GAVIN VAUGHAN

A Cleveland College of Art & Design graduate has won a national art award for his blended art concept, including a £1,000 bursary to fund the creative venture.

25-year old designer Gavin Vaughan, from Hartlepool in the north east of England, entered the Remix 2 competition, developed by Hiive, a professional network for the creative industries. The former student, who graduated from the specialist art and design college with a degree in textiles and surface design in 2013, saw the competition two days before the deadline while he was working on an internship for a national trends forecasting company, and took it as a creative challenge not to be missed.

Using examples such as Banksy painting with oils, or Spider-Man comics as tapestry, entrants were asked to create a concept which brought together cutting edge techniques and classic methods with contemporary design.

As a textiles and accessories designer, Gavin took his love of the macabre, embroidery and gold beadwork and mixed these influences with tattoo needles, creating a concept for an Elizabethan-inspired sleeve design. It was this avant garde approach which won him the award and the chance to bring his concept design to life with a £1,000 prize.

He said: “I wanted to create something that was totally unexpected, mixing the traditional techniques of intricate hand stitching on an Elizabethan sleeve and incorporating the modern use of tattoo needles into the design.

“I was so excited to find out that my brief had won alongside two other entrants! I enter quite a lot of competitions and never really expect to win, so this is a great result for me and proof that you should never give up.”

After receiving the news, Gavin was given seven days in which to create his elaborate sleeve design and bring the concept to life. In total, the sleeve took 50 hours to produce, and included machine created gold work and hand stitched embroidery.

Gavin added: “Alongside my day time job, it was quite a challenging time, as I pretty much worked through the weekend straight to get it done. But I am so proud and my time spent at CCAD has certainly helped, as the college gives you tremendous freedom to explore your own creativity and unusual ideas, which I have taken into my own designs.”

Ciaran Burke, editor of Hiive, commented: “We kept the brief as open as possible for our Remix competition because we wanted to let entrants’ imaginations run wild – and they didn’t disappoint! The standard of entry was really high, and picking the winners was very difficult as there were so many truly original ideas to choose from. Our final three winners cover a range of industries that are all represented on Hiive – design, music and textiles.

“Gavin captured our imaginations instantly with his idea, and we had to award them their bursaries so that we could see this exciting projects come to life! Hiive is dedicated to nurturing creativity, and with so many creative jobs featured on the site, covering everything from a Senior Producer role at CNN to apprenticeships with the Royal Shakespeare Company, there’s something here for creatives from every discipline.”

As well as using the winning money to create his designs, Gavin is also helping to fund a tour of Chernobyl next year, along with some colleagues from CCAD, including his former lecturer, Claire Baker. Claire has hand-picked 15 creative practitioners to visit Chernobyl and Pripyat in the Ukraine who will then produce a collection of diverse artwork for a touring exhibition on their return. In addition, Gavin also hopes to visit the Indigo trade fair next year, which is the fashion fabric event in the textiles industry.

In addition to his recent success, Gavin has also exhibited his work on TV show Four Rooms, as well as showing his designs at Liberty’s of London.

Gavin is one of a number of successful graduates from the North East’s only specialist art college who are currently making a name for themselves in a diverse range of careers within the creative industries.

CCAD tutor and professional designer Claire Baker added: “Gavin has always been a creative thinker and wanted to do something a bit different, so it is no surprise to me that he has won this award. He has made a number of opportunities for himself where his skills and ideas are now being recognised in some very exciting ways, so many congratulations on his achievement.”