BA Graphic Design 2016

How do we (re)materialise culture? How do we (re)design who we are? How is reality formed by narratives? How does graphic communication (re)solve problems? Is technology leading us to utopia or dystopia? Should design impose order or chaos? How do we find a voice in a commercial world? What is wrong with design/society?

Sponsored by Grilli Type, Brothers, CanO Water, ProperCorn, Sambrook's Brewery

About the Show

The curatorial approach for this year’s exhibition emerged out of a workshop at which we (a team of students and staff) generated thematic tags for the assembled projects and ended up with eight leading questions. The questions might seem big and ambitious, but this, we think, reflects the current state of affairs in graphic design discourse, which lends itself not to closed categories but to open questions, loose affinities, and perplexing issues.

Graphic design is increasingly about developing processes and methods for tackling complex problems, diagnosing and improving systems (or hacking them), bringing user-friendliness or a sense of humanity to an otherwise alienating (user) experience.

BA Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins takes into account this picture of expanded practice, through a course culture that encourages thinking-through-making, research and reflection on processes and outcomes. Hopefully the work and questions will stimulate more questions among visitors to the exhibition. Let us know.

Dr Peter Hall, Course Leader

Designed by
Jūratė Gačionytė, Hannah Nightingale, Felix Steindl

Coded by
Kenneth Lim

Press

• ‘The obstacles that are faced in the three year degree are bigger than just being able to get through crits and convince tutors that your work is valid and has a place in this world. It’s a journey towards being able to answer critical questions that come from all sides, and creatively solve problems.’

Contact: Harry Ashbee