D&AD New Blood 2009

*Thanks for the photo Em.

Last week we hopped over to New Blood 2009, a year!? seriously... a whole year since we were exhibiting, I can't believe it.

There was plenty of familiar faces, our attempts to check out the work was thwarted by smiling faces of old friends, fun and welcome conversations, Gyles - our old lecturer & the Uni of Lincoln lot, who received a variety of nominations, pencils and a best in show - always a pleasure. Danny & Paul - who after being hired at the Inferno group were beaming, their enthusiasm is second to none, Little Emily :) over at theideabakery who was exhibiting & ended up coming away with 2 student pencils - that's no easy task. Rob Kitchen & Chris Waite, really nice guys, who run the show over at Falmouth, we've run into them on a couple of occasions... nevertheless we still got a good look around.

The thing with New Blood is that the ad work always seems overshadowed by the rest of the categories, don't get me wrong, we saw some really nice work in a few books - not to mention some of the work on display, but with only 5 truly specific Creative Ad courses - that I noticed (being: Bucks, Falmouth, Gloucester, Lincoln & Solent) amongst the 50+ other stands - it does give you an idea of scale.

As always, due to neglect of my camera - my battery was flat and little to no photographs were taken. This is a mid-year resolution of mine. Sort it out!

New Blood 2008 Highlights.

Well, if I am honest, I didn't really know what to expect when I got there, we arrived near enough on time for the Private View on Monday Night and had a good look around - Initially I learnt that the shear amount of graphic design & illustration far out weighs that of any advertising on display.

On the whole I was expected to be blown out of the water by the standard of the work, considering this is a showcase of the best academia from around the UK - possibly further - I didn't come away needing a change of underwear and wanting to crawl into a hole somewhere. There was a lot of advertising stuff I just didn't get, I'm sure people might say the same about a couple of bits of our work, but that's that. However, there were certainly a few gems that I was rather jealous of. 

Like the true photographer I am, I left my camera at home, so have added a few photos straight off my phone.

University of Lincoln BA (Hons) Creative Advertising Display Wall

No idea what stand this one was from, but I felt at the visual simplicity was brilliant. Slightly envious - if anyone happens to know who this is then let me know and i'll credit them where possible.

This one I find especially amusing, a business card to put if your wallet ensuring if it's stolen you'd have the last laugh. If only the guy who took the photo had managed to get the other side of the business card I'd liked to have seen some more of his/her stuff.

Although it does resemble that of a computer arts magazine cover - I loved it, a stunning, vibrant, crisp piece of work from a few stands down, the backlight simply added to the work - again, if i'd had half a clue, maybe i'd have remembered its creator! Hats off.

On the whole the experience was good, we were given some contact details and have lined up a few things as a result. I managed to hook up with some friends from my College foundation course - a good few years back, people from the Watford interviews and a couple of friends from other Universities across the UK who were exhibiting. Finished off at the pub for a quick pint before heading off with an early start the next day.

Mike.

D&AD New Blood 2008

Roll on the 23rd - 25th.

Why you ask? Incase you missed the title it's D&AD's New Blood Exhibition.

For those of you who don't know what it's all about here's the gist of it:

"It's a showcase of the best new creative talent. Over 100 college and university courses teaching design, advertising, digital media, visual communications and related crafts fields exhibit the work of their best graduates".

A few of us from up here in Lincoln have been asked to exhibit on behalf of our degree course, BA (Hons) Creative Advertising. It's a big honour so we're pretty chuffed. 

The event runs from 10:00am - 4.00pm @ Earl's Court, Brompton Hall, London, SW5 9TA.

If there's any other details we'll let you know!

The 2007 highlights can be found here

Mike.