University News Last updated 26 April 2011
Ceramic vases moulded from a football, a hot water bottle and a coffee cup stack are just three of 22 designs by talented Birmingham City University students realised in a recent project with pottery company Denby.
The design students from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, who had no prior experience in working with ceramics, were set a project to design individual vases and packaging based on everyday items specifically for Denby.
Following a visit to Denby’s factory in Derbyshire to see first-hand the design and manufacturing processes involved in the creation of Denby tableware, the students set about designing and moulding their own concepts at the university, where inspiration was drawn from everything from alarm bells to an oil cans to create their own vase concepts, before being taken to Denby for application of their famous “Denby Blue” glaze.
The students’ work was developed with a related story, and these stories were condensed to fit on Twitter as part of a marketing campaign for the collaboration. The final products were put on display at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design’s Gosta Green campus and are then to go to Denby’s visitor centre for most of May.
Graham Powell, course director for the MA in Product Design at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, said: “This year’s collaboration with Denby has been thoroughly engaging and lots of fun too. The students exhibited some truly creative concepts for the company to consider as alternatives to their own way of thinking and designing.
“The aim was to ‘stretch the brand’ to suggest potential new directions for the company, without forgetting Denby’s admirable heritage and sophisticated production abilities. As a result I’m really proud of the student’s outputs for the whole project - their ceramic proposals, packaging and point of sale imagery were all of a very high standard.”
Richard Eaton, Design Director at Denby, added: “Graham Powell really pushed us to come from a different point of view and so we put together a project which I think has had some fantastic benefits from it... it’s so nice to see something fresh and different.”
Birmingham Institute of Art and Design is an international centre for excellence in art, design and subjects supporting the creative industries. One of the largest institutes for art, architecture and design in the country – the largest outside London – its students, graduates and staff practitioners form a substantial creative community. Impressive links with industry include Cartier, Betty Jackson, Burberry, Goldsmiths, Harvey Nichols, Marks and Spencer, TBWA and Saatchi and Saatchi. With a global reputation for research, ranked 10th in the UK, it is the UK’s most successful recruiter for art and design in China and Malaysia.
Birmingham City University is running a major awareness campaign in the Midlands to demonstrate how it is upgrading the future of individuals and companies. To find out more, visit www.bcu.ac.uk