Speed Portfolio Reviews with ARTS THREAD

At Creative Matters ARTS THREAD will be offering one-to-one speed portfolio reviews for recent creative graduates and students.

Portfolio reviews with be conducted by industry experts from a wide range of specialisms.
Please bring along a paper portfolio or your portfolio on an iPad or laptop.

NB there is no wifi in the building so please make sure your portfolio is accessible

Portfolio reviews with be conducted by industry experts from a wide range of specialisms - from Graphic Design, Illustration, Textiles, Ceramics, Jewellery, Glass to Interior Design, Fashion and Textiles.

Please bring along a paper portfolio or your portfolio on an iPad or laptop. NB there is no wifi in the building so please make sure your portfolio is accessible offline.

Our experts include -

Barry Fantoni was educated at at Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts where he helped to develop the Pop Art movement alongside such contemporaries as David Hockney and Peter Blake. His first one man show in 1963 was a sell out. In the same year, he had his first cartoon published in Private Eye and would later join the magazine’s editorial staff. In addition to his cartoons, he has also drawn for The Listener and Radio Times, The Observer Colour Magazine, The Sunday Times, Nova and all the quality daily newspapers. He was art critic for The Times between 1973 and 1977 and diary cartoonist for the same newspaper from 1983 to 1991. His paintings and prints are held in all the major national galleries including the V&A, Tate Britain, The Museum of London and the British Museum. Since retirement from Private Eye, Barry moved to Turin and is currently working on a number of visual projects that involve the use of toy dolls and cinema.

Joyce Thornton - Following a long and successful career as a designer and design manager, Joyce Thornton spent 10 years at pioneering on-line fashion forecaster, WGSN as the link between emerging design talent and industry. Now, alongside her role as Senior Lecturer in Fashion at the University of Westminster, with responsibility for internships, she also writes for Arts Thread and others.

Julian Gardner is a Design Director/Art Director, specialising in Brand identity creation and tone of voice, Conceptual designs and Packaging designs. Being in the industry for over 16 years, he is very passionate about brand design and packaging and always thrives on being creatively challenged. In the last 3 years he's freelanced for some of the leading Global design agencies such as: Interbrand, Brand Union, Pearlfisher, Elmwood and LPK to name a few working on Global brands such as Coca Cola European cup 2016, Jack Daniels, Evian Wimbledon, Volvic Touch of Fruit, Walkers Crisps, Unilevers Sure Global redesign, Mars Galaxy, GSK Sensodyne & Aguafresh toothpaste, Compeed range and Weetabix Alpen redesign to name a few of some of his work. Recently he has started his own agency Rebel brand design which he redesigned the Moroccan Rose Range for Ren Skincare which got awarded best In style product.

Neil Elliott is Senior Trend Editor & Director of Patternbank, the go to site for everything Print, patten and graphics. Patternbank is the original online print and trend forecast studio, offering exclusive and non-exclusive print designs from some the best designers from around the world. Prior to Patternbank, Neil held the position of Head of Trends and Insights at Avery Dennison RBIS, where he supplied trend forecast reports, market analysis and global insights to clients such as The Gap, Adidas, Hugo Boss, Uniqlo, Nike, M&S, Abercrombie & Fitch and Levi. Before this Neil was Senior Editor at Stylesight’s Print & Graphics Department and previous creative roles include, Graphics Manager for Timberland global apparel and Senior Graphics Editor at WGSN.

Phil Dolman is one half of Studio db, a creative interior design consultancy based in London, set up in 2007 by Phil Dolman and Lesley Batchelor, ex-directors of Din Associates. Our 25 years experience in the retail sector, with many iconic projects in the UK, Europe and the Far East, gives us an instinctive understanding of the market place and what makes commercially successful design. Studio db offers the care and attention of a “boutique” studio underpinned by the professionalism of experience. Whether it’s a tiny pop up cardboard shop in Brixton or the refined luxury of the department store for Fenwick Bond Street, Studio db deliver innovative, effective design that is beautifully detailed.

Piyush Suri, Creative Director Handmade in Britain Piyush has more than 15 years of experience working in the Design industry in India and the UK, and has been a consultant and mentor for many designers and new creative businesses throughout his career. Alongside Handmade in Britain, Piyush co-owns the London retail gallery Handmade Interiors and Akin & Suri, an Interiors brand sold successfully throughout the world.

Robert Urquhart studied fine art before finding a career based on having fun, travelling and interviewing interesting people. He’s worked in children's television as a sound designer, run an art gallery, tour managed visual and sound artists and has also operated as visual producer for several major music festivals. After deciding that writing was the overruling influence he worked as a copywriter in viral advertising and worked behind the scenes for branding and design companies. The former senior writer for Grafik Magazine, Robert has also written for Dazed & Confused, Etapes International, Design Flux, Italic, Mix Global Trends, Grafik.net and VICE / The Creators Project on a regular basis and was part of a D&AD award winning team in 2012. Robert now works as an editor-at-large for Elephant magazine and is a part-time lecturer at UAL, London College of Communication.