Niina Kuosmanen, BA Hons Design Crafts

Niina Kuosmanen, a BA Hons Design Crafts student, won the prestigious New Designers 2008 Habitat Award at the annual design event at the Business Design Centre in London.

Niina received a £500 Habitat voucher and a three month work placement with Habitat.

Over 4,000 graduates showcased their work at the event. A number of companies sponsor awards which reward and acknowledge original thinking and innovation as well as creative excellence. 13 New Designers awards were presented on Wednesday 2 July at the Part 1 VIP preview when Cath Kidston opened the exhibition. Some of the key members of the Habitat design team, including Bethan Gray and James Harrison, were discovered at New Designers and were themselves part of the judging panel this year.

Niina was understandably delighted,

‘What an amazing way to start New Designers! I am thrilled with the recognition from within the industry. After New Designers I intend to set up my own studio and to continue making ceramics and developing my work.'

The Judges described Niina's work as "an intriguing and versatile piece of design that inspires a sense of play. It is graphic, tactile and timeless. Its conceptual dimension doesn't limit its commercial potential.'

Well done to Niina!

More information about New Designers is available at www.newdesigners.com

BA Fine Art - Local Artist and third year student

Michael Martin is both a local artist and a third year B.A. Fine Art student success story. Michael has developed his artistic abilities over a range of courses based at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College starting with an Access to Art course four years ago. Michael had had a variety of outdoor jobs over the past 35 years and came to art fairly late in life but this has not affected his enthusiasm or talent,
"When I first started the course and found out that I was dyslexic I panicked, I thought to myself I would have a lot of reading and writing to do on the B.A. Fine Art course and I was not sure whether I would be able to continue because of my reading and writing skills. But thankfully through the tremendous help and support from all the staff within study support and my tutors at the Fine Arts Course at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College, I have been able to continue my studies in Fine Art. So I would say to anybody that has a goal in life to go for it! Don't let your lack of education or dyslexia get in the way there is help out there".

Michael will be holding his first public exhibition at The Mill Arts Centre, Banbury March 3rd - 16th 2008 in the Longroom Gallery.

Michael's work can be viewed and orders placed on the following website SplittingImage

Michael Martin
31st October 2007

Ho! Ho! Silver Lining! - Furniture graduate heads off to Russia

Recent Rycotewood Furniture Centre graduate Oliver Van der Breggen will be heading off to Moscow in the New Year. He is currently working for the furniture design and making company ‘Silver Lining' based in Cheshire. A company that specialises in the creation of bespoke furniture for super yachts, embassies, museums and private residences worldwide. Oliver is part of a team of designer - makers working on furniture and interior fittings for a Russian palace. The team will be travelling out to complete the job in January, brrrr!

Oliver has exhibited his work at a range of venues since finishing college in June, these include New Designers at the Business Design Centre in London, which resulted in a commission for a pair of bedside cabinets; as well as the ‘Furniture Show' at Birminghams's NEC, where he was awarded First Prize ‘Best in Show' by Living Etc. magazine.

Now he has joined the prestigious company ‘Silver Lining' and is looking forward to gaining invaluable experience and furthering the skills he developed whilst undertaking the BA Furniture Design course at the Rycotewood Centre.

Design Crafts Gallery

Click here to view a gallery of work by the students on the BA in Design Crafts

Bags of Ideas

Green issues are big business. Many high street stores are already picking up on the demands of their more discerning customer, as consumer awareness demands that producers are paid fairly for their labour.

It is clear from the heated debates in the classroom at OCVC that fashion students are aware of how high street stores and supermarkets are using these new buzz words to ‘sell, sell, sell'. The fashion industry is probably one of the hardest trades to get ethically right, as campaigners Labour Behind the Labour will tell you.

"Part of our course is to learn about the ethical issues in the fashion industry. Our fairtrade bag project was a real eye opener" said Crystal Padmore, BTEC National Diploma in Fashion student, "It was an amazing opportunity to be selected as one of the finalists to present our design ideas to Topshop accessory buyer Claire Hamer, it was even more amazing when my bag was selected to be sampled by a fairtrade producer group in Peru".

Course Leader, Maria Skoyles said, "students need to understand how their future decisions as designers will impact on the environment and global world trade".

The course has a number of industrial links, including Oxfam and Trading for Development. Maria Skoyles travelled to Peru and Bolivia last February with Judith Condor-Vidal offering sewing workshops to a Fairtrade producer groups. The outcome of the project has been a small production run of Crystal's bag design.

"I am delighted with the quality of the bag samples made by CIAP (an international Faitrade Association member). CIAP work with 19 craft groups (2000 people) in the deprived areas of Peru. This is a really innovative project that I am thrilled to be able to sponsor. The bag was shown a few weeks ago at the Paris Ethical Fashion Show" said Judith Condor-Vidal of Trading for Development.

Crystal's efforts have been recognised by Parisienne Fashion Eye journalist Florence Muller. Click here to see the article.

Bafta Winner Returns to OCVC to share experiences

A Graduate from an Oxford & Cherwell Valley College Graphic Design course has recently paid a visit to a group of current students to discuss his experiences working in industry and to talk about his BAFTA competition award.

Wayne Yip, who graduated from BA (Hons) Graphic Design & Illustration (a course validated by De Montfort University) in 2004, returned to meet his former lecturers at the Banbury Campus and to showcase his work aimed at inspiring and informing students currently studying for the same qualification. His work included the sixty second film that was co-directed by Wayne and his friend / business partner Alex Garcia that won the pair the ‘Orange Sixty Seconds of Fun’ Bafta Award.

The award saw the lucky pair spending the night brushing shoulders with the rich and famous at the 2006 Bafta Awards ceremony which Wayne describes as the ‘best night of my life’.

Now directing music videos for a number of up-and-coming groups, Wayne had spent much of his course focussing on print and still image but after a fellow student approached a brief with a moving image solution, it opened Wayne’s eyes to the possibility of video work, “I had never really approached the idea of working in video before, but the course equipped me with a lot of creative ‘ammunition’ that made me want to go out into industry and use it”.

Wayne feel that he owes a lot of his success to his tutors for their time and support during his studies.

“They were a constant source of inspiration and were always really supportive and taught you how to satisfy your creativity. It also gave me a really good insight into what the industry was like, which prepared me really well for working after I had graduated”.
After spending time with the current students, one student described the session as “absolutely overwhelming. Fantastic”.

So what’s next for Wayne? “Next year Alex and I plan to enter a film into the short film category of the Baftas so hopefully we’ll continue to go from strength to strength and eventually be the Directors of a major feature film in the future”.