Some of you are probably familiar with it - the projects that were created during your studies or training often disappear into the - virtual or literal - desk drawer after being graded at the end of the semester and are never looked at again. Which is a shame, because this often does not even begin to do justice to the potential of these works. The "Young Graphics" counteracts this phenomenon. Every two years, the award from the Swiss Graphic Designers Association (SGV) and the professional association Swiss Graphic Designers (SGD) honors student and school work in the field of graphic design in Switzerland.
This November, the "Young Graphics" jury once again selected 30 winners whose projects contain a wide range of creative ideas that have a lot to offer in terms of implementation, from editorial and photography to web design. It is clear that projects developed during the course of studies or training are by no means lacking in quality, quite the opposite: many works testify to the freedom and diversity of ideas that is often encouraged more during the training of young designers than later in their careers. The reason for this is simply that you have to experiment and test boundaries during your apprenticeship in order to get to know yourself, your own style and your working methods better and to consolidate them, while as a designer you naturally have to keep an eye on your customers in your profession.
As a result, the participants here freely address topics that occupy young creatives or take a new approach to existing design constructs. For example, Paul Guerrero at the Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD) developed a new visual concept for a car magazine called "Autonow Magazine", which rethinks conventional design and graphic codes in order to appeal to a larger target group and create space for a broader range of topics. The result is an exciting and offensive design that still clearly conveys the subject matter, but proposes a much more contemporary design direction.
Anaïs Vidal and Irini Gleglakou chose a different medium with their website design "Loading Culture", a prototype for an online platform that is intended to promote exchange between creatives and thus also transparency about the creative sector online. Various areas are available for this purpose, such as live broadcasts, articles and archives with resources, applications and much more. The whole thing is very attractively presented and could be a useful tool for many creative professionals in the future. The project can be found at loadingculture.ch, where you can already send in your first ideas, as well as a newsletter.
Illustrative projects also scored points with the jury. "the coral rescue project" deals with coral mortality in an educational and solution-oriented way. The result is a newspaper consisting of mini posters, a small descriptive text and a QR code for more detailed information, which lists 14 solutions to save the corals. To appeal to a larger target group, the students also created an Instagram account that picks up on the illustrations in short GIFs and sets them in motion.
It is literally clear that the "Young Graphics" award fulfills an important task, namely to provide a platform for young designers in training or studying. The variety of the award-winning projects is huge, so it is certainly worth browsing through and being inspired.
If you would like to find out more about "Junge Grafik", click here to visit the website. We also regularly present exciting student projects in our Mensa section. Sturgeon is worth it!
Text: Johanna Schmees