News: Carl highlights an important message through his winning designs
Congratulations to fashion student, Carl Newson, who has won a national design competition for his creative artwork which raises awareness about important social issues such as safe sex and AIDS.
Carl, 34, is studying BA (Hons) Art and Design at the College. He was introduced to the DAA X ARTS Threads Young Creatives Against AIDS Contest by his tutor as part of his university-level course.
The brief, set by DAA (Designers against AIDS), was to develop designs for a safe sex campaign for HIV that was engaging and positive, to be used in a worldwide social media campaign.
Nottingham College BA Art & Design Course Leader, Elizabeth Libor, said: “Carl’s designs answered the brief perfectly. He combined his own artwork with a playful approach in terms of the humour of both the visuals and the tag lines, which he then printed into five individual T‑shirts, which worked brilliantly!”
As a proud advocate of the LGBTQ+ community, alongside his course, Carl uses his talent for fashion design to create bespoke costumes for drag queens and burlesque performers.
A huge part of my personal and professional life has drag at its heart. As a drag artist from the Nottingham LGBTQ+ scene (Claire-Leigh Knott), I try to see things bigger, brighter and funnier.
If we can look at a serious situation with a slight sense of humour, it can be easier to digest and allow people to be confident to ask questions. I hope my ‘ONE OF YOUR 5 A DAY’ slogans are designed in a way to allow conversations to start about safe sex and AIDS, but in a more supportive way.
— Carl Newson
Carl’s engaging artwork caught the eyes of the prestigious judging panel, which included Nicolas Loufrani, CEO of Smiley (London and Paris), Barbara Franchin, founder of #ITS (Trieste), and Jens Laugesen, fashion designer and teacher (London).
Carl beat off tough competition from university-level students across the UK to be crowned the overall winner of the competition and his designs will now be shared worldwide through a DAA social media campaign. Carl also received a voucher for 500 Euros to spend in the charity online fashion store of Designers against AIDS.
I was so excited when I received the news that I had been chosen as the winner and I’m really proud that my designs are being used to help such an important campaign. I would like to thank my lecturers for encouraging me to enter the competition and for being so supportive throughout my time at College.
— Carl Newson
Published on:
- 4th June 2020 (3:59 PM)
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