As always the Duncan of Jordanstone degree show never disappoints. With the show from Dundee celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, it certainly lived up to expectations. The show was dubbed as 290o this year for the 290 participating artists and designers. The exhibition has been widely reviewed as one of the best that DJCAD has produced in the past 15 years and the students from across all 11 disciplines put on an exceptionally strong showing, one that will have the incoming 4th year students cowering even more than usual through the summer months.
As always Elastic takes quite a keen interest when it comes to the Graphic Design Show due to our strong links with the course, with the link of setting an annual brief to the 4th year students (to view their responses to this years brief click here) and with several having attended ourselves.
This year’s show had several stand-out pieces from the designers. For me, Holly Gallacher’s Flat Earth project was a favourite of the show with its striking graphical elements coupled with simplistic typography and engaging subject matter.
Another standout project from the Graphic Design department was Andrew Leitch’s Thorium project promoting the element as a safe, green alternative form of energy production for the planet. Andrew displayed great production skills producing well-crafted packaging and attention to detail when it came to typography.
The show as a whole had a great feel to it with many more noteworthy projects such as John Russell’s General Store, Elliot McIntosh who as well as having some interesting Motion Graphics had a well crafted space. There were also great overall shows from Tina Munro and Gavin Borthwick.
In addition to the Graphic Design show the Fine Art section is always one to draw in the crowds. On a personal note, I felt the show was the strongest that it had been for a long time. The majority of the artists brought a freshness to the discipline that can quite often become overly serious for the regular exhibition goer.
Allan Davies’ series of paintings were beautifully simplistic, his attention to detail (above) in creating a photo realistic piece of paper and making tape was likely to have duped plenty of exhibition goers.
John Kelly (above) displayed an enormous amount of work working with just pen and paper. There were several other noteworthy shows such as Mhairi Edwards who created beautiful sculptures.
As always the DJCAD degree show lived up to expectations and Elastic will certainly be keeping an eye on Dundee for what the students can produce next year.
For more info about any of the artists or designers on show please visit the DJCAD Degree Show Website.
Main image Sahar Latif.
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