Saumya Mittal
Graphic Media Design


I started my DPS year with a very clear outlook on where I needed to be by the end of it. I was sure I needed to learn information design and data visualisation. But I had nowhere to start, and couldn’t possibly figure out where this might lead me to.

So I started with a series of personal projects and made sure I was always working on something of my own beside my internships. My first experiment was a very personal and abstract one. For over two years, I collected data with my boyfriend. I created a system of positive and negative points for every time he made me happy or sad.

After my initial data set was made, I charted these points in excel. I was sure the visual depiction of this data had to be more than graphs and bar charts. It had to visualise my relationship over every year.  I started by choosing a colour palette and setting it for the good and the bad. I then developed some complex shapes to reflect the nature of human relationships.

​The second project I did was more documentation based. This was during my first internship in Mumbai. The Mumbai local trains have a notorious reputation of being crowded at all times during the day. If you travel during peak hours, you almost never get a chance to sit. The data was recorded over a period of four months, while I travelled to and from work. The peaks show standing and the lower points depict sitting.


The projects caught a lot of attention and I was successfully able to meet with some information designers and studios to get more feedback! The highpoint was when I got an internship offer from Accurat! the very studio that got me into information design. The logistics didn’t work out, but I am happy I got that far.

'There have always been collectives, but the fact that so many formerly solo-going illustrators are banding together is telling. In some ways, it’s another sign that illustration is mirroring the multidisciplinary design studio model. As illustration is increasingly treated like a design solution rather than a decorative element, there’s more need for larger collectives that can put their minds and pens together like an agency might. Peepshow may be at the forefront, but we expect smaller collectives (in Germany and beyond) to evolve in that direction.' - https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/why-every-illustrator-should-form-a-collective-right-now/

Starting the 0602 Collective has been really interesting. To be honest, I’ve never taken a leadership role in anything I’ve done in life. But it’s quite fun! It’s completely outside of my comfort zone to organise meetings, delegate tasks and reach out to people, which has also made it an experience of growth for me. I think this is helped due to working with such a talented, resourceful and communicative group of artists who form the 0602 collective. Being part of this collective allows us to share ideas, collaborate and find creative inspiration without feeling like we're all in this on our own. Working together we hope that each of our work and styles will grow and develop, as one person's perspective on a project can be completely different to another's.

WE ARE:
Elloise Rosemond, Hannah Balogun, Nicola Reeves, Jasmine Walsh, Laura White, Mark Henson-Dupuy, Claudia Espart, Jack Merton, Katherine Koroleva, Adi Pashalidi Kozelj and Patricia Beja.

To create a name for our collective in the beginning, I created a poll with different names that everyone had come up with and asked everyone to vote for their faves. This resulted in the name Smoothie with a whopping 5 votes in total! A couple of weeks after, at our first official meeting when Laura V got involved, the name Smoothie was no longer (which we were all quite glad about tbh). 0602 Collective was birthed – to mark our very first meeting on the 2nd February, which we much preferred. Our first task was to make a self-portrait - see some of ours below!
 
Personally, I can already see how this is impacting my own work in terms of having a solid group of people that all have a similar goal in common – to make more work. This somehow makes it easier to find the motivation to create work and not to worry so much about it ‘fitting in’ to a particular brief; in other words, it’s a safe space. Especially as I have often lacked confidence to carry out my ideas as a student, being a part of this collective has helped me to draw out the ideas I have within. I feel as though we have eachother’s best interests because we all want to get something out of this experience and it gives us a platform to share our work and get honest feedback, as well as encouragement when we need it. I’m really grateful to Laura V for coming up with the idea of starting a collective and egging me on to start it off, albeit forcefully (but forcefully in a nice way like when your grandma puts more food on your plate even after you’ve said you’re full), it’s made me really happy to be a part of even though we are still in the early stages.

We had a second meeting where we talked about projects we want to do for the next few weeks. We would like to make work about current events as well as weirder topics, but as it's March *Women's Month* we decided on the word motherly as our first theme. We have our third meeting tonight so I'm excited to see what everyone has come up with.​

Illustrations of the 0602 logo by lovely gals Hannah Balogun and Nic Reeves.

Katerina Demetriou-Jones

From a young age, I have always been a victim to stubbornness, of not admitting that the “goals” I laid out in my mind were not really my own. And because I held onto those goals for so long, I never really saw fault in them. Not to be a drama queen, but for years I tried to convince myself that my dream job was to be an art director. That I knew what being an art director meant when I literally had no clue. You’d think that on the first day of studying design for art direction you’d know the concept right? I’m in my third year and I’m only just connecting the dots now. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I’ve recently discovered a change in my direction, in art direction…
​
Let’s go back a little so I can explain myself. From late September last year, I took part as art director in the short film ‘Depth of Field’, a war film about a photojournalist who strives for recognition. Over the course of the next 6 months of making this film, I would uncover so many truths about myself that I didn’t know existed. I had a shaky start in my first two months of production, having an internship at .Cent at the time, I hadn’t really involved myself as fully as I should have done. But being new to this field, I struggled to manage my time efficiently, and therefore prioritised my internship over this film.

As my internship at .Cent came to an end in December, I started to take on the task of art director more seriously. I planned timetables for the art department, initiated meetings, made connections and created documents upon documents of prop/costume charts. I became a ball of energy, spinning round obstacles and jumping over hurdles, all was going great until one day I got slammed down really hard. The director of the film came up to me and said I was leading the art department too much. I was at first puzzled by this statement, wasn’t it my job to do just that? That day I learnt that it wasn’t me who was HOD (Head of Department) but the PD (Production Designer) who was.

Looking back at that now, I was a complete newbie to this so called ‘film world’ that I had never fully understood. Obviously being a design student, the role of art director was different in the media. Needless to say, I was completed beaten down by this fact, I felt as though I had been demoted to servant girl (once again, me being dramatic). I almost always took on the role of project manager in group projects without hesitation. To some people that may sound boring, but I love being in control of any work I involve myself in. That’s why people always think I’m a perfectionist because I truly am.

Nevertheless, I swallowed my pride and let the PD take over. I assisted her with booking appointments at prop houses, continued writing up documents and basically did everything necessary for her to create the vision of the film. Some part of me loved managing the art department, but a small side of me knew I wanted her job. But I kept saying to myself, no, you want to be an art director, this is what you’ve always wanted to do. I had some kind’ve devil angel situation going on and I don’t think it was quite good for my mental health in all honesty.

February began and shooting was going to commence from the 7th. We were all feeling the tension now and were organising our last bits of preparation ready for the day. It had become apparent at this time that the PD wasn’t providing her full attention to the film. And as her distance started to grow, I noticed myself taking on more of the her roles, like going to the costume houses by myself and making the majority of props needed. I couldn’t blame her however, as she was a third year too undertaking her graduate project. But I also couldn’t help but feel that maybe she shouldn’t have taken on the role if she knew she wouldn’t put in more of her time.
​
And then one day, the producer and director both sat me down and discussed with me that I was going to be the PD now, because I was doing both the job of art director and production designer. I wasn’t necessarily shocked by this statement, because deep down I knew that I had been doing this work. I was just surprised that they recognised it. I had no intention of stealing somebody else’s position, but when a job had to be done and wasn’t being dealt with, I stepped forward. So I did just that. Through 6 days of shooting through the February month, I dealt with dressing, costume attire and organising the look of the set (with the wonderful help of my art department and makeup team). On one shooting day, we even had to work with over 30 extras for a war camp scene, which was such a huge task but we managed it.

The film’s pre production came to an end on the 1st March, and I couldn’t be happier about the end result. This is the first time I have fully involved myself in a short film, and through exploration and experimentation, I am finally finding my new wave. I started this DPS year wanted to enhance my visual identity, and I believe I’m starting to really find just that. Not only is this pushing my professional outlook of networking with other creative people, but also my creativity as a person. I now feel a drive to teach myself more and be conceptual in my thinking. And I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year holds for me. And perhaps a few years from now, I may opt for a different career path once again. But I welcome it. Because I know for a fact that with every hurdle I face, I will no longer be afraid of change. Because change doesn’t represent failure, it opens us to stronger beginnings.

​ Jasmine Walsh IVM

Dulwich Picture Gallery Competition 
​
Competition Brief:
To support emerging creative talent through the Dulwich Pavilion project and Gallery programme
To commission a new mural piece responding to the Gallery collection.
To offer engaging artworks which attract public interest and relate back to the Gallery’s collection.
To build audience awareness of the Pavilion and its key messages.
 
After a quick briefing at DPG, and visiting the space, I was instantly intrigued by how people ‘find’ or see themselves in Art and Galleries. With the Gallery aiming to become inclusive and enticing to a wider audience, I started to focus on a nostalgic feeling of how I saw galleries at a young age. With no one in Old Masters paintings looking like me, or mirroring any aspect of my identity, even as a woman, I wanted to create something that a younger generation would either see themselves in or not feel excluded from.
 
 
A majority of my inspiration for my piece was based on encouraging children, and schools to visit and be attracted to the Gallery more. This element would also bring in a wider audience, such as parents and teachers too. Wanting to use similar themes and thoughts as the Artists in the Gallery, I emerged myself into their manner of drawing women as well as plants, but interpreted this into a more modern style and one that is different from the ‘norm’. Recreating the aspects of old Renaissance paintings into a medium and style that is more familiar and comfortable with current society, this now being digital drawings.
 
 “The Colour Palace will be an inspirational space for everyone to find themselves in art – in line with the Gallery’s founding principles.”
 
The illustration itself:
 
As a majority of the Classical work in the Gallery is of landscapes or includes very detailed European landscapes, I focused on an illustration that takes imagery from Jungles and Forrest. This not only widens the subject matter than I could draw and include but would also work well alongside the themes of the new Pavilion that will be a major part of the hoardings location. With the Architecture of the new Pavilion using West African patterns and colour palettes, I wanted the illustrated hoarding piece to not draw away from this. Rather than distracting from the use of light from the new Pavilion, I wanted to add in another element of light.
With the fairly busy and 2D illustration, I considered an 3D element of having a moon, either made of LED lights, glow-in-the-dark paint or reflective paint that could use the light in the open space or add in another element of light. Alongside the bright and kaleidoscope like new Pavilion, this would create more interest to the piece. 
I took inspiration from the Gallery for the Moon as a lot of the pieces in the Galleries collection are of a darker colour palette, either form the ageing process or a reflection of the paint at the time. The Moon is also a key element of my piece, so as to play with another aspect of light that the Palace may not. 
 
It overall creates a more children’s book like piece, which would draw in interest from a younger audience and schools. 
 
Having a very Tanzanian/East African illustrative style, such as the large exaggerated nostrils and ambiguously coloured characters, I hoped that the piece wouldn’t make anyone feel unrepresented and instead be a fun outlook and subject matter for the Gallery.
 
 

Edoardo Buttinelli, BA Design for Art Direction

For approximately one month now I have been assisting a commercial and fashion director based in East London. Following some reflections prompted by the experience so far.

• As soon as you get a glimpse of the so-called "industry", your work dynamics will start to change. You understand how much it is true, especially in a city like London, that (and I mean this in a very unfortunate and sad way) your time always equals money. Especially if your work takes place in and outside of a 9-5 routine, you will find out that by gifting your time to others you are effectively taking it from yourself. Because of this, eventually you will start putting a price on your time, or at the very least put set boundaries in the way you interface yourself with people you work for, or with.
  
  
• Before even saying yes to a project, you will have to think about deliverables. Amends included in the fee. Rights of use of the work produced. Budgets for everything. Different labels to put on what you do: you might be known as a photographer, but you might need to act as a producer, as a set designer, as a DOP. All these things should come at a cost. Although this might seem like a daunting task, once you are actually clear on what you do and how much you charge for it, you immediately become more confident and able to make claims you can then back up with reasoning.
  
  
• You start thinking about other's works in terms of budget, mentally working out how much they might have spent to achieve something. It is during this period that I truly realised what my tutors meant when they told us "never put yourself in a box" while working on university projects. This is because the industry does so to you, as soon as you figure out what your elevator pitch should be. Talking more generically about what I have seen around me by working in a shared studio more than my own experience, work seems to become extremely practical, with no time to reflect on experiences, or why we do what we do as creatives. Thinking requires time, and as I said, time equals money, so the bottom line is, it is expensive to be a thinker. Make sure you make those 9K an year worth them.
  
  
• To be a creative's assistant means to be their life assistant. In a good way! Let me explain. This is not a job in which you work 9 to 5, but instead you are supposed to form a human relationship with your "boss". You get involved in whatever they are up to in life, their loved ones, their pets, their friends. In order to do a good job soft skills are essential more than anything else. This is at least the case in my limited experience, but at the same time it feels that is how it should be, especially when you hear all those ugly "devil-wears-Prada" style stories from the fashion industry where people are highly mistreated. That is perhaps the great thing of working in the creative industry after all: that we don't have to wear suit and ties and work in big, alienating offices in the City, but instead live in a way more organic workplace. We are artists after all. 

Marie Alberto, Design for Art Direction Year 3

My passion has always been inclined towards books since elementary school. I still remember the moment of joy when I won my first dictionary book after a dictation competition.
 
Few months ago, it was with great enthusiasm that I applied at Pavilion Books, an independent publishing house that specialises on illustrative books alongside designers. They publish around 150 books a year under their range of established imprints; Batsford, Collins & Brown, National Trust, Pavilion, Pavilion Children's, Pitkin and Portico.
 
 
My internship consists of 4 months extended to 6 months contracted position as a Design Intern.
 
I collaborate and work hand in hand with the design-in-house team of four wonderful women, the creative director, the design manager, the senior designer, the designer, and myself.
 
The design intern position is for me an eye opener to the world of design and publishing industry.
 
Here’s how:
 
A book is written and designed about a year or even more before its publishing date.
 
Pavilion Books is a small company of less than hundreds of people which allows me to observe all departments working altogether collaboratively.
 
Throughout the process of making a book, the design team consistently communicates with editors and publishers as well as the production (reprographics) team.
 
Being a design intern requires a lot of punctuality, patience, proactivity, persistence and ultimately a positive attitude. You will be immersing in a very fast-paced environment where you will be asked to deliver immediately and greatly. You learn as you go but you have to be able to understand as you go, and it doesn’t always happen, so you will have to ask questions in order to do the things correctly.
 
In Design, Photoshop and Illustrator are huge vital skills to have as a designer and graphic designer, I would consider it as my right hand. During my internship, my colleagues generously taught me a lot of technical tricks and it saved a lot of my time.
 
All in all, I was able to have a lot of responsibilities such as designing book covers, inside spreads, prepare files to repro for different imprints, and help out the sales, marketing and publicity department.
 
From my perspective as an art direction and multi-disciplinary student, I thought that being a design intern was quite restrictive and doesn’t give enough room to experiment with other mediums. But otherwise, the experience was worth taking and the amazing people worth knowing!