Northern Design Festival

Me and my best friend, graphic designer, Jess Preston of J P Design Co. spent three days attending the Northern Design Festival in Lancaster. As a Northern artist living locally to the Lancaster area, having such a well-organised, creative event right on my doorstep has been a game-changer for my creative practice.

The Northern Design Festival gave me the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals passionate about the creative industry. I learned new skills and different creative processes, cemented my understanding of the importance of networking, and I discovered more about how to sustainably develop my practice. The range of workshops, talks, and events was the perfect mix across the weekend. It was great to see all the amazing creative talent from the North!

NDF x Contemporary Collage Magazine x G.F Smith

As a Contemporary Collage Artist myself, it was fantastic to attend a workshop run by passionate, leading professionals within the industry.

Molly, from Contemporary Collage Magazine, set the group off on tasks based on Matisse and representational artworks. These tasks led me to work in a way that I hadn’t before, which has since informed my art practice and made me think about collage art in new and exciting ways.

It was so interesting to see how creatively different everyone’s work was within the set briefs. The pieces that I created have since been featured in Issue #33 of Contemporary Collage Magazine and on the CCM Instagram.

Being able to work with quality papers from GF Smith’s Colour Plan range was a great experience. It was fascinating to learn about sustainable practices within the paper industry, particularly GF Smith’s Conscious and Extract range of papers, which are made from seaweed and recycled coffee cups. I was sent away with a sample pack of papers, which I have since been using in my own creative practice.

I met so many talented artists and creatives who are bringing contemporary collage to the forefront of the art world. It was a great opportunity to discuss all things paper and contemporary collage!

Panel Talk North vs South: A Creative Divide

The North vs South panel talk was insightful. It was inspiring to see so many talented design studios that had set up their businesses in the North, including Walsh Studio, Studio Sana, Office of Craig, and Aire Global.

While the overall verdict from the talk was that, yes, there is a North-South divide, with more creative opportunities and funding in the South, there are also lots of opportunities happening up here in the North. Ultimately, you get to make the choice of where you want to live and create your creative enterprise and community. A get-up-and-go attitude is needed, with all things in life, as proven by the inspiring event that was the Northern Design Festival!

Future Matter: Trends in Print Design (Typeset A Mindset)

During this workshop, for personal and professional growth, Laura Boast from Conscious Made gave insights into her own sustainable design practice and taught the group about print trends, providing practical skills and inspiring creativity.

It was so insightful to learn about different sustainable print materials, types of foils, typography, and how embossing can be used as a sustainable alternative to inks. As a group, we learned about different types of colour palettes that are currently on trend and how to determine which palettes to use depending on the project. We then created our colour palettes using an array of GF Smith Papers, Pantone colours and FoilCo foils.

The written resources on how you want a piece of design to both feel and affect your senses have been super helpful to refer back to when considering new projects.

Laura was so passionate about sustainable design and an incredible teacher. It was inspiring to meet someone who was even more obsessed with circles and paper than myself!

Northern Design Festival 2024

The Northern Design Festival was organised by two Lancaster University students, Executive Director Antonia Arbova and Design Director Niamh Cartwright, along with a full team of Project Leads and Curators, who are also all students.

Seeing the festival built from the ground up, with volunteers, local designers, and businesses all working collaboratively to create such an impressive event has been so inspiring - it’s brought a new life into my creative practice. Bring on Northern Design Festival 2025!