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Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson

Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson

THE FIRST OF THE 2016 STRONG ISLAND CREATIVE GRADUATES TO WATCH AWARDS

Back at the end of May the University of Portsmouth CCI Graduate Show for 2016 was packed with incredible work, as always, and when selecting our Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch award winners it was as always a tough choice. In our third year, these awards are given to graduates on the Graphics, Illustration and Photography degree courses where we think the winners have a bright future with work that captures the imagination and pushes beyond in quality, conception and execution.

This year’s winner for Graphic Design was Ryan Robinson, with his major project dedicated to Hip Hop, Politics, Authority. The collection of book and posters was a masterpiece of considered design and was all Ryan’s own work, not just the design elements, layout, print options, etc but also all of the book’s text, resulting in an in-depth reflection on Hip Hop’s relationship with politics and the authority.

…an in-depth reflection on Hip Hop’s relationship with politics and the authority

Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson
Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson
Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson

…initially interested in the subject of hip hop through my love of the music, I decided to explore the topic further

“Having been initially interested in the subject of hip hop through my love of the music, I decided to explore the topic further for my major project, looking at every aspect of the culture (music, art, fashion and dance) before focusing in on a certain aspects. After an extensive research period, I finally settled on hip hop’s relationship with politics and the authority. I felt that my research gave me a strong overview of the 3 topic areas, and enabled me to properly investigate the subjects through graphic design.” – Ryan Robinson

Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson
Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson

From our first look at Ryan’s book it was clear that the amount of work involved was immense, from designing hundreds of different fashion and footwear elements for dozens and dozens of Hip Hop artists through to the different print and layout design ideas such as inserts, spot printing, and so much more.

From the start I felt that a book would be a great platform to investigate this thoroughly, using my research as a basis to write and illustrate all of the content myself instead of using existing photography or copying and pasting from the Internet. Being influenced by German, Swiss and Dutch modernist design, I went about designing a publication that not only looked aesthetically pleasing, but was also informative and easy to read – catering for not only the ‘hip hop fan’, but also the average reader who appreciates good design.”

…I went about designing a publication that not only looked aesthetically pleasing, but was also informative and easy to read – catering for not only the ‘hip hop fan’, but also the average reader who appreciates good design

Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson
Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson

Ryan’s work has since the graduate show has won further awards, and has been complimented on by various industry employers & experts who viewed it at the London show at New Designers. One of these industry experts included Digital Arts magazine, of which Ryan was featured in an article as one of their top 8 designers at the show.

You can see Ryan’s final project work now at Aspex Guildhall exhibition space at Portsmouth Guildhall with an exhibition of posters and Ryan is hoping to soon run a crowdfunding campaign to publish the book, we’ll let you know more about that soon.

If you want to see more of Ryan’s work then visit:

ryanrobinson.myportfolio.com

Strong Island Creative Graduates to Watch Award 2016 – Graphics Winner Ryan Robinson

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