Communication Design Catalogue 2023

Degree Show Catalogue

Introduction from Professor Stephen Bottomley, Head of the School of Design

Welcome to the 2023 School of Design Degree Show at the Glasgow School of Art.

In your hands is one of a dozen graduating catalogues that have been lovingly assembled for each of our exhibiting programmes in the School of Design for their shows this year. Within these sheets you will discover the exciting work of our graduating students in image and text, alongside reflective snap shots that capture the energy, and concentration within our studios in the run up to this exhibition.

We believe making a physical catalogue to accompany our excellent digital on-line showcases is both important and relevant. Research has revealed what we intuitively knew, that making, and art is good for our mental health and can positively improve the quality of life by alleviating symptoms of anxiety, depression, loneliness and even dementia. In our busy lives, we all spend an increasing amount of time in digital environments, yet we remain alert to the important of reinforcing a balance between the virtual and the real in our teaching and specialist practices.

In the 1850s the Glasgow Government School of Design changed its name to The Glasgow School of Art, while in the same time John Ruskin, the most influential critic of the Victorian era, spoke of an education where the ‘hand, the head and the heart’ were interconnected. As you will witness, those values are still very much alive and true today.

We hope that this guide accompanies you on your journey be it at our Glasgow degree show, or at later events in London and that the work reflects the passion and attention of our students, as well as the care of the staff who have guided them.

To all our graduating students on behalf of all the staff, academic, administrative and support, we wish you every success in this, the exciting start of your careers. Please continue to stay in touch with us, remembering us in your hearts and minds, as we will you.

Professor Stephen Bottomley

MPhil RCA, MA Design, BA Hons Head of the School of Design

Design History and Theory

Communication Design

Nicholas Oddy Head of

Department of Design History and Theory

As part of their degree, all BA Hons School of Design students submit a substantial piece of written work to the Department of Design History and Theory (DH&T) and a synopsis of every one is included in these pages. Students may opt for either a shorter (5,000 word) or longer (10,000 word) submission, the latter being a third of their overall degree submissions. In addition to the two lengths, there are three different modes of submission; essay/dissertation; critical journal (exploring the author’s studio practice in a larger critical and cultural context); or curatorial rationale (an in-depth proposal for an exhibition with its subject and venue the choice of the author). All DH&T staff are involved in the supervision of Honours submissions, which is on a one-to-one basis, and it is always a pleasure to guide what is always a wide range of fascinating and challenging projects.

DH&T is independent of studio, with its own external examiner, and upholds a principle of free subject choice. Therefore, while some write on topics directly concerned with their studio practice, others explore topics that seem to have no bearing on it, often personal interests or socio-cultural issues. This does not mean they are unconnected with studio, however, as the creative process is one of thought and all these submissions are deeply thoughtful, often informing practice in intangible, but significant ways.

Finally, congratulations to everyone who has submitted this year. On behalf of all in the Department, good luck in whatever the future holds.

Steve Rigley Programme Leader

On behalf of the staff team, am delighted to introduce this year’s graduating Communication Designers!

As you will find, their Degree Show is full of personality and rich in concept, and explores a wide variety of themes and topics. Identity, diversity, gender, and sport – wrestling, football, and rugby – all feature this year, alongside collective histories and personal narratives.

Fuelled by curiosity and imagination, they have delighted in the interplay between the traditional and the emergent, freely experimenting with an ever-widening array of materials, processes, and technologies. The work ranges from hand lettering to interaction and AI, from drawing and animation to photography, art direction, film, and moving image.

Of course, there have been many challenges along the way, including the unprecedented isolation of lockdown, but this year’s graduates have proved both resourceful and resilient, returning to the studios to participate in rebuilding the active community we all value here at GSA/Comm Des.

And so, a huge well done to you all! As you head out into the world beyond Garnethill, we wish you well, confident that you will make an impact wherever you go!

Aaron Leigh Amber Torrance

My practice is rooted in exploring the connection between designed artefacts and the wider contexts and histories in which they are embedded. My process often returns to familiar designed forms, from maps to wildlife spotting books, combining these with theoretical influences and emerging technologies to develop new, critical communication. This reappropriation frequently explores the relationship between construction and breakdown of identity and meaning-making, applying an almost forensic approach to consider how objects and materials speak to wider contexts.

My work is concept-driven, meaning that my outcomes delve into varied fields of design, from web development to typography; however, am particularly interested in experimentation with technical digital processes, especially in terms of how these interact with and challenge more traditional forms of communication.

This conceptual focus is driven by a keen engagement with research. My dissertation expanded on these studio interests to explore how geospatial data and its associated technologies perpetuate or contest socio-political inequalities in the Americas, considering the wider implications of a technology deeply ingrained in our everyday lives.

My design practice focuses on communication, specifically creating visual language for niche topics that is universally understood. For one personal project, I created an alcoholic drink brand named ‘Moonie’ which celebrates the history of Glasgow nightlife in the 1950’s and the similarities of dance club romance today. Influenced by tales of the night my grandparents met, my product packaging is designed to encourage an approach and response by utilising the iconic Scottish phrases, ‘Are ye dancing’ and ‘Are ye asking’.

Other projects I underwent this year include a video personifying existentialism in football. It portrays a footballer struggling to compete with his inner critic and his existential thoughts are expressed through a poetic yet humorous inner monologue by repurposing typical football language.

I enjoy combining surprisingly complimentary or starkly contrasting visuals and concepts to create memorable work. This challenge of typical design aesthetics is explored in my Design History and Theory essay, ‘Kitsch Values and Defence’. I find that kitsch is unjustly scrutinized within the art world and my research highlights that we inherently enjoy its style in many ways. The distaste of kitsch is learned through classist means and my works aims to embrace its qualities and prove aspects of it can enhance your messaging due to its recognisable nature.

Anastacia Macdonald Andrew Maxwell Taylor

As a Lesbian illustrator, the themes in my practice are influenced often by my identity. My partner is a significant muse of mine, our experiences guide a lot of my narrative choices. With my partner being Butch, our relationship has taught me the differences she faces as someone who does not conform to social expectations of gender. By drawing from personal experiences, it is my design calling to give visibility to others who don’t feel seen in art or media.

“Blair’s Hair” is a children’s picture book I have been making since September. Inspired by experiences I’ve had with hair but is most relevant to my partner’s relationship to hair. was influenced by children’s books on diversity and gender expression for boys. But there was a gap in this tone for girls. What about girls who also express themselves differently? It is important to normalise gender non-conformity for young girls too, tomboyish attributes shouldn’t be regarded as something to supress or ‘grow out of’!

My interest in gender expression transferred into my essay for DH&T, with more mature themes in relation to Lesbian gender and sexuality. My essay explores these subjects within cinema, comparing three iconic Sapphic films: ‘Bound’, ‘The Handmaiden’, and ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’.

I am a graphic designer who engages with community based projects, often with the aim to raise awareness through methods of visual communication. My practice usually reflects a piece of my personality and social environment. I am an avid lawn bowler, I work in hospitality and also a devoted rugby supporter. explore these communities in my folio, developing under voiced narratives. My strength lies in idea generation and conceptual thinking, with a visual language informed by in depth research

A highlight of my practice this year has been designing and writing about issues surrounding World Rugby. My extended essay argued the role of a designer in tackling representation in the modern game. I discussed the importance of Rugby Union’s professionalisation at a time of deregulation, leading to a monopolisation of identity design. I concluded that a contemporary designer should avoid universality in design, allowing visual identities to be inspired by a communities culture. For my folio, I designed a data visualisation project, intending to make information more emotionally resonant. My aim was to raise awareness to the risk of developing a Neurodegenerative Disease for professional rugby players. A feature of this project is a scrum cap, constructed of 15 panels, of 15 players; representative of their associated playing number, who suffered from either Motor Neurone Disease or Dementia.

would describe my practice as process led in the sense that I am primarily drawn to analogue techniques, such as hand lettering, print and sign painting. Additionally, my practice is often rooted in conceptual thought, I enjoy delving deep into concept and really understanding the eccentricities and stories which synthesise and result in design. My most recent and main undertaking this year has been a type design project with a focus on ornamental lettering. Initially looking to the influential (but now obsolete) German arts magazine, Jugend, this project evolved into a celebration of ornate letterforms. Looking to provide a space for the intricacies and charm of such letters, I designed a typeface and from it printed artworks which function as tasteful and tactile compositions, honouring the beauty of less conventional letterforms. This year has been a turning point for me as feel I have finally discovered my niche as a designer, have absolutely fallen in love with hand lettering and this intimate approach to type design.

have always enjoyed writing, story-telling and scrutinising narratives. My dissertation, “Interpreting Ecological Reciprocity: An Exploration of the Influence Nature Connectedness and Sustainable Environmental Preservation has in Promoting Eudemonic Wellbeing”, explores the widespread disconnection of humanity from nature and the hypothesis that this may exacerbate eudaemonic wellbeing, alongside having a negative influence on the global environmental crisis. This is a crucial and relevant topic of discussion that am incredibly passionate about and that I would love to incorporate more within my studio work.

What does it mean to be dressed? Is the overarching question for my critical journal, it’s one that’s coherently linked to my studio practice and in the realm of what explore through my work: clothing, community and what’s the role of photography within that? I am interested in ethnography, societies, cultures and social studies of fashion. I try to use these themes to underpin the context of my work and base it in a social anthropological context. The street is my studio, use the outdoors and sometimes the indoors. Historical adornment is also explored in one of my projects this year. I provided alternative perspectives to traditionally villainized women in Scottish Folklore. The work presented is in a triptych series, invoking feelings of freedom, power and beauty, when these women have been represented in an inherently patriarchal society. My next project ‘To Be Adorned’ delves into the meaning behind our clothes, where the subjects have sourced their clothing from, and what oral histories and testimonies can be learnt behind these ensembles. Narrative image making is how I articulate my thoughts and feelings about the world inhabit. would also argue they are a concentrated, systematic type of enquiry into photographic social anthropology. Additionally, a tool for analysing, albeit one that’s playful and pleasurable.

During this academic year, have mainly focused on self-directed projects as part of my coursework. These projects include explorations into Java coding, the creation of a tool utilizing ASCII software, and a complete rebranding for refuweegee, a local Glasgow charity. The focal point of my efforts has been ‘Hidden in plain sight’ a typographic examination of how men express their emotions – what men say contrasted to how they might feel. I was drawn to the typographic possibilities of steganographic strategies - the graphic and communicative tricks of saying two opposite things at the same time.

For the Design History and Theory component part of my degree, I documented and reflected on the ‘Hidden in plain sight’ project. The critical journal analysed my work relating to the growing issue of male depression and explored the suppression of emotions within Scottish culture. Through my creative thinking, this allowed me to consider the vulnerability of the subject matter, comparing my input to other people. It was this critique that shaped my work to follow, leading to a focus on highlighting the struggles that men face.

My practice is driven by an interest in typography, book design, and materiality through printed matter. Often inspired by concepts of nostalgia, hauntology and non-linearity, my work typically revolves around reinterpreting and retracing lost or historical communicative forms through contemporary perspectives.

Following a period of research and experimentation with archival Celtic and Roman typographic forms, I developed a variable typeface which shifts between optical weights along an axis. The typeface’s name –Dolmen – is borrowed from a type of megalithic stone structure used in ancient passage rituals. This act is mirrored in the typeface’s transition and interpolation between two states, allowing for increased optimisation and usability in contemporary, digital design contexts.

In my dissertation, Acid-Futurism: Design Politics & Corrosion, I looked to build upon the core concepts and themes explored within Mark Fisher’s unfinished book, Acid-Communism. By retracing the lineage of these ideas and reapplying them to the context of design politics, I looked to propose ways in which designers could form non-hierarchical, collaborative platforms which look to ‘corrode’ our relationships to capitalism through politically engaged design practices and digital commons.

↘ annawaterston.cargo.site

↘ annajwaterston@gmail.com

↘ @annajwart

↘ www.anna-rose.uk

↘ annarosemcchesney@gmail.com

↘ @annarosalita

↘ arran.keir@icloud.com

↘ billypatersonstudio.co.uk

↘ billypatersonstudio@gmail.com

↘ @billypatersn

Anna Waterston

Anna-Rose McChesney

Arran Keir

Billy Paterson

My dissertation ‘Pilgrimage and the Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Does Digital Mediation Contribute to a Depreciation of the Intrinsic Value of Vincent Van Gogh’s Artworks?’ Begins to unpack the new modes of spectatorship associated with art-themed immersive exhibitions, looking at how the commodification and presentation of reproductions of artworks in the exhibition setting is consequently depreciating the intrinsic value of the original. My case study Van Gogh Alive, is an example of this new increasingly popular exhibition format, primarily presenting projections of digital reproductions of some of Van Gogh’s most popular oeuvre in vast spaces accompanied by a range of sensory stimuli to ‘heighten’ the viewing experience.

In my documentary project on my home, Blackpool, I explore the theme of the façade using documentary and abstract imagery. Looking at the multi-faceted nature of Blackpool This project begins a discussion regarding some of the issues associated with northern seaside towns in general, and specifically in Blackpool. In showing another side of Blackpool through my photography, aimed to remove some familiarity of the visual cliches associated with the seaside resort. Presenting instead a body of work which is reflective of locals and my own perspective, showing that there is much more to Blackpool than what is on the surface.

Can graphic design be an effective tool for cultural and political agency, or does it predominantly exist to obscure the machinations of capitalism?

I’ve often found design’s historic complicity with exploitative, corporate agendas hard to reconcile. My practice represents an effort to divert from this seemingly preordained path of consumerism to realign graphic design with its alternative lineage of radicalism. Whilst the idealistic belief that novel aesthetics alone can change the world is often viewed with scepticism after the countless examples throughout history of the capitalist appropriation of countercultural signifiers, I am much more interested in the designer’s active role as facilitator. What practical skills do designers possess that can be used to lend legitimacy to causes, distribute information in more egalitarian ways or co-ordinate pluralistic projects that connect disparate strands of subculture?

This ideology underpins how each project is intended to function in the world. One prominent example is Lune, the hybrid record label and publishing house I have been designing. As a non-hierarchical collective of experimental musicians, artists, and writers, it aims to exemplify prefigurative tactics of co-operative working and creating. These include amassing a tool library, providing free access to culture via the commons and adhering to complete operational transparency. The project’s imagery coalesces around a speculative, post-apocalyptic, flooded island, in which Lune is framed as a utopian syndicate of scavengers.

For both of my final projects I’ve married my love for printed techniques with intuitive illustrative work, whether that be creating film posters that capture themes and atmospheres from moving image to a single piece of work, to creating an animation that exhibits the energy traditional media can provide with bold applications of printed elements like type and collagraph.

My final project focuses on themes of isolation and what we view of feminine rage. This is an animation that focuses on my personal experience going through the Scottish court system as the victim of domestic abuse. I feel that the court system has a lot to improve upon when supporting victims of domestic crime, and to not make people such as myself feel less like a ‘true victim’ due to our regular feelings of rage, upset and anger at what has happened to us.

My extended essay focuses on my love for horror films and whether women can find empowerment through this genre. Looking at the misogynistic tropes from slasher films, the monster and the feminine, and more contemporary examples of female treatment within the horror landscape, I analyse and examine whether we can find strength in this space from the narratives presented to us.

Hello, how do you move today? Do you hop, do you skip, do you keep straight ahead? Are you flying, are you prying, what echoes are in the air? When you munch, does it crunch?

This is my curiosity. have developed a verbal and visual language to describe movement. These include graphic scores and stop-motion animation with the body (pixilation). The moving image is a tool for recording as well as studying movement. In editing footage, witness the threshold between spectator and actor.

My research has culminated in a web-site, a living archive of movement. It is multisensory: the way that we move is via our senses. They tell us about where we are in space, and what is going on in the spaces of our bodies. The content on-site prompts visitors to move. As a living archive, it is an active and reflective space. I invite people to share their explorations through filmed and written responses. This community will grow the site. The design is informed by the scroll. A paper scroll rolls. It furls, and unfurls, it crumples, it folds. It continues, it connects, it contains. interpret this with the digital scrolling action.

You are welcome to move at movingspace.cargo.site

Caitlin Ellam Callum Kershaw

Chloe Dalziel Daisy Lewisohn

play in the overlapping spaces of design, art, and community. I approach all my work as an exercise in storytelling, and researching things more significant than their physical or temporal bounds. Collaboration and collective making enrich the self and are centred in my work. Play is the heart of my practice – an endeavour toward seeing with a child’s eye, tracing lines and living inside them.

My most recent work explores the theatricality of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The work comprises of a mockumentary style film and a collection of physical artifacts documenting the life of fictional character Brad ‘The Butcher’ Benson. Through developing a character and building a world around him, was able to explore the idea of off- and onstage personas, linking to the ‘fixed’ nature of WWE. I wanted to depict the evolution of aesthetics within the industry through creating various pieces of ephemera relating to different eras.

The film’s eccentric props and blatant use of green screen is a nod towards the blurring of real and fake within wrestling and an underlining of its classification as sports entertainment. Looking at the biographies of wrestlers, this allure of performance and drama is what underpins many and is something wanted to highlight.

I enjoy working three dimensionally, creating props, products and puppets to explore various topics. My work lends itself to the slightly ridiculous or surreal, playing on reality to produce outcomes that are humorous or strange.

For my Extended Essay, I explored American History through the lens of Dolly Parton, looking at her physicality, discography and personal history. Through placing her within feminist, consumerist and Southern dialogues, I investigated how she has remained a global icon despite embodying various political contradictions.

Within my practice, I enjoy playfully repurposing familiar visual languages, making aesthetic contradictions between my subject matter and material/ typographic choices, in attempt to subvert and reframe traditional narratives. Informed by a love of history, my work is motivated by conceptled briefs and archival research. I hunt for potential lines of connection between dissimilar objects and cultures, contrasting the historical with the contemporary, weaving together the allegedly ‘highbrow’ and the ‘low.’ With an interest in identity, community, and heritage, my main project this year has explored English football fandom through the lens of the Church of England, juxtaposing and appropriating the visual languages of both of these ritualistic, English tribes. One of the defining changes in the English cultural landscape over the past century has been increasing secularisation. Nevertheless, football has filled this spiritual void, with fans demonstrating devotional behaviours traditionally associated with organised religion.

In my extended essay, I examined the relationship between dark tourism and souvenir culture, exploring how different souvenir typologies amplify touristic gazes and manipulate the histories of places associated with death and trauma. Considering the concepts of the tourist gaze, hyperreality, kitsch design, and death as a spectacle, my essay discussed the dark tourist’s role as an ‘amateur semiotician.’ Symbols within the ‘dark’ souvenirs confirm tourists’ preconceptions, privileging the ‘visual’ over accurate historical representation, which in turn can ensue significant political implications.

My primary focus this year has been on connection and disconnection, specifically in relation to technology. created an animation through experimental means for an interview that focused on a life spent online, in favour of real-world experience. I worked in stop motion using found footage, bringing it into a physical space by printing each frame and rescanning them to explore both the physical and metaphorical boundary of the screen to highlight this idea of disconnect.

Continuing this theme, worked with machine-learning algorithms. Exploring their collaborative potentials through an iterative process of deconstruction and reconstruction. asked an A.I to describe artworks of mine, then used these deconstructions to create new artworks and repeated that process in a kind of feedback loop. Through this, am also exploring the role of language in the creation of images, and the ways we interpret and construct meaning through visual art.

Motive of the Mask:

My essay examined musicians who use masks, pseudonyms, and other forms of anonymity to distance themselves from the commodification of their art while still capitalising on their unique brand identities. Through a deep dive into three case studies, showed how anonymity can both subvert and perpetuate capitalist systems, challenging conventional notions of authenticity and inviting readers to consider the complex relationship between art and commerce in contemporary music culture.

↘ dorottyaszanka.cargo.site

↘ dorottya.szanka@gmail.com

↘ @orkababa

↘ Dustystudio.cargo.site

↘ 01dustywatts@gmail.com

↘ @Dusty_watts

↘ elizahartdesign.cargo.site

↘ elizahart0308@gmail.com

↘ @elizahartdesign

↘ ellabwd.art@gmail.com

↘ @ellabwd.art

Dorottya Szanka Dusty Watts

Eliza Hart Ella Braidwood

My practice revolves around language and play. enjoy the tensions that are created by treating humorous concepts with total sincerity — I don’t feel that an object needs to be taken seriously in order to be beautiful, but I do think that the object should take itself seriously to some extent. My degree show project aims to explore this idea by playing with cartoon tropes of espionage to examine the camp cultural view of spies, and how that translates to the real world.

Language is integral to my work; for me, a project isn’t complete unless the copy holds up with the visuals. I often come up with the words at the same time as the design, which massively informs the design process. My largest project this year has been a collaboration with Callum Kershaw. What started as an exploration into following rules set by artificial intelligence has devolved into an examination of the client/designer relationship, and what place performance has in design. The narrative we created for the project has had a huge influence over our design choices.

My graphic design practice focuses heavily on exploring locations, cultures and identities, especially those that have played a role in shaping my upbringing and background. My work - which primarily consists of editorial design, book design and branding - embodies both humour and emotion depending on the concept I am exploring. Creating a sense of person and place with playful design is ever-present within my practice, allowing me to highlight areas and communities that may otherwise be overlooked.

My project, Lost at Sea, was focused on creating a book design based on the eroding coastal village of Happisburgh in North Norfolk. represented the destructive environmental issues this area of the UK is facing by using a variety of mediums within my work, including typography, photography and experimental book form. Within this project attempted to push the boundaries of what a book can be. As well as this, I have also worked on Dull Weekly, a tabloid magazine that combined both storytelling and editorial design to document the weekly dramas of a small rural village in Suffolk.

Although my studio practice focuses heavily on local identities, my extended essay explored work from the Russian Constructivist movement. examined the political implications attached to artworks, exploring how form, material and colour influenced the consolidation of different societal structures.

My photographic work stems from an interest in documenting details within environments that are often overlooked, whether that’s through observational street walks or more personal subject matter. I am drawn to exploring domestic spaces and the emotional attachments to objects found there. This project is about my Nana and her home in the Welsh countryside. It explores family relationships, loss and memories. This project began by documenting her and her home in the last years of her life and has continued since she passed. These photographs depict everyday reminders of my Nana, alongside the objects and intimate arrangements that were left in her home. They uphold tangible elements of the past such as archival family photos, and everyday household ornaments. Within these artifacts, traces of life and the surrounding nature, the fragility of time becomes apparent. The work champions our memories of people, places and everything that is left behind.

During my design history and theory studies, I wrote an essay about the portrayal of American families in the late 1950s and 60s in advertising, politics and mainstream culture. compared hegemonic ideals of family circulated by companies such as Kodak and Life Magazine, with documentary photographers such as Gordon Parks and Diane Arbus. I argued that Parks’s and Arbus’s work exposed a hidden reality that was being ignored by American structures of power and wealth.

Atanes-Enepi

This year, I have been using the lighting studio to create images ranging from intimate still-life microcosms to grand, inhabitable sets, all rooted in the natural world. For me, nature is the foundation of every image, and my process always begins with foraging for natural materials that inspire and guide my creations. Over time, I have amassed a vast collection of natural flora that has become a critical component of my work. These materials serve as both inspiration and set props, adding depth and texture to my images. Inspired by current events, my latest project, Mito, is a personal and visual exploration of Brazilian folklore, following the story of two folklore characters, Iara and Curupira, in their devastated natural habitat. Through their belongings and key characteristics, aim to contribute to their storytelling and world-building, bringing their myths to life and a much broader audience. In DHT, I follow my interests as a female-identifying image maker and explore the portrayal of loneliness and isolation shown through Sofia Coppola’s masterful films.

Freddie Guthrie Georgie Burton

Iris Nicholson Isabella

Izzi Menzies Jo Stickells Kate Russell Katherine Tittmar

Idiosyncrasy is at the core of my practice. I try to create a balance within my work between playful elements and more refined outcomes, exploring unconventional ideas in depth. My work takes a variety of different forms, be that coding, lettering, type and editorial design, or sometimes a combination of all. Research plays an important role; I often take inspiration from pop culture, questioning societal norms and using uncomfortable elements to create a new dialogue. In Chewing Gum, drew on the themes of the uncanny valley and misophonia to create an immersive web experience.

Collaboration has become a key aspect of my work. I enjoyed working with Molly Hooper on our publication, Go piss, which explores celebrity gossip culture and the connection to the public/private nature of the space of the bathroom. My final project is a typeface that brings the conventionality of Victorian greenhouses together with curious and unusual plants.

As a graphic designer and illustrator I work primarily using analogue processes to explore both still and moving visuals. I love textures, imperfections and colour. This year I have been responding intuitively to sound using various forms of animation. I’ve also explored lettering throughout my practice. I’m excited by type design but I’m not a big fan of rules in the type world - this has led to interesting challenges but I really enjoy exploring a more illustrative approach to typography.

Woke Girlies: The development of visual culture for activism by women, from placards to Instagram posts. This curatorial rationale explores the evolution of design activism and its journey from physical ephemera to an online space. With a considerable increase in protest in recent years, design activism has taken on a new role with the aid of social media. It’s become much more common, almost trendy, to focus artwork on social issues. An online platform transforms a movement, work has become digital, more complex and almost fashionable. What used to be placards and symbols of revolt have evolved into a whole genre of visual art. curated a collection of work to showcase this.

As a multidisciplinary creative, I primarily use installation and moving image to explore the space and surroundings that shape our experience. With an experimental approach, aim to convey both pre-existing and new narratives that challenge our perception of reality. am interested in exploring a range of subjects through a surrealistic lens: from rumours of vampires in Glasgow to the lonely pigeons outside my bedroom window. My process is playful and I enjoy exploring diverse ideation techniques to arrive at an unexpected outcome. For example, using words from a chatterbox game as prompts for creative thinking.

In my dissertation, I delved deeper into my interest in space and place, using a curatorial rationale to investigate the relationships between memory, time and industrial ruins. envisioned a site-specific exhibition at St. Peter’s Seminary, an abandoned priest training college in Cardross, exploring the complex narratives embedded within the site and its potential as a creative space.

As someone who grew up in the Scottish islands and as a native Gaelic speaker, I feel a great responsibility to my language through my illustration and design practice. I seek to be an ambassador for Gaelic through my work, to bring my heritage and language to a 21st century audience. I combine centuries old wisdom and art with a contemporary style and use a wide range of media to connect with as many people as possible. I’ve explored this through different handmade books such as a short collection of Gaelic proverbs about love and a print at home children’s activity book to fill out on the Loch Seaforth ferry, sometimes using deceptively simple designs to draw the viewer in to contemplate.

Through different assigned briefs and personal projects, I enjoy experimenting with different materials and methods. Some of my favourites over the years have included collage, animation and any printing method. I think it’s important to design and create things I enjoy and connect with on the off chance that there’s someone out there who feels the same. I’m driven by making things for other people, from thoughtful homemade birthday gifts to books for Gaelic speakers and learners. There’s no feeling like seeing some enjoy or use something you have made with your own hands.

am an Illustrator whose practice is predominately spent drawing the things that I love. make work that is colourful, uplifting and fun through a practice of both digital and analogue techniques. This year I’ve focused on narrative. My book ‘Christmas at Rogano’, explores an imagined past, present and future. Every year my sister and have Lobster and Chips on Christmas Eve at Glasgow’s most loved restaurant- Rogano. Since the restaurant closed in 2020, I want to play homage to the restaurants history and explore the idea of who me and my sister would be if we had lived in each decade the Rogano was open. From 1930-2030, my twelve-chapter book interweaves themes of class, society, and friendship. The book explores Glasgow’s rich history and a love for tradition. I’ve also been working with pottery this year to add dimension to my work.

My Design History and Theory Extended Essay explored what impact the all-women art group the Guerrilla Girls had on the art world and to what extent do they represent diversity in 2023.

I am an illustrator creating work focused on observing the public and taking a humorous approach to cataloguing my observations. I work with found image and type to create surreal takes on the people that surround me. My research is based in producing art which is light-hearted and accessible, and am interested in the variety of ways this can be accomplished. Alongside my observational and humour-based work I have spent a lot of time researching and working with symbolic language and how can use this to be very visually playful and still communicate my ideas.

Shot in the spring of 2023, this body of work explores the notion of home from a personal odyssey carved out of various rural sites which lay in the margins of my hometown, Falkirk. I map out these landscapes through constructed image, romanticising their topography while retracing kindred memories and re-imagining their lore.

I am a Polish illustrator and visual artist. My artistic practice revolves around themes of identity, memory, politics, human rights, and neurodivergence.

My degree project: “I feel like am from nowhere,” questions the significance of a connection to a place, culture, and heritage as it relates to one’s identity. My family’s nomadic lifestyle has left me with a blurred sense of identity and post-memory defined by gaps and blank spaces, which inspired me to explore my roots through conversations with my mother in an attempt to fill the blanc spaces with a repository of second-hand memories.

In my essay, I aimed to explore blanc spaces of a different kind, to which my personal experiences of cultural invisibility inspired me. Through analysis of past and present discourses on Eastern Europe, I find that its construct, as seen by Western Europe, resembles Orientalist patterns and is built on a hierarchical slope between civilisation and barbarism, as Eastern Europe is built in opposition to Western Europe, as its alter ego, against which Western Europe could define itself. find this topic especially important amidst the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a significant part of political discourse is still built upon those thinking patterns.

Katie Smith

Katie Stewart

Kyle Crooks

Laura Balcerek

am an illustrator currently exploring slang used within the queer community and queer spaces I often find myself in. I found when I removed myself from that bubble, these terms that were once clear as day began to appear as absurd and nonsense. have worked a lot with crochet, creating wearable garments as well as mini tapestries. aim to achieve a humour within my work whilst also bringing awareness to the slang used within the queer community.

My extended essay focused on the evolution of queer representation in mainstream cinema and why it evolved the way it did based on the social and political climates at the time. broke it down into chapters which included ‘Queer representation, Mass Culture and Entertainment’, ‘Censorship and Hollywood’s Golden Age’,’ Character Analysis’ and Queer Cinema - Post Stonewall’.

My coursework this year has mainly consisted of my own self-directed project titled ‘Along the Periphery’ where have been investigating and documenting Glasgow’s peripheral ‘overspill’ housing schemes. This project, although having some political motivation is not an overt statement, rather am simply documenting and communicating the realities that are not often featured in contemporary portrayals of Glasgow. In the post-industrial era, the city has sought to shed much of the working-class heritage that defined its past in a bid to appear as a more cultural and touristic destination. I seek to address this imbalance by documenting the places along the periphery, both geographic and in perceived importance.

The Design History and Theory component of my degree saw me tackle the subject of Govan’s immense rise and fall as an industrial powerhouse using the cultural theory of Mark Fisher and economic arguments of Noam Chomsky. By beginning with an economic historiography of Govan’s rise I was then able to open the conversation onto an analysis of the impacts of the post-industrial economy on living standards and the built environment itself.

I am a designer with a drive to make socially and environmentally conscious work. This translates into all of my graphic design, which primarily takes the form of printed matter, film and interactive design. I take inspiration from the world around me, often responding to local as well as global issues. Drawing on concept-led briefs, research plays a strong part of my practice, engaging with archives, design history and current affairs.

My largest project this year takes the form of an immersive exhibition which explores Scotland’s diminishing temperate rainforests. This environment is at risk to a range of factors, including the climate crisis, but is essential to Scotland’s eco-system with home to over 17,000 plant species. Using a variety of processes, such as film, 3D modelling and photography, I have sculpted a VR interactive exhibition, allowing the user to explore this fascinating habitat.

This year I have also written a dissertation titled: Community, Sustainability and Design: Towards a Greener Glasgow, which inspects the role of Community Based Organisations within the city. I have then turned this into an editorial publication, inspecting binding methods, layout and fine details, basing decisions upon my primary research into Glasgow’s communities.

In my work, I depict my experience as an Autistic individual through Illustrations and Animation. Using these mediums and interviewing people in my life, I attempt to describe the autistic perspective to portray sensory sensitivities, social communication and repetitive behaviours. aim to explore not only the internal experience of ‘Neurodivergency’ but the feeling of being observed in a medical capacity throughout the diagnostic process. In my practice this year, this has led me to look at medical illustrations, cell visualisations and time-lapse microscopy as inspiration to visualise these experiences.

Though my work addresses a diagnosis that is possessed by 1-2% of the UK population, balance the use of abstract shapes and movements with vibrant colours to convey the emotions tied to the autistic lived experience in a way that is accessible to everyone.

Michelle Musyoka

Lewis Aitken Malcolm Allan Mary Martin

My practice is driven by my love of fun and slightly odd ideas and creating playful work. I enjoy being eclectic with my research which often begins from aspects of popular culture. My work this year has mainly explored narratives that find exciting. Through my interest in shrines and fan culture, have designed a typographic cloak made for Eurovision sensation Guildo Horn, who unfortunately only came in seventh place. enjoy experimenting with textiles and embracing the kitschier side of graphics.

My Tooth loss project communicated a series of fictitious soundscapes of teeth falling out, initially through animation and then through coding interactive web design and VR. The idea was to exaggerate by drawing on collective fears and discomfort, creating a visceral and disgusting experience. Collaborative projects are important to me, and have loved working with Izzi Menzies on our publication communicating the public and private nature of toilets and the connection this has with gossiping and celebrity culture. In my Design History and Theory, I questioned why the casual sub-culture had been continually overlooked and proposed an exhibition that celebrated the casual voices in Phil Thornton’s personal history Casuals: Football, Fighting and Fashion: the Story of a Terrace Cult.

I am a designer who is motivated by communicating humorous and playful ideas through the moving image.

Over the past year, have dedicated myself to creating short, advert-style films that explore the intersections of our society and culture. My ambition is to examine complex themes, which include taboos such as modern relationships with money and the Scottish cultural identity, in a way that is accessible, entertaining, and challenging.

Alongside filmmaking, I have a passion for publication design. Being the Graphic Designer for The Glasgow University Magazine (GUM) has given me valuable skills in understanding layout design and typography rules and principles.

In my DHT essay, I explored popular culture’s role in commodifying women in the 21st century, researching ‘Girl Boss’ culture and how the feminist movement is portrayed through modern advertising.

My design so far has been a vessel for my own personal experiences; whether that inspiration is gained from the people love most, the community I grew up in or the aggravation of everyday prejudices. My work is a reaction to my own environment, and an effort to encourage deeper human relationships to things that are personal to myself and to others.

Projects this year which highlight this include a typographic memorial for my late Papa Shug and a short film inspired by a quote by Margaret Atwood centred around the male gaze out-with film. Furthermore, I worked on an extended essay titled ‘The Dictatorship of Background: Why the Scottish Working-class are Alienated from Higher Education’. This idea materialised through my own experience coming through the higher education system as an individual who grew up in a working-class area which was further inspired by the education received in the widening participation scheme - which I later became a tutor for.

As I continue to develop as a creative, I find it important to seek an understanding of others and differing life experiences. In future I expect to use my love for people, community, culture and equality to further flourish my portfolio through my key interests of film-making and lettering design but not limited to.

Over the past year I have been working on two films utilising hand drawn and mixed media animation. My first film Pigeon Holding explores the relationship between people and birds through a combination of photographic collage and hand drawn animation. My research was grounded in the community of pigeon keepers in Glasgow’s Doocots, exploring the tenderness and connection that exists within this maledominated hobby.

Oral history has made up the basis of the research for my second film, which takes a more narrative approach in telling the story of my Grandfather who took part in Formula 3 racing in the 1970s. My dad tells the story of a race day and his memories of his own father. Combining hand drawn animation with photographs and ephemera I aim to capture a clear sense of time and place while also exploring the relationship between the two.

I explored the use of objects as a tool for storytelling in my Extended Essay, which compared Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Purple Hibiscus to Mike Mills’ film 20th Century Women. Studying these sources, which were both semi-autobiographical, helped me to understand how the inclusion of real life details and memory can be used to create a richer sense of time and place.

Molly Hooper

Nancy Heley

Neve Loch

Olivia Dugdale

Siqi Chen Tom Mcfarlane

With everything I want to interpret in an interesting and uplifting way. am a designer who enjoys weaving stories. The content of my work often stems from my observations and associations of subtle things, and through visualising the story content and arranging and reorganising words and images in a connected way, making the concept of the story accessible to the viewer and reader.

‘ENHARMONIC’ is a collectivist record label that brings together all individual orchestral and choir musicians/artists. Music is one of the greatest inventions of human civilisation and, like all the arts, it is designed to express the self-expression of emotions while evoking emotional resonance through creation. However, there is one problem with classical music that cannot be ignored: it is often considered to be an oldtime, joyless music that is only listened to by the elite and the rich. ENHARMONIC, as a collectivist record label, wants to make more people recognize the appeal of classical music, especially the modern youth. And ENHARMONIC wants to reposition classical music for the 21st century and make people aware that it is a contemporary and global art form.

Throughout this year, my practice has aimed to look at many different areas; from type design, creating album artwork, publication design, and identity design.

For my final project this year, I chose to do a research-led project, focusing on the story of Scotland’s journey to the 1978 World Cup; a tournament which galvanised the nation like no other. Unlike previous World Cup’s which saw Scotland exit early, this one felt different, and saw Scotland go into a major competition as one of the favourites to win. The Publication follows the national team throughout this time, and goes from the qualifiers, all the way to Archie Gemmill’s brilliant goal against Holland, which saw a nation hit peak football frenzy. Telling this story has allowed me to explore and experiment with typography, image, publication layout, and printed matter. This project aims to encapsulate the footballing hysteria, of the ‘78 world cup, the Tartan Army experience, and tell the story through its layout, and design choices.

A Historical and Contemporary Comparison of the Visual Language of Industrial Action in Britain. aims to discuss the historical and contemporary contexts, and influences of the visual language, established by the tradeunion movement in Britain. Within this essay I looked at a variety of areas; from the typography of the industrial revolution during the emergence of trade unions in Britain, to the influence of social media during recent union disputes.

Tumi Mokopane Yanxi Li

As a multi-disciplinary artist, much of my work is inspired by the everevolving trials and tribulations of what is to be human, with key themes such as mental health and identity being integral to my artwork. I aim to provoke viewers to leave with a deeper emotional connection to themselves, looking within. I explore these ideas in my practice through digital illustration, focusing on condensing these complex subject matters in a balanced way through animation and my keen passion for 3D illustrations. This can be seen in my project, ‘The Fretful Fish of Worrywater Bay’, a playful 3D illustrative children’s book that follows a fish learning to stand up to his anxieties and face the tide, teaching children that it is okay to worry and that we can all be brave.

Furthermore, I believe that in creativity, there is the power to evoke emotion and share a part of yourself that may have stayed hidden without that outlet, which can be seen in my animation ‘The Shape of Loneliness’, an interview with my 17-year-old brother on what loneliness is to him. I aimed to create something deeply personal but with a message many could relate to, aided by visuals that help balance out such a moving topic. What is the shape of loneliness to you?

As an illustrator, my communication design practices are usually in the form of children’s picture books and illustrated books. Observation and imagination are the basis of my creation. Most of them come from my daily life and the world observed. And care if the world I live in can change for the better. In my design practice, telling stories with visual language in traditional illustration is what keep learning and improving. especially pay attention to compositions, sequences and narratives in my silent picture book, A Package for Lily. By depicting a Courier delivering a package, I would like to show the reader a new world in harmony with animals and nature. Also, I am interested in how psychoanalytical theories guide the illustration practice. As an imaginative designer, I am curious about the boundary between dreaming and imagination, and I study that further in my critical journal. In my studio work, mainly draw in watercolour, and I combine different materials, such as colour pencils, ink, brush, pen, tissue, etc. to enrich the details of the picture.

Also graduating; Shiqing Dong

See more work at: ugcomdes23.cargo.site

Cover image: Iris Nicholson

Studio photography: Shannon Tofts

Design: Kat Loudon and Phoebe Willison

Headline typeface: Rules by Freddie Guthrie

Printed by The Newspaper Club on 55gsm improved newsprint.

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