Quick-Draw...

As well as featuring graduates, are aim is to showcase part-time designers & makers. We got chatting to Laura Hudd a few weeks ago, a busy Visual Merchandiser, and she was telling us about her love for doodling. Due to her lack of time, and her job which sees her travelling the country on a weekly basis, she has honed her illustrative style into something less precious, almost throw-away in it's conception.

She prefers working at a small scale, and on anything but nice, artist paper, so envelopes & postcards are current favourite, and her only inspiration, whatever catches her eye!

Best foot forward...

Further to our round-up of last week's Free Range best bits, we were invited to South Essex College for the graduate fashion show by Holly Mansell, who we featured last week in 'Vintage finds...'

Having battled our way through what could have been mistaken for a bleak mid-Winter evening, we saw some wonderfully creative work from some potential design talent of the future...

A few stand-out pieces came from of course Holly, who originally caught our eye, and also work from Chloe Mitchell, Kemi Fayefunmi and Cassandra Kelly...enjoy...

Summer has arrived...at last...

Love the use of colour & texture...

I want this dress...!

And finally, Holly Mansell's full collection, and all it's vintage loveliness...

Still life...part two

The second photographer in our Free Range round-up, is graduate Vladas Bijeika, also from The University of East London. He had a very different approach to still life, with a series of images depicting social contrast in the same environment. We love the fact he has found a beauty in the ordinary and everyday, to create this patchwork of real life...

Still life...part one

A couple of photography graduates really stood out to us at Free Range from The University of East London, one of which was Alex Cudby.

These stunning portraits featuring Ufama Itoje taken at Wapping Power Station, feel like old photographs brought to life, slightly unnerving, but with a modern relevance, and a definite fashion quality...we're almost speechless...

People watching...

As part of our round-up the shows at Free Range last week, we stumbled across some lovely work from illustrator and designer Helen Parsliffe, from University of East London.

Her free-hand illustrations from a collection called 'London Queues' were particularly striking. We love the looseness and fluid approach, and a depth that really added personality to the individual characters she portrayed. Plus I'm sure she won't mind us commenting on the likeness there is to the wonderful work by Quentin Blake, we were transported back to childhood in an instant!

Vintage finds...

As promised, this week we'll be featuring a few of our top finds from our first round of Summer shows. 

Free Range hosts universities from across the country and this weekend saw work presented by Maidstone, Greenwich, Barking & Dagenham and South Essex College...

We start our mini round-up with fashion designer Holly Mansell from South Essex College. She takes influences from vintage looks and translates these into unique textured pieces, which forms here collection, 'My Grandmother's Attic', but not only were we drawn to her collection, but also loving her fashion illustration too, which we had to feature. A look into the past, but definitely up-and-coming...

Structural Delicacy...

As I'm sure you can tell, we do have a slight weakness towards jewellery, and the work by Emma Macleod is no exception. Again from the wonderfully creative talent pool, Duncan of Jordanstone, Dundee University, Emma takes the industrial aesthetic from the Dundee docklands to create these mini structural beauties. She manages to combine a toughness and elegance, and all balanced to perfection...