30.07.20

'Wish You Were Here 2020' by Camberwell College of Arts

For most, lock-down has been an exercise in patience and caution — perhaps sometimes a sort of “make-do” mentality, going against the grain of typical values within the creative sector. But there have been some special projects born out of an adapting industry. Camberwell College of Arts' online graduation show ‘Wish You Were Here 2020’ is one of them.

“A month ago, we would’ve been together in our graphic design studio on Peckham Road”, says Chloe Tabarie, a recent graduate, and one of many involved in the project. “The pandemic prevents us from coming together physically, therefore we wanted to create a space in which we could come together virtually”.

The core concept is based around the nostalgic, and pretty forgotten, postcard. The long-drawn-out cliche of “wish you were here”, becomes not only a revitalised language to base the visuals on, but a romantic sentiment too. “Suddenly scattered around the world because of the pandemic, stuck in our own spaces of confinement, we thought that the postcard was symbolic of our desire to all stay in touch”.

The website itself re-creates that, with a digital carousel of students work framed within a postcard holder, as well as Instagram filters, a Spotify playlist, and an AR experience too. “Tiger Yang came up with the brilliant idea of exhibiting the projects inside a letterbox. The AR view allows you to enter the letterbox for a 360 degrees experience of the work”, says Chloe.

The core team was composed of Chloe, Matty Palmer and Justina Ciacyte, who were in charge of the art direction. Tiger Yang, who was in charge of the AR, Max Kohler, who coded the website, and Aimee Merola on social content. Like most, adapting to Zoom calls for collaboration isn’t ideal, but works. Chloe explains, “our group chat was full of messages and photographs. Our weekly video calls were intense, between sharing our illustrator files, AR experiments, and trying not to talk over one another”.

Alongside the selection of graduates work, is also a schedule of events, from workshops to screenings. “The participants can therefore know more about our projects in an engaging and creative way” says Chloe. “Our screening aims to bring together memories of our time spent at Camberwell, followed by showreels of graduates’ publications and films”. You can see their schedule of events on the link below.

Most importantly, it's a wonderful selection of students work, and we wish them all the best. As the headline of their website says, “Wish You Were Here 2020 is an unprecedented exhibition for unprecedented times, made by unprecedented graduates”.

You can see all the graduating students' work, plus event schedule here:
wishyouwereherecamberwell.com

Their Instagram account here:
instragram.com/camberwellgraphicdesign

And their Spotify playlist here:
[Link]

Words: Joe Cooper