Cranford Review 2016

The National Art & Design
Saturday Club
An experience like no other
In
October 2015 Cranford
Community College
opened its doors to the youth
of the community to offer an
experience like no other, namely
The National Art & Design
Saturday Club which offers free
expert tuition to students within
the community. Students attended
from seven different schools and
experienced a range of skills and
opportunities which are normally
only available at FE colleges and university
establishments. Like a foundation course the
classes covered a range of disciplines, focusing
on creative thinking and building new skills.
Members especially enjoyed monoprinting, laser
cutting using CAD and painting with Brusho a
brilliantly intense crystalline colour, they also
put together portfolios for arts award. Club
members commented on how they learnt new
skills that have helped them in their schools and
parents have said that the club has helped to raise
their child’s confidence.
Throughout the year the club members have had
some excellent opportunities to visit various
centres in support of their art work which they
have responded to really well. The visits to
London included a tour of the design museum,
where they saw examples of work by the
contemporary designers and were able to imagine
possible career paths.
During the London visit they took part in a pop-up
exhibition at Kings College London where their
portraits were put on display alongside other club
members portraits from groups nationally. It was
an excellent opportunity as some club members
had never seen their own work up in an
exhibition space.
Masterclass with Wallpaper*
Cranford’s masterclass was held at the Wallpaper*
offices in the Blue Fin building, behind the Tate
Modern and started with a tour of the magazines
departments. The team from Wallpaper* talked
about different roles within the magazine, what
they do and how they work together. Wallpaper*
is the world’s foremost design and lifestyle
publication, recognised for its keen eye for
talent, intelligent perspective and international
reach. In addition to a monthly magazine, it
offers an in-house creative agency, an interior
design service, the online WallpaperSTORE, and
over 100 Wallpaper* City Guides. Wallpaper*
Handmade, its annual exhibition celebrating the
marriage of craftsmanship and contemporary
design, is consistently one of the most popular
at Milan Design Week.
Club members were fascinated to see behind the
scenes: the fashion cupboard, the dummy board
showing the layout of the magazine in progress,
and drawings and photographs of the sets that are
constructed for furniture and interiors features.
They learned about the importance of research
for new stories and of pace in terms of each
issue’s order and structure.
The brief for the day was to produce a collaged
cover for an issue of Wallpaper* using a blank
template and a selection of pages from previous
editions. Working quietly and individually the
club members bounced ideas off each other and
were assisted by the Wallpaper* team. Once
finished the covers were pinned up together and
the results were strong and distinctive; they have
been printed as magazines.
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