Now well established as an annual event in the London graduate design calendar, The Textile Institute Design Means Business exhibition moved this year from the UK government Treasury building in Westminster to a larger and even more impressive location at Durbar Court in the adjacent Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The muted colours of the marble background and the excellent natural lighting enabled design graduates from leading UK colleges to display their work to great advantage to invited company executives, designers and technologists; and for their tutors to develop links with guests from the textile, clothing and footwear industries.
The event, which took place on Tuesday 5th July 2011, was organised by the Design Special Interest Group (SIG) of The Textile Institute under the chairmanship of Professor Clare Johnston of the Royal College of Art. Its aim in common with many end of year college and graduate shows is to boost the career prospects of some very talented design graduates; but uniquely also to show what colleges can and are doing to promote design in the business environment and establish links in a practical way between industry and education.
An additional aim this year arose from a collaboration with the Sustainability SIG under the chairmanship of Vanessa Knowles. The students were encouraged to demonstrate how their designs were relevant to the broader issues of the ethical and sustainable sourcing, production and distribution of textile and fashion products in the world today.
The exhibition was opened by Lord Haskel, a former World President of The Textile Institute, who takes a personal interest in assisting this event. He commented that holding it in the heart of Westminster gives an opportunity to textile companies and colleges to have constructive dialogue with members of the government. He introduced Lord Howell, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office who welcomed the colleges, graduates and guests to Durbar Court and observed with pleasure the buzz of excitement and colour they brought with them. Andreas Weber, the current TI World President, added his welcome, noting the international nature of the Textile Institute and the varied background of the graduates.
To emphasise sustainability, a prize was awarded for the piece of work showing the best integration with this theme. The team of judges, led by Sue Chorley of the Design SIG, included Vanessa Knowles, Katie Greenyer of Pentland and Ian Morris of Marks & Spencer. The prize, a bursary to attend the Annual World Conference of the TI in Malaysia in 2012, was awarded by Ian Morris on behalf of the judging panel to Zoe Fletcher of the London College of Fashion for a very well thought through entry. There were some excellent runners up, and commendations with a bottle of M & S organic cava were awarded to Amy Pliszka of Central St Martins College, Kristina Kurkina of Kingston University and Zara Oxtoby of Manchester Metropolitan University.
The graduates, three each, came from Corporate Member colleges including Central St Martins, De Montfort University, Kingston University, the London College of Fashion, Manchester Metropolitan University, Nottingham Trent University, The University for the Creative Arts Rochester, The Royal College of Art, and, for the first time, The University of Northampton
Over two hundred guests from industry including retail attended. As the Institute make no charge for entry we are very grateful to our sponsors without whose generosity this event could not take place. They include the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers, Alvanon UK, the Alliance Foundation, the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), Marks and Spencer plc and Harold Tillman.
Event Photos
Below are photos from the event. Place your cursor over the picture to see a larger view. To watch as slide show, click on the picture.
