Graphics students host Sake branding exhibition

A (Hons) Graphic Design and BA (Hons) Graphic Communication students, along with students from Nagaoka Institute of Design (studying on the Visual Communication Design course) have collaborated on the development of branding and packaging of Japanese liquor, Sake.

The sake project is the first in an ongoing collaboration between the two institutions – beginning with graphic design and visual communication, but with the potential to span other creative disciplines.

Seventy NID students and 30 Graphic Design and Graphic Communication students from NUA took part in the project.

Kimihiko Nagase, Professor of Visual Communication Design at NID, said: “This has been a really rewarding project. Nagaoka is in the heart of Niigata Prefecture, a centre of Japanese sake production. It’s an intensely symbolic moment to take something so special and meaningful as the main theme for our collaboration.”

Professor Nagase and five NID students travelled to Norwich for the opening of an exhibition of the sake project work at The Crypt Gallery in Norwich.

Martin Schooley, Course Leader in Graphics at NUA said: “We adapted the brief a little to ask students to think about how they would package sake for a UK audience,” Mr Schooley said.

He added: “Our graphics courses have a global focus, and collaborating on a project like this allows our students a unique insight into producing design work about a completely unfamiliar international product.”