We had a stand at New Blood last week, in the boiling-hot-but-much-better-space-than-last-year Kensington Olympia.
I think we all found it similarly awesome and daunting to be alongside creative students from around the World, all showing the results of years of studying and working.
Our stand design strategy this year was to invite people in with an open central area and lots of little things to play and interact with around the space. I would say that strategy was 60% successful. There's clearly a balance to be struck between inviting & intimate and big & visual. In many cases the best new blood winners were all four of those things. Worth thinking about for next year's third years.
That's the other sad thing, that we don't get another go. I got the impression that those of us who didn't go last year were completely overwhelmed and awestruck by the scale and talent of the show and their position within that. It's a symptom of studying in a town with misjudged opinions of itself, I guess. Even though it's outside of term time, all 2nd years should come to get a sense of what's expected of them as New Blood next year. It should be a school trip.
Some more observations / tips:
- People mostly check the name of the college before the work on display.
- Covering your wall space with huge work stops people from going in for a closer look.
- Scottish (4 year) courses had consistently more considered spaces and work.
- A well designed overall space was far more inviting than leaving it to individual work.
- Some work that we didn't take with us would have done really well.
- Too many students in front of a stand means people can't get in and look.
- Having business cards or take-away items that actually feature your work is a good idea.
- Print work was the main focus - real opportunities to show great 2.0 concepts.
- Check that your power isn't going to be switched off before the judges look round.
- Not many people seemed to be taking advantages of the talks and workshops.
- Stands worked better when they were staffed by students.
- Hardly anyone was using the #newblood09 twitter tag, or even tweeting about it at all.
There are write-ups on Form Fifty Five, and Creative Review.
Did anyone else go along? What would your tips be?
