The Manchester Craft And Design Centre

Today I took a visit to The Manchester Craft And Design Centre today as I visited it last year and was very impressed and inspired by the work I saw. I took a trip there as I am required to get two portfolio visits with feedback before Christmas and felt that this was a brilliant place to ask as the work standard is so high there and I feel I could receive some really constructive feedback as they are experienced and knowledgeable in my field of work. I spoke to two ladies who were really helpful and positive about viewing my work next week and although I was a little nervous to ask I soon realised that there was nothing to worry about as the people in the Craft And Design Centre are more than happy to speak to customers/visitors and couldn't have been more enthusiastic or pleasant to help me out. 

There is lot's of fantastic work to see at The Manchester Craft And Design Centre by very current designers who's work is oozing with individuality and sophistication. I was most drawn to visit it for my portfolio visits as I feel it has a lot to offer for young designers looking for guidance. Furthermore as a surface designer it is a really good place to see how pattern and design can be applied to different surfaces and products. I found there to be a lot of design including shapes which I was really excited about as it gave me lot's of ideas for my current shape patterns and what kind of products I could place them on in different ways. Some of the products that I thought I could look at designing my work for were:

• lampshades
• badges
• cards
• purses
• bookmarks
• cutlery

Some of the different ways that I thought I could apply my designs to this products, instead of my usual digital approach, were:

• stitching
• screen printing
• paper craft
• collage
• whole punching
• wood cutting

I feel I gained a lot from visiting The Manchester Craft And Design Centre today and will be looking forward to visiting again next week for hopefully some constructive feedback on my work. 

I have posted a few of the designers work that really stood out to me whist looking around the studios each for different reasons but on a whole because of the individuality in their work, use of attractive colours and use of shape used to create interesting patterns.

Lily Greenwood

Jane Blease Design

Linzi Ramsden Ceramics