It is with much sadness that we announce the sudden loss of our ex LCC colleague and friend Ian Noble who died 30 January 2013. Ian played a significant role in the changing face of graphic design education at LCC. Ian’s contribution to the lives of thousands of students and designers as an educator, designer, writer and mentor was instrumental in ensuring the people he worked with were at the forefront of their field.

I first met Ian when he arrived at LCP in 1997 to run the BA course. I would send him students from Chelsea’s foundation course that I knew he would be able to inspire and influence with his passion for graphic design. He would regularly give me updates on them and let me know how they were getting on. Despite the size of the course Ian knew all of his students and they knew him. They were in awe of this huge character that would live and breathe all things graphics but also knew how to get the best from his students by challenging their perceptions and approaches to design. Ian was also a great observer and consumer of popular culture which fed his inquisitive personality. One Twitter user reacted to Ian’s death by urging his friends to listen to the Clash “loudly and in inappropriate places” by way of tribute.

Ian left LCC to take up a senior academic role at Kingston University two years ago. It was a huge loss to LCC at the time but the loss we feel now of losing a great colleague and friend is beyond measure. His influence and passion lives on through ex students, colleagues and friends.

Natalie Brett, Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of College, London College of Communication

During a career spanning over 20 years in education, Ian’s links to design courses, design schools, colleges and universities nationally and internationally were both far-reaching and deep-rooted. Ian’s influence as a design educator inspiring design students, practitioners and academics was through his inspirational teaching and lecturing style and through his books, some co-authored with Russell Bestley at LCC, that explored contemporary communication design through the eyes of a practitioner and a passionate advocate for the ‘theory of practice and not the practice of theory’. Ian’s books are on the required reading lists of courses in communication design nationally and internationally – Ian played an enormous part in the education of many many graphic designers and played an extremely active role in the field of communication design research. Ian was a big big figure (Ian would enjoy the poor pun) in communication design education. He will be much missed by our community – by many friends, colleagues, students and alumni. One tweet, of many broadcast following his death, said it best – ‘Everyone should listen to the Clash today. Loudly and in inappropriate places. A tribute to Ian Noble. RIP.’ Quite.

Lawrence Zeegen, Dean of  School of Design, London College of Communication.

Ian Noble was an inspiring teacher who believed in ‘a theory of practice, not the practice of theory’. MA Graphic Design Course Director Russell Bestley pays tribute to an innovator in graphic design education.

Ian taking an MA class at LCC in 2002. Picture courtesy Russell Bestley.

It is with great sadness that we must announce the passing of one of the great innovators in modern graphic design education, writes Russell Bestley. Ian Noble, teacher, author, designer, outstanding mentor and critical friend to both professionals and students of graphic design alike for more than 25 years, passed away on Wednesday 30 January, 2013.

The impact of his death still resonates across the higher education and design communities. His influence touched so many lives on a personal, professional and academic level.

Following a period of time as a professional graphic designer, notably working in the magazine design industry, Ian returned to the educational field in the late 1980s. Working first at Portsmouth College of Art, he navigated the changes in higher education and the transition toward incorporation with Portsmouth Polytechnic (subsequently the University of Portsmouth) during the early 1990s. During this time he became renowned as an inspirational and charismatic teacher. His influence affected both his students and his peers during a period of intense international reflection on the nature and subject of graphic design as a practice.

Ian believed in the value of design education and the need for graphic design to examine itself from within – to re-evaluate the methods and systems that designers often take for granted and to establish what he termed ‘… a theory of practice, not the practice of theory’.

This critical approach to the nature of design, he thought, could help raise the status of designers as mediators (rather than simply facilitators) of visual communication – a process of ‘informed engagement’ with the content and structure of the message.

He took up a role as head of the undergraduate Graphic Design programme at the London College of  Communication in 1997, rewriting and structuring the course to extend these ideas to the education of an upcoming generation of designers at a time when the industry itself was in flux with the impact of new technologies and the ‘academicisation’ of the subject. Ian’s belief in the value of design thinking and strategy – in methodology – as crucial to the process of design, whatever the changes in tools or craft, helped students successfully understand their role and position.

From 2001 on, Ian took over the postgraduate graphic design programme at the LCC, further developing and shaping his understanding of the process of design, and inspiring students to rethink their own established practices. This concentration on the activity of design, rather than its end-product, helped to shape a new direction in the education and practice of designers nationally and internationally – Ian was in great demand to offer advice and give critical feedback to many other institutions, while at the same time his reputation among design professionals spread far and wide.

In 2010, he took on the role of Course Director MA Communication Design at Kingston University, reshaping and transforming the postgraduate design framework with a new group of staff and students.

Ian Noble at Induction day, MA Communication Design, ESAD, Portugal. Picture courtesy Andrew Howard.

I first met Ian when I re-entered higher education as a mature student in the late 1980s. His intellect, understanding and caring nature inspired me, like many others, to establish my own critical position and thinking. We worked closely together since that time, co-authoring a number of books focusing on a critical interrogation of the design process, delivering workshops at colleges and universities across Europe and North America, and running our own design group, Visual Research (which also became the title of our book on graphic design methodologies, recently reworked as a second edition and published internationally).

Ian will be fondly remembered as a charismatic, energetic, observant, warm and hugely entertaining and inspiring individual, whose influence will be felt for many years to come. His influence on the world of design education is obvious to anyone who worked with him (of which there are many), but equally his impact within his own wide network of friends and allies in his hometown of Portsmouth cannot be underestimated – he was loved by many, and he will be sorely missed.

Ian Noble, b. 15 October 1960, d. 30 January 2013; designer and educator.

Ian Noble at the award ceremony at the Titan International Illustration in Design competition, ESAD, Portugal, where Ian was a guest speaker. Courtesy Andrew Howard.

First published on the Eye blog, 8 February 2013, http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/ian-noble-1960-2013

Add your comments to Ian’s tribute page ian-tribute.studioandrewhoward.com

This term 40 sustainability experts have challenged London College of Communication design students to communicate an environmental issue based around the themes for this year’s Green Week – Water, transport, waste, consumption and biodiversity.

Students from LCC’s BA (Hons) Graphic & Media Design (year two) and FdA Design for Graphic Communication courses have since been collaborating in groups to develop a brief and concept to communicate their chosen sustainability challenge.

Groups have been sharing their thoughts, reflections and observations in blogs documenting their design process. And each week in the run up to Green Week 2013, we’re going to be sharing the best with you. This week;

THE FLOWER COLLECTIVE

What challenge have your group taken on?
We initially set out to reduce the impact of transport on the environment. We wanted to make others aware of the impact that transport has on air pollution, which effects us all even though we cannot see it. London is the most polluted city in Europe and 4,200 people a year die due to the contamination in the air.

The plan is to create a movement that will make people aware of the level of pollution in the air by sending seed kits through the post with instructions for growing “clean” air. We want to empower people to help reduce the damage of air pollution themselves instead of feeling powerless and relying on the government. As a collective want to empower people as well as applying pressure to governing bodies to help reduce air pollution on a large scale.

What talks from the experts inspired you?

Maria Arnold – Client Earth - inspiring, eye opening, made the base for this project.

Friends of the Earth – Sarah-Jayne Clifton – informed us of the power of mediating charities.

Hackney Pound - inspiring the sense of community that benefits our project.

What’s your proposed solution?
We intend to showcase a planting scheme that will educate the local community about how to plant for themselves, how they can benefit the local environment by planting and how it could reduce CO2. We intend to reach out to people instead of forcing people to find us, giving them the information needed to create gardens.

Plants clean 34.6% of CO2 in the environment and we want to increase this. Bloom London would be the starting point, a small scale focus that could then be able to grow into larger scale activities, such as large scale planting schemes and petitioning for greener environments. We want to empower each person to know that they can make an impact, even on such a serious problem.

The Flower Collective are;

Angela Grishin

Matthew Hagan-Edwards

Seyoun Jung

NaYoun Jeon

Valeria Escolona

http://flowercollective.tumblr.com/

Green Week, 4 – 8 March
Each year LCC champions intelligent and ethical creativity with a week of workshops, exhibitions, screenings, lectures and design challenges. A platform for showcasing current good practice, Green Week will see students, staff and guests collaborators utilise design and media thinking to unpick this year’s themes of waste, transport, consumption, biodiversity and water.

Dates: 15 February – 15 March 2013

Curated by Juan Bolivar

Exhibition Dates: 15 February – 15 March 2013
Opening Event: Thursday 14 February, 5 – 8pm

Participating artists:
Isha Bøhling | John Chilver | Amy Cunningham | Nick Dawes | Alex Gough | Andy Hsu | Hiroe Komai | David Lock | Karl Marrow | Scott Mason | Hugh Mendes | John Richert | Adrian Scicluna | Pamela Richardson and Kevin Smith | Julie Verhoeven | Julian Hughes Watts | Leon Woolls

Six Degrees of Separation is an exhibition about inter-connectivitiy in multi-disciplinary contemporary art practice. The premise for this exhibition explores how an artist’s practice links them to other artists, in turn, sharing concerns in an often surprising and unexpected sequence.

London College of Communication (LCC) graduate Rob Stothard has been named the 10th Times/Canon Young Photographer of the Year.

Rob, 27, from Leeds, has been awarded a six-month full-time contract with The Times, where he will be trained in the skills of photojournalism, receive state-of-the-art Canon camera equipment and a year’s membership to the British Press Photographer’s Association.

Rob studied mathematics at the University of Leeds and had been working in the city when he turned his attention to photography, applying for LCC’s MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography course. Then in a desire to better his photography skills he threw himself head-first into a big international story by making the brave decision of going to Egypt to cover last year’s elections.

Rob explains “I had been interested in and travelled in the Middle East for some time and felt going to Egypt and setting myself up to cover the elections would be perfect. So I changed to the online mode of the course hoping it would give me the structure and mentorship I feel is difficult to gain as a freelancer fresh into the industry.”

“Aside from the help from course director Paul Lowe, the other staff and my fellow students, being part of a society of journalists based in Cairo has been an invaluable experience. Whilst my technical skills as a photographer have improved I feel the most valuable part of my time in Cairo has been learning from more experienced journalists how to accurately and honestly depict a complex political scene.”

Rob has has covered a number of stories around the Middle East including in Israel.

Amúd ʿAnán, Pillar of Cloud, was the latest operation by Israel Forces in the Gaza Strip. This set of images takes a look inside Israel during the conflict.

Israeli journalists work on a hilltop less than a mile east of the Gaza Strip, providing footage of the city’s aerial and naval bombardment.

A local man provides an Israeli soldier with a tefflin at the site of a rocket attack in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.

A journalist prepares for broadcast on the edge of the southern Israeli city of Sderot.

A young girl from Sderot watches the Israeli Air Force’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip in her pyjamas.

Port said Aftermath. An eruption of violence in Egypt began on February 1st when players and supporters of the Cairo-based football team Al-Ahly were attacked after a match against Al-Masry in Port Said, Egypt. Most of the 74 dead and thousands of injured were Ahly supporters.

http://www.robstothard.co.uk/