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Central Saint Martins

Creative Unions

Creativity knows no boundaries.

The contemporary world must be defined not by boundary or binary but connection. Sharing the work of graduating Central Saint Martins students, Creative Unions celebrated the power of designers to challenge isolationism.

At the heart of the London Design Festival's King’s Cross design district, Creative Unions showed how – from a board game to solve conflict or a sustainable solution for the housing crisis to fashion that’s part-propaganda – the next generation of designers are responding to current contexts with urgency and ingenuity.  Identity, collaboration, conflict resolution, community, alternative realities, technological innovation, social issues, the environment, activism, crossings – just some of the contexts of the work on show in Creative Unions.

#CreativeUnions

Creative Unions took place in the Lethaby Gallery from 16 September - 21 October 2017.

Find out more about the designers:

  • A person wearing a pair of high waisted knickers which are very brightly coloured.
    Ruby Parker - Wear What You Waste (BA Jewellery Design (Credit: Ruby Parker - Wear What You Waste (BA Jewellery Design)
  • Architectural illustration of a meat factory
    Cenan Afsarpour - Meet your Meat (BA Architecture) (Credit: Cenan Afsarpour - Meet your Meat (BA Architecture))
  • A blue cloud catcher floating through the sky
    Lily Tagiuri - Cloud Catcher (MA Industrial Design) (Credit: Lily Tagiuri - Cloud Catcher (MA Industrial Design))
  • Three models stood next to each other wearing sunglasses and designs by Tolu Coker
    Tolu Coker - Replica (BA Fashion) (Credit: Tolu Coker - Replica (BA Fashion))
  • A man stood on stage, holding a microphone and holding up a poster
    Sachiko Osawa - Yami-ichi: Money Can't Buy You Art (MA Narrative Environments) (Credit: Sachiko Osawa - Yami-ichi: Money Can't Buy You Art (MA Narrative Environments))
  • An intricate embroidery of a train which is surrounded by a quote, which is also embroidered
    Lucy Ganley - Show your Solidarity (BA Jewellery Design) (Credit: Lucy Ganley - Show your Solidarity (BA Jewellery Design))
  • A women wearing a bright set waistcoat stood in front of a black background
    William Scarborough - Green Grapes (BA Fashion Communication and Promotion) (Credit: William Scarborough - Green Grapes (BA Fashion Communication and Promotion))
  • An illustration of two a man and a skeleton sat in a red boat on a black and white sea
    Vitoria Bastos and Adele Davies - The Romance of the Skeleton (BA Graphic Design) (Credit: Vitoria Bastos and Adele Davies - The Romance of the Skeleton (BA Graphic Design))
A navy and purple silk flag which has two arrows embroidered onto the middle
Alice Duranti - Invisible Kingdom® (MA Communication Design

Alice Duranti - Invisible Kingdom®

MA Communication Design

Black and white image of a man with a thick beard which has been printed onto a grey material
Anna-Maie Southern - The Mind's Eye (BA Textile Design)

Anna-Maie Southern - The Mind's Eye

BA Textile Design

Detailed illustration with shows people walking around and standing on a typical high street in the UK
Thomas Moore - Gin Lane (2017) (BA Graphic Design)

Thomas Moore - Gin Lane (2017)

BA Graphic Design

  • A brightly coloured illustration showing people standing outside a chicken shop and a butchers
    Berta Valló - Paraphrase (BA Graphic Design) (Credit: Berta Valló - Paraphrase)
  • A woman stood in front of a white sheet wearing a taupe coloured garment that has abstract prints across it
    Hana Fujimoto - Hidden Beauty in the Accidental (BA Textile Design) (Credit: Hana Fujimoto - Hidden Beauty in the Accidental)
  • A collection of pastel coloured ceramic animals
    Elena Gomez de Valcarcel - Familia (BA Ceramic Design) (Credit: Elena Gomez de Valcarcel - Familia)
  • A small cracked ceramic box on a piece of rope which is worn around a person's neck
    Anna Tuhus - A Stones Throw (BA Jewellery Design) (Credit: Anna Tuhus - A Stones Throw)
  • A person in a black dress is holding an orange coloured material over their face.
    Helen Milne - Archiving the Anthropocene (BA Textile Design) (Credit: Helen Milne - Archiving the Anthropocene)
  • A pastel coloured board game.
    Kaye Toland - Make It or Break It (BA Product Design) (Credit: Kaye Toland - Make It or Break It)
  • A cityscape with 'China Heart' written in red over the top of the photograph
    Georgina Yi Wan - China Heart (BA Fashion Communication: Fashion Journalism) (Credit: Georgina Yi Wan - China Heart)
  • A young man wearing a white miner's helmet and denim jacket holds a large purple snake in both hands, the image is part photograph and part illustration
    Nina Cutler, Liv Bargman - Quantworm Mine (MA Material Futures/MA Art and Science) (Credit: Nina Cutler, Liv Bargman - Quantworm Mine)
Detail of a garment which is made up of a number of tops overlapping
Goom Heo - Football Jersey (BA Fashion)

Goom Heo - Football Jersey

BA Fashion

A wooden box with maroon panels
Ellen Nyqvist - Dogme Design (BA Product Design)

Ellen Nyqvist - Dogme Design

BA Product Design

An open box which has a set of black plastic objects inside
Marta Giralt Dunjo - Virtual X (MA Material Futures)

Marta Giralt Dunjo - Virtual X

MA Material Futures

  • A maps next to a very blurred image of someones face
    Junya Iida - Portrait of a City (BA Graphic Design) (Credit: Junya Iida - Portrait of a City)
  • A light blue background with triangles and circles placed in the middle next to the text 'IQOA'
    Anne Charpentier - In Quest of Alleviation (Credit: Anne Charpentier - In Quest of Alleviation)
  • Four panels each showing a woman sat on a chair wearing a series of different garments
    Sheryn Akiki - The Blue Index 1.1 (BA Fashion Design with Marketing) (Credit: Sheryn Akiki - The Blue Index 1.1)
  • 3D animation prop of an old man floating in a cloud
    Jiani Zhao and Emanuele Romano - Stroke (MA Character Animation) (Credit: Jiani Zhao and Emanuele Romano - Stroke)
  • Bright pieces of discarded plastic laid out on a bright orange background
    Frankie Moughton-Small - The Plastic Sea (BA Jewellery Design) (Credit: Frankie Moughton-Small - The Plastic Sea)
  • An illustrative diagram showing the inside of a hospital
    Maram Alsubaie - 12 Months of Birth Neighbourhood Birth Centre (BA Architecture) (Credit: Maram Alsubaie - 12 Months of Birth Neighbourhood Birth Centre)
  • An architectural illustration showing a group of people using an urban allotment
    Sui Yu Au - Cross Generational CoLiving (BA Architecture) (Credit: Sui Yu Au - Cross Generational CoLiving)
  • An abstract ceramic design
    Samuel Gull - Bump Before Bang (MA Design: Ceramics) (Credit: Samuel Gull - Bump Before Bang)
  • A man sat at a desk is wearing a hat which has a pipe coming out the top of it
    Guan Xiang - Symbiotic Objects (MA Industrial Design) (Credit: Guan Xiang - Symbiotic Objects)
  • A ceramic vase which depicts a mythological bird figure
    Lena Peters - Secrets of the Hidden North (BA Ceramic Design) (Credit: Lena Peters - Secrets of the Hidden North)
Detail image of a textile machine over a black and white material
Jenny Banks - Sustainable Fast Fashion (MA Material Futures)

Jenny Banks - Sustainable Fast Fashion

MA Material Futures

The top of a chair which is decorated in very intricate carvings
Jiahui Liang - Laughing Magpie Chair (MA Design: Furniture)

Jiahui Liang - Laughing Magpie Chair

MA Design: Furniture

Different materials interwoven with unusual objects including a bike chain
Matthew Needham - Man, and his man-made future (BA Fashion)

Matthew Needham - Man, and his man-made future

BA Fashion

  • A pair of hands holding a phone which shows an interface and a breathing tool
    Gerardo Jose Leon Galvez - The Microbiomes Collective (MA Industrial Design) (Credit: Gerardo Jose Leon Galvez - The Microbiomes Collective (MA Industrial Design))
  • A series of tweets from Donald Trump written in black, 1984 is spelt out in red vertically through the text.
    Emma King - Trump Tweets 1984 (MA Communication Design) (Credit: Emma King - Trump Tweets 1984 (MA Communication Design))
  • A series of cardboard boxes which has an orange branding across them
    Kaye Toland - M-Cycle (BA Product Design) (Credit: Kaye Toland - M-Cycle (BA Product Design))
  • A person holding up an open magazine
    Kathryn Basterfield - Foreign Affairs (MA Communication Design) (Credit: Kathryn Basterfield - Foreign Affairs (MA Communication Design))
  • Three models of a fountain basin on dispaly
    Laurence Neal - Mobilising Liverpool’s Heritage (M ARCH Architecture) (Credit: Laurence Neal - Mobilising Liverpool’s Heritage (M ARCH Architecture))
  • An intricately designed table and chair
    Maria Laffitte - Holis: A Permaculture Game (Credit: Maria Laffitte - Holis: A Permaculture Game)
  • A cut out illustration of a group of people holding up a banner that reads 'Mind the gap'
    Shanshan Liu - Mind the Gap (MA Narrative Environments) (Credit: Shanshan Liu - Mind the Gap (MA Narrative Environments))
  • An architectural model on display
    Tom Geoffrey Atkinson - The Micro-Developments Bureau (M ARCH Architecture) (Credit: Tom Geoffrey Atkinson - The Micro-Developments Bureau (M ARCH Architecture))
  • A photograph of a woman looking directly into the camera
    Vitoria Von Lachmann De Mello Franco - displayisarehearsal (BA Fashion Communication and Promotion) (Credit: Vitoria Von Lachmann De Mello Franco - displayisarehearsal (BA Fashion Communication and Promotion))
  • Two printed pages side by side, one is yellow and has displays lots of portraits. The other is white and displays for portraits with a yellow smiley face placed in the middle of them.
    Yasmina Aoun - Free Parti (MA Communication Design) (Credit: Yasmina Aoun - Free Parti (MA Communication Design))

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