Ben Branagan

This is the graphic design yearbook (2011) for the University of the Creative Arts.

It is worth mentioning that I have no connection with this learning establishment at all, having gone to a different art college well over twenty years before this yearbook was even produced.
How I came across it was by chance in a second hand shop while hunting for some art books.
The solemn cover photograph showing the 5th Earl of Rosebery subtitled 'Laughter and Cheers' is what made me pick it up. I flicked through to the back pages and read the article by Mathew Clayton titled 'You Should Have Gone to Art School' which had me in tears of laughter (I empathised totally!). The rest of the book was an eye opener.

I had long been of the thought that 'things had changed' since I attended art school in the days before computers. I think it must have been the same year I left that they wheeled in the Apple Macs and threw out all the print room equipment, grant enlargers etc.
Yet here we are some twenty odd years later and it appears that things have gone full circle and 'messy play' has now been reintroduced to the curriculum - Hourah!

I hope my children will have the opportunity to play with such things as I did - happy days.
Although (as I have stated) I never attended Epsom itself; flicking through this book was like a trip down memory lane - amazing!

Thank heavens creativity is not dead after all.… (més)