Rebels with a fashion cause
London Metropolitan University has joined forces with a group of students from South Essex College of Further & Higher Education to highlight the negative aspects of urban street culture for a new exhibition Rebel, Rebel.
20 students on the BTEC National Diploma (BND) Fashion & Clothing – Fashion Promotion course were asked to look at street fashion through the decades and the links between fashion, gang culture and negative trends. The challenging brief was co-written with Marianne Forrest, Senior Lecturer for BA (Hons) Design at London Met’s Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design (The Cass).
The group examined controversial issues including knife and gun crime, and alcohol and drug abuse among young people. Course Leader, Jo Stringer, said: ‘While the brief was challenging, students learnt new skills to benefit them on the course about issues which reflect the society we live in and promote safety and well-being, whilst also having a taste of work at degree level.’
This exciting collaboration marks the first time that South Essex College and London Met have worked together on a live project. The partners were introduced through The Creative Way, the Life Long Learning Network for the Thames Gateway.
Michael Upton, Academic Leader at The Cass commented: ’This has been a superb project and high quality work. We also have agreements in place through the Creative Way with South Essex College for students aiming to do Interior Design and Furniture Design at The Cass. Watch this space for more exciting collaborations’.
Read more about some of the projects:binge drinking, knife crime, drugs.
22 February 2010
Binge Drinking
Ashlea Hugh tackled the ever-growing problem of binge drinking, which she felt affected many young people who see drinking as fun and part of the 21st century lifestyle. She even completed her photography at night over a weekend in her home town of Ingatestone, which raised a few eyebrows.
Ashlea said: ‘I live in a very small town that has loads of pubs and drinking just seems to be something that everyone does so it seemed the perfect place to set my shoot. I believe that images can be just a powerful as words and convey important messages just as well, and much of my work is about communicating with people visually.’
Knife crime
Vikki Farrington focused her project on an issue which has dominated the media over the last couple of years, knife crime. She based her bold and striking design on the poster for the recent Michael Caine film, Harry Brown, which dealt with one elderly man’s retribution against a gang of youths terrorizing an estate in London.
Vikki said: ‘I very much wanted to look at the prevention of knife crime. My design featured young males, as these, through my research, were deemed to be the main target group. As well as posters, I created part of the campaign to appear as if it was on a mobile as I also wanted to address other related anti-social behaviour much of which is filmed on mobile phones.’
Drugs
Sally Watts completed her shots for the project in the unusual setting of a bathroom.
Sally said: ‘I wanted my work to appeal to younger people through the art of visual communication with very little words. I did a lot of research into drugs and a lot of it was very shocking and I think I’ve really conveyed the effect it can have in my work. It’s not very pretty at all.’
The students agreed that even if one person who saw the images stopped and thought about any of the areas covered, then their work has succeeded in reaching its intended audience.