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Fantastical worlds, dreamy illustrations and bold design: Graphics, Illustration & Game Arts’ Class of 2022 Ones to Watch
Monday, 15 August, 2022 — With online features by the Association of Illustrators, award winners at this year’s Summer Show awards and commissions in exhibitions at The Box, these graduates have a bright future ahead of them.
<p dir="ltr">Our extensive design and media degrees offer students the opportunity to explore the fundamentals behind meaningful design, informing aspiring designers or media makers how to balance and creatively reinvent the social interface between maker and end-user. From <a href="https://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-illustration-2021">illustration</a> to <a href="https://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-graphic-communication-2021">graphic design</a> and from <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ba-hons-animation-games">game art to character design</a>, our students graduate into the creative industries with the personal and professional attributes needed for a successful career.</p>
<p dir="ltr">With online features by the Association of Illustrators, award winners at this year’s Summer Show awards and commissions in exhibitions at The Box, these graduates have a bright future ahead of them.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Originally from Poland, <a href="https://www.bogdaniwaniuk.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bogdan Iwaniuk</a> is a concept artist and illustrator in creative media. With experience in Photoshop, Maya, After Effects, Illustrator, Substance Painter and Audition, Bogan is a highly-skilled environmental world builder.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Much of Bogdan’s work to date is based on fantastical landscapes, taking a realistic approach to each setting and striving to accurately depict what usually goes unseen. With a focus on environmental beauty, he pays close attention to diverse aspects of life and imagination in order to create unique landscapes. <br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Bogdan’s final major project at Arts University Plymouth, ‘The Bestowed Child’, is based on the concept for an RPG inspired by history, following a miracle-born human child who has been tasked with restoring order from the tyrannical rule of an ancient dynasty.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.bogdaniwaniuk.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.bogdaniwaniuk.com</a><br /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/graphicdesign.jade/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jade Storey</a> is a graphic designer who loves all things bright, colourful and bold. Jade enjoys designing for a purpose, with a strong message behind much of her work. She believes that, as a designer, it is important to focus on <em>why</em> you are creating something; ‘if you can answer that, then it is guaranteed to be a success’.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Inspired by the likes of Jessica Walsh, the founder of creative agency &Walsh, and Paula Scher from design company Pentagram, Jade’s interests lie in branding, using bold colour in her designs as well as in her typography. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Her freelance work to date has included album covers for local musicians and poster work for music production companies, with Jade aspiring to eventually work in branding for beauty companies such as Benefit or fashion brands such as Ted Baker. While studying at Arts University Plymouth, Jade completed a design placement at design studio <a href="https://www.brandbiscuitstudio.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brand Biscuit Studio</a>.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">When not designing, Jade enjoys exploring the coast and visiting seaside towns around Devon and Cornwall. Additionally, she loves cooking and has recently started bouldering. Jade likes to keep herself busy, because she never knows where inspiration will spark.</p>
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<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/graphicdesign.jade/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.instagram.com/graphicdesign.jade</a><br /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.smileyshri.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Shri Gunasekara</a> is an illustrator who specialises in sequential image-making. Her work explores family dynamics and intimacy. Shri visually shows these emotive narratives by using bold shapes and compositions, as well as textures and colour jitter to give my digital work an organic feel. These ideas are explored through experimental formats, testing the boundaries of picture books, graphic novels and comics. Shri’s projects are an accumulation of fun and intimate family connections through a vivid and exuberant palette of text and visual storytelling.<br /></p>
<p>Shri has worked with clients including Arts University Plymouth: Students’ Union, Plymouth Art Cinema, BABE (Bristol Artist Bristol Event), Plymouth Green Minds charity, University of Plymouth and MIRROR.</p>
<p dir="ltr">At this year’s Summer Show Awards, <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/posts/award-winning-graduates-at-arts-university-plymouths-summer-shows-2022">Shri was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation Award</a>, recognising her outstanding creative and academic achievements, while actively contributing to the university community. Shri also contributed to an <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2022-08-02/keyham-tragedy-young-people-design-illustrations-for-one-year-anniversary" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">art project to commemorate the Keyham tragedy</a>, with Shri’s moving illustrations projected onto Smeaton’s Tower and Theatre Royal Plymouth over the anniversary weekend.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/smileyshri_" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.instagram.com/smileyshri_</a><br /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.jasminemegan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jasmine Megan</a> is a graphic designer, with an interest in editorial, branding and campaign visual identity, with a particular interest in type. The majority of her design process involves looking to the past in order to better inform the future.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">While studying at Arts University Plymouth, Jasmine was commissioned for projects including the two day hot glass event <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/supported-projects/melting-pot">Melting Pot</a> as well as working on the <a href="https://www.theboxplymouth.com/storage/another-crossing-exhibition-catalogue-1646312439.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital catalogue</a> for the Another Crossing exhibition at Plymouth’s museum and art gallery, <a href="https://www.theboxplymouth.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Box</a>.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Jasmine takes inspiration from history, adapting elements of the past with contemporary design styles. In her free time, Jasmine enjoys exploring and visiting old buildings, collecting images of type and design elements that influence her design practice and re-imaging their visual identity within personal passion projects. Her long term goal is to work alongside local councils in order to better her local community through graphic design.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/jasminemegandesign" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.instagram.com/jasminemegandesign</a><br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Named by the Association of Illustrators (AOI) as one of their <a href="https://theaoi.com/2022/07/27/10-uk-illustration-graduates-to-watch-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘10 UK Illustration Graduates to Watch in 2022’</a>, <a href="https://www.kateohdowd.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kate Channing</a> is an illustrator based in Plymouth, who creates bright, graphic artwork for a variety of clients across a wide range of projects.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Creating work that covers varying subject matters, Kate has worked on everything from packaging design for alcohol brands to editorial illustrations for publications, to surface pattern design and typography. Kate’s work is an ongoing investigation into art as therapy, how illustration can be used as a communication tool and the power of illustration as a means of promoting social change. She is largely inspired by social issues, environments, personal and shared experiences and strong emotions, and has a huge interest in the ways in which graphic design principles and illustration can work in tandem to create interesting and unique compositions and convey important messages. Kate enjoys using her practice as a way to tackle social issues that she’s passionate about - for her final major project, she developed a brand identity for an anti-spiking alcohol brand, aimed at improving women’s safety. <br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">During her studies, Kate has completed editorial work for Arts University Plymouth, been shortlisted for a competition with Tate and collaborated with <a href="https://collectiveartsbrewing.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Collective Arts Brewing</a>, a craft brewery in Canada. In her free time, the illustrator and graphic designer loves to write and enjoys creating character designs, comics and graphic novels.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/kateohdowd/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.instagram.com/kateohdowd</a><br /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.artstation.com/thermogenic_jam">George Hogben</a> is a digital artist with a penchant for character design and world building. His fascination with today’s strongly stylised platform games inspired his final major project, Psykoblade. Focusing on an offbeat graphic style rather than a high degree of realism, Psykoblade is a hypothetical game idea with unique and exciting characters and distinctive and intriguing environments and levels, which George designed with both physical and digital mediums. <br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">George has had his unique character designs immortalised by the IGNITE Festival of Creativity, with his work erected on a large pillar in Barclays Bank in Plymouth City Centre.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">George aspires to successfully express his ideas to a broader audience by taking his work as an aspiring concept artist and organising it in digestible ways, with projects both visually appealing and unusual in their implementation.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/thermogenicjam/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.instagram.com/thermogenicjam</a><br /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.lucywalton.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lucy Walton</a> is an illustrator, printmaker and researcher from the West Midlands. Her illustrations are an attempt to explore the relation people have with the tangible natural world and the myths that it inspires. <br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Using a multimodal approach, with lines given equal importance to shape and texture, Lucy expands on the dreamlike feel her pieces have, by blurring the edge between traditional and digital illustration. Limited, often warm toned palettes add to the dreamy nature of her work, creating mainly one off illustrations or sequential narratives, applied in a variety of contexts.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">Lucy is passionate about arts education having worked with Arts University Plymouth and external bodies such as the Tate Exchange to change the perception of how important art is as a taught subject. Lucy recently exhibited at New Designers London.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/illolucy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.instagram.com/illolucy</a><br /></p>
