already enough supersonic ego’s in design education, and the star-cult of the individual is writ large. Thankfully there are those challenging this view, and even if the appointment was made on that basis, hopefully Brody will fall into this latter camp— I suspect he’s well aware of this potential pit-fall, and am interested to see what happens.

Images: RCA show2, Printers: ©Xavier Antin, and various, and Those that Move, off-site exhibition of Camberwell BA Graphic Design, at the Rag Factory, off Brick Lane.

P.S: Thought this RCA project was good, in relation to Central Station.

Aside from the willingness with which most graduating students accept the de-facto format of ‘degree show’, it surprises me that every year at degree show time, the generalisations that people seem to make about the types of courses offered by art and design institutions get writ large in a strange dividing up of ‘typography’ from ‘ideas’, or ‘concepts’ from ‘craft.’ This chat can become a bit depressing, bar the fact that its hopefully only a few people indulging in it, but it does highlight one particular tension, about ‘what industry wants’, (as some of those in ‘industry’ have a habit of phrasing it).

Of course education and industry (in the broadest sense) should be in close contact and part of a dialogue (also including other external patrons and users of design who are not ‘businesses’) which is mutually beneficial, but the idea that Art Schools and Design Courses would be better off shaping their courses solely to the needs of business would be a massive error, and indicative of a think-big-but-ignore-the-detail type of strategic initiative for which governments, skill-councils and other quango’s are renowned.

Scotland is a small nation, with even smaller art and design courses, and the fact that there is some diversity in the types of course on offer is a massive bonus, and one that students can take advantage of. We are also in the massively beneficial position of being able to offer cohort sizes and staff/student ratios that would make a London student weep with envy. But we need to beware that we’re possibly at the thin end of a very thick wedge (given the recent budget) and its not going to be easy for small specialist institutions to stay small or specialist in the future. It strikes me as strange that when mergers are discussed for Scotland’s remaining independent art schools, its always with the nearest big university and never with each other.


The sinisterly titled D&AD ‘New Blood‘ show, part of the (surely ironicly titled) ‘free-range‘ graduate event (battery farm or zero-grazing anyone?) is a very visual demonstration of just how many creative graduates leave UK courses every year, and how highly many graduates from Scottish courses feature amongst them**, surely an affirmation of the scale and types of courses we can (currently) manage to run. These events (at their worst) are also indicative of the direction art and design education could head if we follow the idea that design courses should be focussed solely on churning out industry-ready and compliant machines. At risk of making a massive historical generalisation, the supposed glory-days of British graphic design, from Fletcher through to Brody and Saville et al. came on the back of a fairly archaic and/or anarchic art-school style education. That we have such strong small courses with their own characteristics, is something to build on, not something to ‘iron-out’.

So the ECA show, (particularly Graphic Design and Illustration as that’s where I spent most time), for me demonstrated (in the same way that GSA, DoJ, Grays and some of the other Scottish university degree courses do) a reassuring view of the design landscape in this north-west corner of Europe. The things that excited me most were the projects (like this CCTV one, by Piotr Klarowski) where students had challenged the visual protocol, tried to find a new angle into a topic, and allowed their time at university (and the freedoms afforded) to produce ideas that might not currently sit very comfortably in the grafik (sic) mainstream. But that’s a reflection of my personal tastes and interests, and, (while I’m convinced it’s those students that will make the most interesting designers, advertisers, filmmakers, artists and so on), I’m equally glad of the students who have produced more mainstream and archetypal work, but executed it with a depth and rigour, as it suggests a course (and design community?) where people with these interests and ideas can feed off each other, challenge each other, and the binary thinking that lurks around the corner can be held at bay for another year.

[I've used some shots of the eca show to illustrate this post, and tried to credit them below — any errors I apologise for, and please let me know, so they can be corrected].
Images, in order of appearance:
Signage
Recycling Centre outside Main Building
Main Hall, Textiles Product Design and Others
Val McLean, Intermedia Art
Stefania Strouza, Art Space and Nature MFA
Graphic Design Entrance
Piotr Klarowski, Graphic Design, CCTV Project
Assorted Business Cards
*Thanks to DC and KD for the lend of this turn of phrase.
**Though we’d do better to look at the international context rather than the national and work out whether we’re any good or not.

I’ve written at various points over the past year about the tremendously exciting parallel school, (a student-led augmented educational experience), as it has shadowed my own emerging interest in the field of alternative education. There are a couple of issues that i think are important about this;

The initiative starts small, and uses social network tools to connect with likeminded communities, but is built on the dedication and energy of a small group.

In line with the ‘open community’ myth of the net, it still appears to be dealing with a core demographic of similar people, though they may come from different countries and cultures, and be geographically dispersed.

It is aligned to a traditional educational institution but is not bound by it.

In itself and its existence, it is a political act, and directly questions the creeping commercialism of education.

Most of its work appears to currently be self-referential, (about the act of ‘design’ and the process of education), and it will be interesting to see if it moves into other areas.

It is fantastic that at a time when most art colleges are going through the business-as-usual degree shows, groups of students are self-organising in this way.

More resources on alt/self/parallel/future education, knowledge (and related areas) here – (sorry for the sloppy formatting):

www.unitednationsplaza.org

52

www.staedelschule.de

facultyofinvisibility.tinka.cc

College

translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corner-college.com%2FCollege&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

real-world-studio

index.htm

index_about.htm

p3.shtml

SLOFI

diy-masters

story.asp?storyCode=94208§ioncode=26

www.thishappened.org

www.newworknetwork.org.uk

da.html

schoolofeverything.com

www.theschooloflife.com

free-university

story.asp?storycode=407359

illich

University_of_Openness

TheFreeUniversityProjectGlasgow1987-199

resourcecategory.html?resource=Academic_Programs

fiuwac_statement_-_www_fiuwac_.html

9C4309B0B50D8AA36167.htm

about

sigma.html

londonfreeschool.wordpress.com

filmstudiesforfree.blogspot.com

itunesu

index.php?cat=2&subCat=docdetail&&id=206

edgware_road.html

resources

project6.html

Paulo_Freire

www.theschooloflife.com

Public_Library_of_Science

Open_access_%28publishing%29

stuart_bailey.shtml

critical.pdf

systems-learning-final-event-oct-6-2009-london-rca

www.summerhillschool.co.uk

ankur.society.for.alternatives.in.education

www.bureauit.org

portal

2010

Publications | Institute of Network Cultures

link.hfk-bremen.de

some more links: (updated 4.11.10)

www.department21.net

futurefarmers

colab_a_laboratory_for_collaboration_and_serious_play_by_shoham_arad__16513.asp

index.php

future-public-school

new-media-cultural-studies-and-critical-theory-after-postmodernism

artschoolalternatives.tumblr.com

PaulElliman

crosslab

www.onomatopee.net

cult_of_the_ugly

journalism

www.islingtonmillartacademy.blogspot.com

schoolofthefuture.org

gdiycommunity.wordpress.com

As part of a very enjoyable friday evening in Edinburgh, i found myself engrossed in Patchwork Cinema, part of Torsten Lauschmann’s current show at the collective gallery. One part of this compilation which particularly intrigued me were clips of a film, ‘death by design’, partly because of a pavlovian response to anything with the word ‘design’ in it, but secondly for an amazing erudite nobel scientist talking about intuition in the sciences and how she felt her process was as ‘artistic’ and it was ‘scientific’, describing in some detail her work with cells. Thought this whole exhibition provides much food for thought in terms of ‘moving image’, and very worth a visit.

While on the subject of moving image, there is some great moving image work in this year’s Visual Communication degree show at GSA. I’m really interested in where this might lead, and how critically reflective designers can use this expanding set of tools in useful and exciting ways. There does need to be some critical thought though – If only to counter the ever-creepy Kevin Roberts, who talks about this need for communication to embrace ‘sisomo‘ (that’s sight, sounds and motion, because we, the dumbed-down recipient of this type of garbage, can’t understand all those words, together, at once, and he can’t stick a ‘TM’ on it…) — there’s clearly a market for his kind of multi-platform whizzy-ness, but it’s interesting (indeed exciting) to think about how the post-digital and screen fatigue may help make the decisions about when, where and why to use technology more nuanced.

In case anyone thinks I’m being excessively mean about Kevin Roberts… something from the archives.

Its nearly degree show time at GSA, which is exciting. Opens 10th/11th June (Please note: tickets required for entry), then open-access for the following week.

image: lizzie malcolm, work in progress. vis com 2010

Hidden Spaces – what do they mean and how do they affect us? Each person carries with them their own sense of home, tied to their sense of belonging, their past and their wished-of future. From this conception of home we construct the world around us – places we feel safe in, drawn to, wary of, excluded from and intrigued by.  Our idea of these places might change as we grow familiar with them, as personal and emotional associations fluctuate, as our bodies move through space and as others enter or leave that space – constructing spaces of migration, dislocation, settlement and even bereavement, each with conceptually structured layers of surface, accessibility and invisibility overlaying the physical construct of our environment.

With such a subjectively-framed starting point, not only will personal interpretations of hidden spaces vary, but these will be carried into the cultural and professional production of spaces, so an architect’s perception of Hidden Space might be very different from a public artist’s, an anarchist’s or a film location scout’s, and each of these professionals will in turn come to influence how we navigate the space around us.

From this broad and permeable conception of space we’ve drawn a few more concrete examples, and we’ll be featuring differing approaches to the theme of Hidden Spaces. From Curator to Artist to Poet, we’ve invited some guest bloggers to write about their relationships with spaces, here are some of the contributors we’ve got lined up to kick things off:

Matt Baker, in the past Lead Artist for both Inverness and the Gorbals, writing on hidden space from the perspective of someone who makes public art. Read his blogs: hiding, finding and the search, space hidden in things, looking for unconformity… & seasoning time.

Sarah Butler, author and head of the UrbanWords consultancy, developing projects which explore regeneration and place through creative writing. Read her blog here.

Richard Taylor, freelance artist & writer, talks about his collaboration on a project focused on abandoned spaces. Read his blogs: ArtEvict – hidden space and revealing performance, SPLICING HORRISONS, Hidden space – tent as a transitory studio, THE CUMBRIA ENERGY CENTRE & getting lost remaining hidden

Collaborative collective, Sans Facon, gave us a continued visual dairy of hidden spaces being enjoyed in everyday life. See their observations here.

We also had contributions from:
Arika – Shadowed Spaces
Johanna Basford – hidden (work) spaces
Neil McGuire – Hidden Spaces: Supreme Social Networks
Erin McElhinney – What’s in a name?
Susan Castillo – Hidden Space
Fraser Denholm – Tracing Places

Tell us about your hidden spaces - add a link to a blog, a video or photographs from the overlooked or concealed spaces of your city in the comments below.

With a sense of serendipity, three events have aligned themselves recently suggesting an interesting connection between creativity, warfare, social networks and these supposedly widespread but ‘hidden’ parts of the terrorist internet. The first is a meeting that took place recently at the offices of the Scottish Government, between Wendy Wilkinson, deputy director of culture, and several people from the ‘creative industries’ (including illustrators, games designers and others), “to brainstorm/discuss how creativity can help in the study of terrorism and forensic science and in how the outcome or story from that is told.” 

The second is a lecture given yesterday, here at GSA, by Dr Mats Fridlund on ‘the terror of things’ (presumably alluding to the internet of things). Mats is interested in the design aspects of terrorism, from the distribution of bomb-making instructions through the ages, to the design of terror related paraphernalia.

The third is an upcoming seminar at Glasgow University, Thursday 22nd April, entitled ‘Influence through cyberspace‘ (which you can still book for) hosted by the ministry for defence and the Glasgow University innovation network. The invite blurb states;

“Success in modern conflicts is more than just the physical defeat of enemies; lasting success needs to win the “battle for hearts and minds” through influence and effect in the cognitive, rather than the physical, domain. This has traditionally been fought using personal interaction and broadcast media, but the increasingly ubiquitous nature of the online world as the communication medium of choice for many represents a new challenge and demands new thinking to be effective…”

Readers can drawn their own conclusions from these events, the hidden internet spaces they point towards, and the ways design, creativity and technology are being co-opted to various ends, but its also worth exploring the parallel efforts of anthropologists to avoid becoming part of a mechanism of control and paranoia.

Read more about Neil McGuire here.

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Hidden Spaces – a month of blogs by members about their hidden space – whether they be real, imagined, unbuilt, cut-off from the public, demolished, spiritually significant or politically sublimated. Read more from the series.