After meeting in Piccadilly Gardens, we headed towards Magma, the fine Oldham Street design bookshop. Plenty of inspiration in there. Then it was on through the back streets, towards the craft and design centre. Again, loads of craft based, hands on delights. We briefly watched paint dry with one of the resident artists, Kathryn Edwards. She kindly explained how she created some of her fantastic work, as seen below.
I also got chatting to photographer Edward Chadwick, whose studio was packed with atmospheric architectural prints. After barking at the students for taking pictures of his pictures, I explained that we were from Staffordshire Uni and this seemed to pacify him! We briefly chatted about how business was for the both of us, and let him get on with his day's work. Nice bloke though and some great work.
After a brew and some sunbathing it was off to take some more pics (it's amazing what you see when you open your eyes!) So much of this Manchester has been redeveloped over the last decade that a lot of the old signs that existed from the rag trade have now disappeared forever, which is a real shame. Managed to get a couple of snaps though, I love this kind of stuff.
Then we flitted around a couple of other places which I won't bore you with.
One thing that did come to light was how few of the students actually read the brief. A worrying sign indeed. As a designer, the brief is the cornerstone of any project. If you don't digest it, how do you expect to provide an accurate response? Anyway, there's my sermon for this week (in the style of He-Man at the end of the cartoon (Jesus, I'm really showing my age!)
It was good to get to know at least some of the students a little better and I hope that you were all inspired by the greatest city on earth.
