Illustrious!

STOP-PRESS . . . for the first time in the short history of FD we have been able to place two illustration students on to a final top-year at the University of Salford.

The editor was thrilled that Rachel Carter and Heather Holst delivered such excellent portfolios that Jo and Robert at the University were more than happy to offer the extraordinary places.

Both girls have arrived at the same place by two very different routes. Rachel was one of the few students who arrive at FD with an unconditional offer having completed a level 3 in Art & Design and created one of the most professional looking final projects calling on her love of nature seen for many a year. Heather on the other hand although exhibited at the same exhibition from the same course kept her potential ability under lock and key.

Rachel's illustrations for her vehicle, Christmas and Boots 'Hello Delightful'. 

From the off everything Rachel created as she came to understand the relationship between graphic design and illustration was of a quite unbelievable quality - her style ran through every piece of her art, from research to amazing workbooks into her final submissions.

She surrounded herself with hand lettering, patterns, cute illustrations of animals and flora. Her vehicle to secure placement was a work of art, all items contained within a giant strawberry tote bag.

Heather was less sure of her direction, lacked belief and didn't like much of what she produced. The editor first spotted signs of life in her Almanac design where her illustration style raised its creative head.

Although a 'cow-prod' was needed to make her her believe that her vehicle was good enough to deliver to industry . . . she ducked and dived and the finished design stayed firmly hidden in her college drawer.

Heather's FD illustrations

The second year saw both the girls team up with Hayley to form 'Three Peas' and to tackle The Shapers range of snacks at Boots. Their creative style delivered a fantastic solution [featured elsewhere in this blog] and was highly praised by Will Bentley of BD2.

Rachel's wrapping!

From their first project in year two Rachel and Heather have gone from strength to strength. Rachel securing placement at Tigerprint in Bradford working on greeting cards for M&S and Next, Heather secured placement at Creative Spark a Manchester based design consultancy.

As a bonus, Heather had submitted items of her work to Sarah Beetson a renowned artist at Illustration Limited. A week back she was contacted and at a meeting in June when the company considers new artists to represent Heather's designs are going forward to the board - fingers crossed.

For their FMP's Rachel is tackling her own line of greeting cards and wrapping paper, Heather has created a children's pack for Blue Planet.

Rachel's FMP greeting cards and wrapping paper illustrations

Heather's FMP Blue Planet children's guide

It'll be tough when they land at the University next September - but both are very talented young ladies . . . watch out for their work in the coming years.