GRAPHIC DESIGN FESTIVAL//PICK ME UP LONDON//OUGD602-not fin-

pick me up: London, graphic design festival

'Now in its fifth year, the UK’s original contemporary graphic arts festival Pick Me Up showcases graphic art in all its forms. Aimed at being the antithesis of a traditional art fair, Pick Me Up is a fun and informal festival featuring quirky studio spaces in which to shop for affordable artwork from the great and good of graphic arts, and a daily, lively line-up of events which encourage both budding and bonafide artists of all ages to get involved. Pick Me Up 2014 promises to be bigger and better than ever with more late nights and an even wider range of illustration and design represented, from fashion and architecture to comic books and album covers.'

Over the weekend I attended the pick me up graphic design festival in somerset house which was a really good event to be exposed to the new contemporary design from designers who have either graduated or set up a studio in the last seven years.  It was a great opportunity to talk to a few people about what they did after graduating and how they set up their own studio, it also allowed me to broaden my knowledge on some of the more recent and upcoming designers.

Whilst at the design festival I came across a designer I really liked, its not usually the type of design I am interested in but I really like the style and illustrations.  The colour is something that caught my eye which isn't usually something I am drawn to straight away within design.  The designer takes influence from East African as her mum is an artist from Tanzania.

Lynnie Zulu

Born on the Scottish border, Lynnie Zulu studied Illustration and Animation at Kingston University, graduating in 2010. With an artist mother from Tanzania, Lynnie's work carries an African influence that is revealed in the energetic mark making and by the exotic characters she creates. Her illustrations can be found in, amongst others, fashion print, LP artwork and live art performances, and has featured in i-D, Vogue and Juxtapozmagazines. She has exhibited in various group shows alongside artists including Rob Ryan, Paul Willoughby and Monica Canilao, and in 2013 had her first solo show Jungle Fever which was set to afro-beat and calypso music.

Whilst looking around I came across a studio called Handsome Frank which are a UK based illustration agency that commission new and upcoming illustrators and designers.  I had a chance to speak to one of the people who helped set up the agency.  We discussed the competitiveness and the emerging talent in design and what the potential options would be for me after graduating.  She explained how Handsome Frank came about and we talked about certain bits of work that I particularly liked from HF.  There were also some work featured that I recognised from online on various design blogs and websites.

illustrations commissioned by Handsome Frank

I also came across some publication design from Ditto Press which I recognised from the studio visit.  In terms of publication design I was inspired by the range and format size.  AS I am interested in this direction within graphic design I thought I should explore more with format sizes as at the moment most of the publication design I have created are all A5 or custom sized but smaller than A5, this is something I will look to work on in the last term and try to create a broader range of format sized for my publication.

There was a lot of design there that really inspired some of the direction I wanted to take coming up to the final few weeks of uni.  There were a lot of prints and posters which I really liked the look of which inspired me to try out screen printing with more than one colour.  There were a range of studios there selling prints and work along with publications and other printed matter.