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Visual Communications Blog Posts - Page 50 of 52 - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

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Visual Communications


Study Visit to see graphic designer Tony Arefin in Birmingham thumb

Study Visit to see graphic designer Tony Arefin in Birmingham

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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Creativity, art, craft, design and process: all of it! thumb

Creativity, art, craft, design and process: all of it!

The Heatherwick study visit was a real eye opener. It was the most fabulous exhibition, and its hard to encapsulate what it was about, and why it was so splendid. Thomas Heatherwick runs a maverick studio that designs architecture, urban plans, chairs, tables, objects of all kinds. (The Heatherwick Studio designed the Olympic Cauldron, an […]

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Jon Rafman thumb

Jon Rafman

Jon Rafman I have only recently comes across 9-Eyes, an ongoing internet based photographic project started in 2008 by Montreal based photographer/artist Jon Rafman. He searches Google Street Views, selects certain images, usually with a strong narrative content, takes a screen shot and then adds it to his site. The original images were taken by […]

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Things Peter Blake loves thumb

Things Peter Blake loves

The Fine Art Society is a gallery situated in London’s fashionable Bond Street and it is here that Peter Blake, the Grandfather of British Pop Art, has put together a selection of paintings and prints that reflect his tastes and influences. Famous for his part in the design of the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper Album, Blake […]

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OCA student wins a Saatchi Showdown prize thumb

OCA student wins a Saatchi Showdown prize

      OCA student Alexandra Gallagher, working towards a degree with us, has just won a prestigious prize with the Saatchi Gallery. Runner up in the Saatchi Showdown Competition online with the theme Surrealism, Alex produced a stunning photo collage using one of her daughters as a model. Alex laughed as she told me […]

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Are you passionate about what you do? thumb

Are you passionate about what you do?

While the subject matter of this video may only directly appeal to Graphic Design students, and those interested in typography, the story this short video tells is compelling for anyone with a passion. Watch this full screen, so that you catch the atmospheric details.

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Designing books is no laughing matter thumb

Designing books is no laughing matter

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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Voices of the South Atlantic study visit thumb

Voices of the South Atlantic study visit

Not only was last Friday’s trip to Ffotogallery in Cardiff the OCA’s first photography study visit in Wales, but it was also a different take on our regular outings, by combining a visit to an exhibition with a group tutorial. Voices of the South Atlantic, which is a partnership between Ffotogallery, Photofusion and Autograph ABP, […]

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Sticks and stones thumb

Sticks and stones

Last month, the phenomenon of cyber bullying became headline news when Conservative MP Louise Mensch spoke out against the onslaught of misogynistic abuse to which she had been subjected on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Mensch is a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. The comments, many of them explicit and most of […]

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Constable and Caravaggio inspire OCA printmaking student thumb

Constable and Caravaggio inspire OCA printmaking student

Another OCA printmaking student, Averil Wooton, produces confident work that glistens with technical spark and imaginative solutions and demonstrates what hard work can yield.  Assessor David Winning talks us through a small selection of the work Averil submitted for assessment in March this year, for Printmaking at level one.  There are lessons here for research, doing studies, preparation and technique. […]

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