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Designers from across the world came together for 2 days of productivity and experimentation in our 2-day workshops. Here’s the lowdown: James Greenfield and Jowey Roden of London-based Koto led their team through a recent rebrand for a major client, giving insight into Koto’s creative process and the thinking behind their work. Find out more about the workshop here. Urban Outfitter’s […]
You can now pick up your Graphic Design Festival Scotland tote bag in our online shop. The front design includes GDFS logo and online details and the back includes all of the inspiring people involved in GDFS 16. The collectable bags are produced in a limited run and when they’re gone, they’re gone! Crisp white […]
Katie Guthrie is Graphic Design Festival Scotland’s Aspiring Designer of the year. Competing with 120 other designers, Katie made a huge impression on her mentors, the jury and the GDFS team with her incredible project Titty Gritty. We ask Katie what Titty Gritty is all about, how she coped with such a broad brief, why she believes […]
Lisa Roddie and Lorna Pittaway were awarded 2nd place at GDFS 2016’s Live Project. The jury included Creative Review, Koto, Ken Kirton of Hato and Grafik Magazine who were on the look out for designers with original ideas, strong conceptual thinking and work which is feasible and has real value. Each year our Live Project connects 120 aspiring designers with Scotland’s leading design […]
Live Project – Let’s Get Talking(ish)
Each year through our Live Project we connect 120 aspiring designers with Scotland’s leading design agencies who offer one-to-one advice and mentoring through a 2-day project before shortlisted participants present to a panel of internationally renowned judges in a bid to win GDFS Aspiring Designers Award. The judges and mentors look for designers with original ideas, strong conceptual thinking and […]
1st prize includes: x1 Large Trophy x1 Instrmnt watch x1 Complete Monotype Collections Set x1 Graphic Design Visionaries by Caroline Roberts x1 Ark Publication : Words & Images from The Royal College of Art x1 Creative Review Annual x1 Hato Press stationary pack x1 Monotype totebag x1 Monotype tea towel x1 GF Smith Colourplan notebook […]
Live Project – Age of Autonomy / Start Something
The Live Project connects students and recent graduates with 11 of Scotland’s leading design agencies who offer mentorship and one-to-one advice on a design-led brief over 2 days. The mentor agencies then select two participants within their group who they believe developed the strongest response to the brief to present to a panel of industry […]
International Poster Exhibition Catalogue
This year we showcase the 200 posters designed by 178 designers from around the world shown in our International Poster Exhibition through a 52 page perfect-bound publication thanks to support from Mohawk and J Thomson. A treasure trove of inspiration. Even though the exhibition is over, you can still get your hands on a copy in our online shop. Printed […]
Ciaran Glöbel is a self-taught signwriter and commercial artist specialising in hand painted typography who opened his workshop in Glasgow in 2013 and since then has worked with an impressive portfolio of clients including DF Concerts, Jameson Whiskey, Network Rail, Academy Music Group, Irn Bru and BBC Scotland. In his workshop Ciaran introduced participants to the […]
What role can an identity play?
Each year Graphic Design Festival Scotland’s identity is redesigned. In 2016 Warriors Studio and Freytag Anderson tackled the redesign together and embraced the notions of process and collaboration as a focus for the festival’s identity. James of Warriors Studio said: “We’re very aware of designers’ tendencies to present polished resolved work all of the time, but […]
Tennent’s and Pabst Blue Ribbon teamed up to provide a host of drinks to keep whistles wet at Graphic Design Festival Scotland 16. One of our most important aims at Graphic Design Festival Scotland is to unite people around the world, connect organisations and celebrate what Scotland has to offer on an international scale. Which is why partnering […]
To promote the festival, double sided A3 poster programmes were printed, each with one of 24 different posters designed by Warriors Studio and Freytag Anderson with the help of designers around the world, on the front and the programme on the back. This year the festival’s printed promotion was digitally printed by J Thomson on 140gsm […]
Our 1-day workshops were taken up a notch for 2016 and here’s the low down. O Street offered an insight into how they approach branding projects, giving an industry insight from their personal experience. Find out more about the workshop here. Alan Kitching challenged his workshop team with rebranding a whisky of their choice using the medium […]
International Exhibitions Close on 25th November
We have three international exhibitions open at The Lighthouse in Glasgow until 25th November! Make sure you don’t miss them. International Poster Exhibition This International Poster Exhibition features 200 posters designed by 178 different designers from around the world, along with a library of carefully chosen books which provide more details on the broader […]
Within our International Poster Exhibition this year we curated a library of books from carefully selected publishers, which provide more details on the broader context of poster and graphic design. In the library area, we encouraged visitors to read, scan and share with a black and white copier and a wall for pinning up and sharing. […]
International Poster Competition Winners!
Our 2016 International Poster Competition ran from June to August this year and received 3443 entries from more than 70 countries. The competition was judged by Unfun, Lamm & Kirch, Warriors Studio and Étienne Hervy. 200 of these submissions were selected for exhibition at Graphic Design Festival Scotland 2016 in Scotland’s National Centre for Design and Architecture, […]
Our 2016 identity explored process, collaboration and the dialogue which unfolds as ideas are developed and visualised. As an extension of the collaboration between Warriors Studio and Freytag Anderson, who developed this year’s identity, the source files for the poster were made public and designers around the world were invited to download and rework the poster […]
unfun are a razor-sharp design studio based in Nurnberg Germany, founded by Michael Seibert, Simon Niedermeier and Wolfgang Schöffel in 2011. unfun originally caught our eye with their poster work for Super Klub (pictured below) but after looking through the rest of their portfolio, which includes editorial, spatial, exhibition, typeface, web and 3D design, we […]
After receiving Lamm & Kirch’s submissions to our International Poster Competition and seeing the consistently high quality work they produce for clients like Spector Books, Institut für Buchkunst (Leipzig), Goethe Institute (Abu Dahbi) and Archithese (Zürich) we approached them with an invitation to sit on the jury for our 2016 International Poster Competition. We’re now proud to […]
2016 marks the most ambitious GDFS programme yet with 16 workshops, 2 conferences and panel discussions, 3 international exhibitions, an international poster competition, a Live Project with 12 of the top studios in Scotland, a party in collaboration with 12th Isle, a short film festival and a lot of drinks and music across 7 days. […]
Join us for the unveiling of the brand new 2016 identity and October Programme with an evening of talks, music, drinks and design to celebrate Graphic Design Festival Scotland 2016! 6.30pm Wednesday 18th May 2016 The Lighthouse, 11 Mitchell Ln, Glasgow G1 3NU This is your opportunity to grab the first tickets for GDFS 2016, […]
Send us your SHORTS! Last year we premiered Roadliners a short documentary film produced and art-directed by O Street and Pretend Lovers, which followed Glasgow-local Tam and his Road lining crew. Following on from the success of the evening, we are expanding to showcase a number of short films. If you have a short film you would like […]
Our Off Grid exhibition originally shown at Southblock Glasgow travelled to Nancy, France, to be shown at Galerie My Monkey. My Monkey has been showcasing innovative work from both up-and-coming and established designers from around the world for more than 12 years and we were honoured to be the first guests from Scotland. With […]
I don’t think we’ve ever had a greeting like our arrival in École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Nancy. We were invited to give a lecture about the festival and our studio and were generously welcomed by 7 60×40 inch billboard sized posters in the main entrance hall of the University. Each poster was created by groups of graphic design […]
Mohawk was founded in 1931 in upstate New York, where the Hudson and Mohawk rivers come together and since then, has evolved to become the largest privately owned fine paper manufacturer in North America. We are proud to be partnered with Mohawk for GDFS 2015. Mohawk put people, innovation and craftsmanship at the front of what […]
Happy New Year! We have some fantastic news!
As 2015 comes to a close, we look back at the progress we’ve made. GDFS is officially the largest event ever hosted at Scotland’s National Centre for Design & Architecture, The Lighthouse and the entire 2015 programme sold out! We’ve welcomed an astounding 20,000+ participants and visitors to our past two festivals, with 30% of participants travelling from […]
You can now see all of our past projects under Archive > Projects or right here: http://graphicdesignfestivalscotland.com/2016/projects/ All 2014 projects have been archived and all of the projects and events from 2015 will be added in the coming months. Enjoy!
Tennent’s made sure that all of our festival visitors and participants were watered and provided a good dose of commotion lotion for all of our exhibitions! Tennent’s kindly provided us with a range of drinks including Heverlee, Black T, Lemon T, Tennent’s Lager, Menabrea and the delicious limited edition T in the Park beers along with […]
“There are real jobs… and blow jobs….” – The Rodina
Our talks conference and panel discussion this year was expertly facilitated by the top man Rob Alderson. Speaking and participating on the panel were Studio Moross, HelloMe, Colophon, The Rodina and People of Print’s Marcroy Smith. The variety of talks were incredible from HelloMe’s meticulous and detailed insight into his process to The Rodina’s verging […]
O Street and Pretend Lovers Shed Some Light on an Overlooked Artform
On Tuesday evening at GDFS 2015, we showcased Roadliners, a short documentary film produced and art-directed by O Street and Pretend Lovers. Roadliners documents the unnoticed art of painting lines and type on roads. The film follows Glasgow local Tam and his roadlining crew as they lay down lines and letters by hand. “Born from a shared appreciation for these uncelebrated typographers-of-the-road and the craftsmanship […]
For a company to expand over more than 100 years and uphold the highest standards while remaining innovative and curious is no mean feat. Originally founded as a paper merchant in 1885, by George Frederick Smith, G.F Smith has grown to become one of the post progressive, respected and high quality independent paper companies in […]
As part of our 2015 Live 2-Day Project (which you can find more about here) 22 shortlisted participants presented to a panel of internationally renowned judges including It’s Nice That, Creative Review, Danielle Pender of Riposte Magazine and Creative Scotland. But the judges can only choose three winners! Huge congratulations to James Crossley, Alice Wheeler and […]
Through our Live 2-Day Project, 120+participants respond to a design-led brief over 2 days with mentorship from 11 leading creative agencies before presenting within their group and to their chosen mentor. The mentors then select the 2 participants who have created the strongest projects within their group to present to a panel of internationally renowned judges, this […]
To ensure GDFS remains progressive, we collaborate with a different design studio and web developer to build a fresh identity and website each year. Throughout 2015, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Glasgow-based agency, Infinite Eye, who came on board as a partner and sponsor to support the development of our ambitious new website. […]
In the evening, more than 800 people arrived at The Lighthouse to witness the results of the International Poster Exhibition in which Warriors Studio invite designers worldwide to submit a poster which would then be judged by top creatives. This year the competition was judged by Tony Brook of Spin (London), Erich Brechbühl of Weltformat […]
We’ve worked with the team at Signarama Edinburgh, for almost 3 years now and we’re proud to have them on board. This is a special thank you and shout out to them for their hard work and continual support. The positive words we hear about Signarama and their team are never ending. While we were on route […]
Studio Moross, HelloMe, It’s Nice That, Colophon and The Rodina Unleashed in Glasgow!
Podcast #4: Liv Siddall catches up with a selection of 2-Day workshop leaders and participants on day 5 of GDFS 2015: James Crossley – Edinburgh College of Art (participant in Hellome workshop & winner of Live 2-Day Project) Fiona Shiel – Edinburgh College of Art (participant in HelloMe workshop) Linus Kraemer – Studio Moross (workshop […]
Live 2-Day Project – Reality Bites: Day 2
Podcast #3: As the Live 2-Day Project heats up, Liv Siddall chats to judges, mentors, participants and winner of the project: Danielle Pender – Riposte (judge who also wrote the brief) Jamie McIntyre – It’s Nice That (judge) Rachel & Lucy – Abertay University (participants) Chris Wilson – MadeBrave (mentor) Catch Sparrow – Edinburgh […]
Live 2-Day Project – Reality Bites: Day 1
Podcast #2: Liv Siddall chats to participants and mentors of the Live 2-Day Project. Jennifer A Hayashi (participant) Colin (participant) Amy (participant) Greig Anderson & Daniel Freytag – Freytag Anderson (mentors) Fraser (participant) Tiernan Crilley – On Top (VJ) Moritz – Glasgow School of Art (participant) Wednesday marked the beginning of the live 2-day project […]
Liv Siddall gives the lowdown at the 1-Day workshops
Podcast #1: An insight into what went on at GDFS’ 1-day workshops, Liv Siddall speaks to: Dominic Kesterton – Workhorse Press (workshop leader) Paul Scharf – GF Smith (sponsor) Victoria Donnelly and Lisa Henderson – GDFS team Vicky Kerr – STV Creative (workshop leader) Amy Whiten – Recoat (workshop leader) Beth Wilson – GDFS co-founder Campbell – participant in the CodeBase workshop […]
International Poster Competition 2015 Winners
We would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who entered and a warm congratulations to all of those who were shortlisted and exhibited within the top 100. The International Poster Competition took place between June–August 2015, receiving 3432 entries from 83 countries, so making the final shortlist is a fantastic achievement. Judges include […]
How do you define your practice?
Off Grid exhibition private view in South Block, Glasgow. An exhibition of artists, designers, makers and communicators working on the border of multiple disciplines, questioning the definition of each of their specialisms, and share a graphic thread, running through their work. Those exhibited have a close tie to, or relationship with graphic design practice, […]
Public Artwork, the Joys of Risograph Printing, Advertising Campaigns and 20 Fresh New Websites
Yesterday was the first day of GDFS 2015, kicking off at 10am with a brief intro from Beth and James who founded the festival. It was a day jam-packed full of workshops spread across The Lighthouse and as far out as the Barrowlands. In the GDFS Hub Workhorse Press got to work teaching their group […]
An interdisciplinary exhibition of artists and designers who explore letterforms through their work. Organised in collaboration with Recoat. THYPE features work from: ROID MSK Greg La Marche (NYC) Maya Wild Elph Ciaran Glöbel Erin Bradley-Scott Joshua Barr Kat Loudon Pamela Tait Alice Rooney Fist 10th – 25th October 2015 12-6pm Exhibition Opening Friday 9th October 2015 […]
How can design transform our economy? What impact can design have on innovation?
We are proud to be partnered with Design in Action for GDFS 2015, hosting an evening of exploration and discovery which aimed to un-pick the true value of design. The event was kindly sponsored by Beer 52, a company successfully launched through Design in Action’s Chiasma scheme. DJing on the evening was provided by up-and-coming promoter, Tropical. The […]
Keep your eyes out for our posters and programmes! Beautifully printed by our fantastic sponsor J Thomson on their HP Indigo 7600 on Monadnock Astrolite Smooth 120gsm – generously provided by GF Smith and designed by Warriors Studio and D8, we couldn’t be happier with them. They have an excellent tactile quality, almost tough and […]
After the success of GDFS 2014, we are delighted to release our 2015 programme, which this year will be hosted predominantly in Glasgow’s national centre for Design and Architecture, The Lighthouse. We are proud to welcome a whole array of new partners, sponsors, workshop leaders, mentors, judges and speakers into the GDFS family. We have […]
Proudly in partnership with
