Illustrating the future of Dartington

Dartington has been helping three young illustrators from the University of Plymouth test their talents on an exciting project, with the amazing opportunity to work with the founding members the internationally renowned Pentagram Design, Mervyn Kurlansky – creating exciting art pieces which will be seen by over 3,000 people all over the world.

The promising young students from the BA Illustration course at University of Plymouth were asked to produce illustrations that embodied the relationship between the arts, sustainability
and social justice – the three strands of
The Dartington Hall Trust’s charitable work.

The best four illustrations have been featured in Dartington’s brand new Annual Review – hot off the press and already tipped for numerous design awards. Tom Barwick who runs the BA in Illustration at University of Plymouth said, “Working with Dartington alongside Mervyn Kurlansky created a fantastic opportunity for our students to make images in a professional context. Achieving this goal has meant that they all have a body of portfolio pieces that distinguishes them as mature image makers ready to tackle big issues with imagination and style.“’

The students were invited up to Dartington for a day last September, where they were given an insight into the exciting future plans of the innovative charity and mentored by Mervyn Kurlansky – one of the most influential commercial designers in the world.

The three illustrators who were chosen were Ciaran McFadden’s ‘Arts meets Sustainability’ and ‘Social Justice meets Sustainability’ and Mark Smith’s Arts meets Social Justice’. Hannah Watkinson’s abstract was used for the inside cover image.

Ciaran who ended up supplying 2 of the three main images said of the project, “It was a great opportunity to experience a live brief, working with experienced professionals. My illustrations demonstrate the link between ‘Social Justice’, ‘Sustainability’ and the ‘Arts’ – It was very challenging and pushed me to the limits of my creativity”

Mark Smith went on to say “The experience of working on this brief for Dartington College was extremely valuable and getting the chance to work with Mervyn Kurlansky was a rare opportunity and a pleasure.”

Hannah Watkinson who designed the inside cover said, “Both the staff and surroundings were really inspiring so I enjoyed working on this brief immensely. It was a great opportunity to be able to work with Mervyn Kurlansky, such a well known and influential figure in the design world and seeing my work published was very exciting.”

Vaughan Lindsay, Chief Executive for The Dartington Hall Trust said, “The Illustration Initiative is just one of the many ways The Dartington Hall Trusts strives to bring emerging talent in contact with professional working artists – offering a platform for their work to be seen by thousands of people and constructive mentoring that will help promising artists turn their creative practice into a future career.”

The new Dartington Annual Review will be available to view from Monday 9th February 2009 at www.dartington.org – it features all the illustrations, plus images from Dartington’s young photographer of the year Alice Carfrae.