Cornwall’s postgraduate designers showcase at That's Design! Milan

From a scarf inspired by the global economic downturn to a printed textile inspired by classic film, The Italian Job, MA students and graduates from leading UK creative arts institution, University College Falmouth, are presenting work at this year's That's Design! in Milan that crosses the boundaries of creative practice in 3D design, graphic design and textile design.

That's Design!, which takes place between 22 and 27 April, forms part of the prestigious Milan Design Week, and offers students and graduates from the world's top design colleges an invaluable opportunity to showcase their work to influential designers and potential employers from across the world.

Combining 21^st century design technology with traditional techniques, Falmouth's designers approach the professional market with a confidence that belies their student status.

All of UCF's design MAs share common aims but use different methods to achieve the same creative outcomes. They mirror the professional interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practice that provides a challenging platform for graduates' design careers, enabling them to work with a clear focus and personal design identity.

The concepts and outcomes to be exhibited at this year's event re-interpret and translate the key themes of That's Design! through conceptual development, experimental making and user-centred design.

Harriet Beesley (MA Graphic Design) has focused on the perception of information and how changing the medium can enable a viewer to gain a clearer or more dramatic insight into meaning. Harriet's FTSE Scarf interprets the data from daily financial information to create a tactile information wool knit to provide warmth in cold financial times, illustrating the interdisciplinary approach of this new course.

Aaron Moore (MA 3D Design) is exhibiting chairs that evolve from his strong ethical stance. His design, materials and manufacturing process focus on a new pattern of affordable, accessible and sustainable design practice. Aaron achieves a successful balance between traditional carpentry techniques and modern sustainable materials without compromising aesthetics or user comfort.

Rupert Skinner (MA Graphic Design) examines the detrimental effect that virtual technology can have on the physical identity of the environments in which we live. Rupert demonstrates that an over-reliance on data and code strips away the vernacular of individuality, and explores how interactive systems might adopt human response mechanisms to preserve notions of identity and place.

Sophie Raven (MA Textile Design) has created work in response to three iconic buildings featured in Peter Collinson's 1969 film, The Italian Job, and how Collinson's unique portrayal of these buildings presents them in a way in which one could never experience. Re-presenting visual elements from each of the Italian concrete structures, printed with puff binder onto English wool (a reference to the ‘Britishness' of the film), Sophie creates a similarly removed experience of these buildings whilst celebrating their forms.

"The Design MA experience at Falmouth is about finding new approaches to design problems," explains John Miller, UCF's Director of Design.

"We place a lot of emphasis on providing an open and interdisciplinary environment, and on high quality technical facilities. Our new MA Graphic Design, led by Bryan Clark, calls upon high profile provocateurs from parallel and associated disciplines to challenge and provoke thinking, for example. We aim to create the space and conditions for new perspectives on design, and the Milan show will be an expression of this."

The design and styling of the University College Falmouth stand at Milan has been undertaken by MA Interior & Landscape Design students, Rebecca Proctor and Charlotte Stranks, in conjunction with Director of Design, John Miller. Using digitally printed cotton sateen, they have created a three-metre-long canopy using a lightweight timber frame suspended by steel wire which both unites and underpins the diverse range of exhibits.

University College Falmouth's School of Design attracts Visiting Professors such as Edward Barber of Barber Osgerby and fashion designer, Luella Bartley as well as a range of high-profile speakers that include Tomoko Azumi, John McConnell and Peter Saville.

The work of University College Falmouth students and graduates can be viewed at Stand 3, That's Design!, Industria, Via Forcella/Via Bugatti, Zona Tortona.

For further information about the exhibition and to download high resolution images, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/milan

For further information about University College Falmouth's School of Design, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/design; email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)1326 213730.

Ends

For further information about this press release, please contact: Jilly Easterby, Head of Public Affairs, University College Falmouth, Woodlane, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 4RH, UK, telephone: +44 (0)1326 213792, or email: jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk

Notes to Editors

University College Falmouth is one of the UK's leading creative arts institutions and is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2012 that will be unique to the South West.

The College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union, the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall County Council.

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