News | Wednesday, 22nd May 2019
Introducing: Everything Starts From Something
This year’s degree show identity by Studio DBD
Each year the School of Art approaches an alumni to produce the identity for the Degree Show. As we come to celebrate our new graduates, we like to show them what they could go on to achieve whilst recognising the achievements of a previous graduate.
This year our identity was created by School of Art alumni David Sedgwick who runs Studio DBD. Dave, who graduated in Graphic Design in 2001, has been a key figure in the Manchester design scene and most recently has worked with a wide range of new and exciting brands including Track Breweing Co, Erst restaurant and Foil Co.
Our identity this year is a celebration of first artistic endeavours and parts of the branding have been crowd sourced directly from the childhood sketches and doodles of our students.
As Dave explains:
“I decided to think about the relationship between parent and child and how proud a parent can feel once their child graduates from university.
"This gave me the idea to ask the students to submit their first ever work as artists, often created when they were about two or three years old.
"I think conceptually it’s a really nice angle to take and allows the students work to be showcased in a totally unique way. I am so grateful for the students who pestered their parents to take down their old scrapbooks, schoolbooks and memory boxes from the attic and hunt at the back of their drawers for the original first drawings! Without these the concept would never have materialised and so I am really thankful.”
This concept also celebrates arts education as a whole and is intended to inspire the next generation of young people to keep following their creative passions:
“We live in a society now where arts education is sadly and slowly being cut and yet by using these first ever sketches, drawings and paintings to celebrate graduation we are able to suggest the notion that Everything Starts From Something. A sentiment that hopefully allows parents and guardians to appreciate that almost 20 years after their child picked up their first ever paintbrush they are now graduating from the School of Art.”
And finally, Dave has some key advice for those students graduating this year:
“First of all it’s really important to enjoy your final weeks at University and especially the show itself. All too often I feel students are increasingly concerned with what happens next. It’s easy for me to say I know, but it’s time to reflect on the past three to four years and to congratulate yourself on completing your time at university without worrying too much about the coming weeks and months.
"I’d also suggest that all students don’t just hang around their own course during the show, but to investigate other departments within the University. Go and see the illustration course if you are studying fashion and so on and so forth. You can make many connections at University right up until the final days of being there and what better chance than during the degree show?
"The final thing I’d say is to never lose the sense of experimentation and enjoyment in your work that you often get whilst at University. No matter where your career path takes you, I think it’s important to never lose that. Despite it being almost 20 years since I graduated I always aim to remember that feeling of trying something new in my work for the first time and managing to make it happen.”
Everything Starts From Something runs until Wednesday 19 June.
Find out more about Dave Sedgwick here.
Explore the work of our Class of 2019 on our Degree Show mini site.
