It’s always interesting, on study visits, to meet up with students you’ve corresponded with online but haven’t met face-to-face, as well as meeting new students from other courses. Rarely however, do you also get to meet the artist whose exhibition you’ve come to see. Brian Grimwood held court at the Work Gallery in London […]
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Coinciding with the launch of OCA’s new Book Design 1 course a study visit has been organised to Conways of Halifax bookbinding workshop on Saturday 10 November. The visit will be led by bookbinder and printmaker Roger Grech and will include a tour of the facilities by workshop owner, Stephen Conway, and a hands-on bookbinding […]
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The next visual communications study visit looks at the work of graphic designer Tony Arefin (1962-2000) on Saturday 3 November. Arefin & Arefin: The graphic design of Tony Arefin (12 September – 4 November 2012) at The IKON gallery in Birmingham, charts his rise to prominence in the 1980s when Arefin worked with contemporary artists and […]
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Chip Kidd, the American graphic designer and author explores the role of the book cover to give form to stories and ideas. Reflecting on his first graphic design lesson, in which his tutor said you can either show the content, describe the content, but never both. Kidd presents how this fundamental idea of respecting an […]
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Every year students pit themselves against one another in a series of design and illustration competition briefs.
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There was a time when comics were just for kids and artists made images for grown ups. I’m not sure if that many artists have been able to make the switch to working for a younger audience, but certainly illustrators and other narrative based artists have been able to successfully address a more adult audience. […]
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Award winning cartoonist Steve Bell has a long relationship with the Guardian newspaper, not least with his regular IF cartoon strip that has featured in the newspaper since 1981. It’s a sharp and irreverent narrative of those in power, often portrayed alongside penguins, farmyard animals and the occasional badger. In a short film (4min) Bell […]
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Art in prisons has a long and well-established tradition. It provides a way for inmates to express themselves, produce something of meaning or to simply help pass the long hours locked in a cell. As a open learning experience OCA is well placed to support students in prisons and over the last few years I […]
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Portugal has a strong decorative tradition in its streets. Ever since the Moors introduced the vibrant tile tradition of the azulejos, houses have been faced in ceramic patterns. As a first time visitor to Lisbon I was struck by the visual quality of this work, often showing its age, overlaid by graffiti, or in the […]
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OCA student Emil Nemecek shares his visual diary, interest in Czech graphic design and some of the challenges of studying graphic design in a second language.
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