LCF starts its Carnaby takeover

As the creative industry’s future Harriet Quicks, Katy Grands and Nick Knights take to centre stage for a final encore, Lauren De’Ath takes a stroll down a very iconic street to preview their work and sing a few praises while she’s there.

Carnaby Street is alive with the celebratory sound of its fiftieth year when I arrive at the School of Media and Communication exhibition. The bare-chested cast of Hair have just ushered in the Age of Aquarius and as I wend my way through the throngs of summer lovin’ revellers I yearn for cooler climes in the twenty seven degree heat.

There could be no better residency for the 2010 London College of Fashion graduates; set on the corner of Carnaby Street and Beak Street, the exhibition boasts three floors of la crème de la crème of BA degrees Fashion Journalism, PR, Illustration, Styling and Broadcast to name but a few. If my industrial spidey senses are anything to go by, these are students who will have been cajoled by the overwhelming influence of modern media.  The question for many of them, however, was how to produce pieces of ‘art’ in such a clashing creative environment. Work from the likes of Matjaz Tancic, whose styling repertoire was partly a 3D installation and required the viewer to wear 3D glasses to see the images in their full glory, managed to create beautiful ‘modern’ imagery without compromising on taste. One illustration student had left the confines of pen and paper behind completely for her final piece and had trapped ink lucidly in a glass box. The result was extremely effective and although tiny was a stand-out piece for me.

With only a handful of people inside, the calm monochrome interior deceives the reality that many graduates are facing this year. Comments anxious Fashion Journalism graduate, Esther Coombes on leaving the relative safety of full-time education for the big, bad wide world, “I’m not alone in feeling nervous- I know it’s something that a lot of people on the course have mimicked. For a lot of journalists, in particular, we have work for free and financially this shall require parents’ support, which is massively inconvenient.” These are times when graduates not only have results to worry about but whether or not employers from up and down the country and indeed the world are ready to extend employment to them. Nervous times, indeed.

The Broadcast effort was mysteriously hidden behind a black curtain and kindly Esther had to coax me inside lest I would have gone by ignorant. A fun-looking short about a band. But alas I am too hot to remain behind that stifling curtain for long. Outside in the cool, I note a distinct colour theme amidst the white-washed walls and concrete floor space: everything is very pared back. Neutral colours, calm and hushed reign supreme for 2010. Nothing is shout-out-loud look-at-me like there has been in the past few years with graduates. These are the colours of realism. Each and every selected piece is intransient: a worthy lesson learnt from the dreaded R-word, yes, the Recession.

So, a round of applause and the best of luck to a year, finally, where graduates are using tact and subtlety to grab our affection and attention.

Words by Lauren De’Ath – second year BA (Hons) Fashion Journalism

Images by Felipe Fonseca  – John Princes Street Receptionist

The School of Media and Communication Exhibition is open until  21/06/10