The scope filter logo with tagline Visual design without the noise. The logo is of a smiling blue telescopefish head in profile view. It has large tubular eyes.

The Design Exhibition

12 December 2022

The Cre8 Your Career exhibition is a student showcase for Queensland TAFE design students to share their work.

In this blog post I'll share my exhibition table and some designs from the night (1st December). Apologies for the blurry photos, I was just using my phone camera.

My Table

The graphic design students each had a display area to set up and we each designed posters and a skateboard deck for the night which was required to incorporate our logo and branding.

For my table I had a blue tablecloth, a guestbook with blue pens and ruler, portfolio, business cards, a packaging assignment, and some QR codes with links for a digital guestbook and social media handles.

A lengthwise display table with a custom blue tablecloth.

I liked the idea of having a guestbook because I remembered somebody from the exhibition last year did the same which I wrote in. I also thought it helped encourage interaction and help link to the concept of digital guestbooks and emphasising interactions through websites rather than social media. That said, the messages I got on exhibition night were in the physical guestbook and I'm guessing it is because of the accessibility of it.

My brand colours are different shades of blue to represent different depths of the ocean along with the brighest blue being a bioluminescent blue and reminescent of the IBM computer terminal.

My poster and skateboard designs showed deep sea creatures and the telescopefish which is my logo mascot. 🐟

The poster is blue and in a vertical orientation hanging from the ceiling. It features cliff walls on the left and right sides and deep sea creatures in a flat vector style on the front. The logo for scope filter is at the bottom of the poster. The skateboard uses the same elements as the poster but is in a more stretched vertical orientation so the fish illustrations have been moved around and the cliffs stretched on both sides.

Each design student shared a space with somebody else. For example, my friend Sunny Disposition had her display on the other side of mine. This photo was taken by her as well!

The poster reads If Death Can't Stop Me, Then You Can't Either with an illustration of a character standing before a sunset with gravestones, holding up a sword. Illustration prints, paper bags, business cards, and a portfolio are on the table. The portfolio has a close up illustration of a space helmet in space on the front cover.

I will share the guestbook entries at the end of this blog post, I want to share some designs from the night first. 🙂

Typographic Murals

There was competition among the students to develop typographic murals for the walls. The winners shown below all produced eye catching designs.

The mural reads

Another Dollhouse Design hand-rendered their typographic mural including illustrating bat wings for gothic vibes. This mural was positioned outside the elevator as you arrived at the third floor.

The mural reads

Una Design employs a New Wave approach to typography and pop art colours and half tones. This mural was positioned in one of the corridors on the third floor.

The mural reads 'Don't confuse legibility with communication' and the quote is by David Carson credited in the bottom right. Torn paper textures overlap in an arc shape. The paper are white, cream, red, and cyan. The text varies from scratchy, cursive, capital sans serif, and communication has the letters jumbled with some letters upsidedown.

Tayticus Designs' grunge typographic mural was inspired by David Carson. This mural was positioned inside the exhibition room against the wall.

The mural reads 'Don't get hung up on petty things'. The letters are white in a heavy weight uppercase pixel font. Don't Get Hung Up On is a geometric sans serif and Petty Things is a bubble font. Petty things has a blue 3D applied to it and a black outline, with a pink drop shadow with a black outline. There are bubbles on either side of the text, with layered seaweed or moss along the bottom and blue, white, and black waves along the top with a small bit of sky behind it.

Hantreloardesign made a pixel art mural with graphics inspired by Super Mario Brothers. This was another mural which was inside the exhibition space.

There was one more typographic mural design but I forgot to take a photo of it. 😞 It featured illuminated letters which can be seen on IF Graphic Design's Instagram.

Skateboard Decks

All the Diploma graphic design students had skateboards on the wall and I thought a good way to capture the variety was to take a photo of them all together. So, moving from left to right...

Skateboard decks minus the wheels are hanging against a black wall held up by wire. Designs are printed as a sticker which is stuck on the board.
More skateboards.
More skateboards.

Other Design Work

The visual arts students had credits for their work though I have had some trouble finding their social medias. Here are some of the works I thought were really cool.

Neon green slime is tipped over with the word Blergh showing through. Rubber eyes and cockroaches decorate the edge of the slime. There is a pastel pink and blue gradient background with a letter U made up of different sized gooogly eyes.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the design student names for these as they were dissociated from the display area though they were for the Certificate III in Design.

A hand-stitched pastel purple jellyfish. A small swarm of hand-stiched jellyfish hanging from the ceiling from different heights.

Grace Kelly made these cute jellyfish, all her designs have a pastel appearance you can find her as princessartworks on Instagram.

A black and white illustration of a baphomet kneeling before a small bonfire. A monotone expressionist painting of gravestones.

The baphomet illustration is by Nandus Swart and the gravestone painting is by Miranda Westway.

An unusual sculpture of a decapitated screaming white blocky head with nails in its skull with a spine and legs made of twisted wire. A statue of deer busts leaping from a central totem pole. The male deer has large antlers and has red fur while the female deer is sky blue. An abstract sculpture of crystalised rocks and crystal balls and netting, looking reminescent of coral with small fairy lights around the bottom.

The pin head sculpture is by Chiara Kostoglou, I wanted to ask if they have ever seen Twin Peaks Season 3 mainly due to this character called The Arm who has a similar appearance.

The fantasy sculpture of the deer is by Bellamy Smyth and the abstract rock sculpture is by Andrea Lugo-Calamlam.

Invasion from Outer Space!

Just wanted to give a shout out to these space ladies walking around the exhibition area and who let me take their photo!

Two ladies are wearing a science fiction outfit. They are wearing a flesh tone outfit with silver beads on them, black bob cut wigs, and skirts and wings made of LED rings. Both are wearing twisted lights on their head.

Guestbook Entries

I got a mixture of very kind and very amusing messages in the physical guestbook. I've left the names out but I appreciate you all. Thank you for the messages!

Guestbook entry 1 is by Rhiannon and reads 'Hello! I'm the designer (scope filter). Leave a message, if you like!' Hand-drawn smile emoji. The next guestbook entry reads 'I like the fish. Please make more fish. Also your art is cute! I'm loving your work. The linework make things stand out. Keep on working. You're amazing. Yippee! A hand drawn grin emoticon. FISH. A simplified drawn fish. Jesus Fish. A wretched drawing of a cartoon pile of meat with eyes. The text reads 'Meat man'. Love your style. Hand drawn heart. I love the colour and the layout Well done. Slaying so hard! Hand drawn fish with a speech bubble containing 3 hearts. A drawing of a blob fish followed by the text 'Blob fish!' Slay Fish Queen! Praise the wiggler... Fits your Vibe! Fish are friends not food Kinda Fishy I love your work scope filter. Heart symbol. Ex-student here. Love it, your love of illustration shows - keep it up! smile emoji.

Wrapping Up

This evening capped off a busy yet fun year. I made some great new friends, got to be inspired by the people around me and in cyberspace, and got to think about design all day. If you were part of the exhibition, I hope you enjoyed this year too. 😊

If anyone finds their design on here and wants credits, feel free to send me a message and I'll add it! 😊