Do you know those people who find the face of Jesus in a pack of Monster Munch? It's called pareidolia, a psychological phenomenon that causes people to see faces in inanimate objects. And it's a cognitive process that British artist Jonathan Baldock is exploring in his latest series of ceramic masks.

Called Personae, the collection teems with bright colours and outlandish expressions. Ripples of clay allude to folds of skin whilst incisions and abstract protuberances reveal physiognomic features such as eyes, ears and nostrils. Here, you can see Baldock is toying with the theme of pareidolia. Whilst some masks mediate universal emotions such as happiness or sadness, others merely hint at figuration.

Baldock achieves the variations in mood and personality by experimenting with different ceramic techniques, using coloured clays, applying glazes, and firing the hanging tablets at varying temperatures. "Lustrous, painterly finishes emphasise the playfulness of certain expressions whilst earthen, pumice-like surfaces manifest feelings of melancholia," says the Gallery. "The artist employs seriality to emphasise these differences by hanging the works side-by-side and using an identical rectangular format."

You can see this new series at an upcoming exhibition at the Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, launching on 27 September and running until 9 November 2019.

Baldock trained as a painter but now works primarily in low-fi ceramics and textiles – hand-making vast 3-D objects, sculptural pieces and colourful immersive installations. His work is often crazily humorous but also has an uncanny, macabre quality. He has exhibited internationally and his work has explored everything from emojis to orifices. His studio is in East London but he exhibits internationally. Find out more at jonathan-baldock.com.

Manchester studio Only has created a new identity for Transmission Roundhouse, an online radio platform for "the next generation of creatives and culture makers".

Considered to be a place for young people to come together to create, explore and influence, Only was asked to capture the full spectrum of "underserved youth cultures" represented by the emerging station.

"We identified a passion for niche content as the founding principle of the station’s output," says Daniel Tweddle, co-founder of Only. "With the identity, we worked to position the station as the home of experimental youth content. A unifying brand idea – 'cut through the noise' – captured the radical and progressive spirit of the station."

Only's monogram for Transmission Roundhouse is bold, simple and direct. "Originally inspired by the movement of dynamic equaliser bars, the logo hints at broadcast and transmission. The unique form is deployed confidently across applications and lays a foundation for the wider visual language," adds Daniel.

Meanwhile, the visual language captures the spirit of progressive culture: "Current, not commercial – authentic, not faddy," continues Daniel. "Typographic expression inspired by the marque offers a range of volumes, embracing individual identity and unique self-expression."

The imminent completion of London's new Cross Rail makes Soho a prime target for development and threatens its existence as a place of unorthodoxy and independence.

But one can hope, as Soho has always been a site of resistance. Although relatively small in size – approximately one square mile – and bordered by some of London’s grandest and most commercialised streets, it has stood up to its neighbours, repudiated gentrification, nurtured difference and maintained its reputation and resonance as a village affair; a hotbed of unpredictability, disobedience and diverse cultures.

From market-place to movie-set, sex shop to coffee bar, crime scene to cabaret, Soho is an unfolding and complex spectacle, central to the music, fashion, design, film and sex industries alongside being a vibrant hub for LGBTQ+ communities. Across the centuries, it has also been home to a variety of immigrant communities from the French Huguenots, through Italian, Maltese, Chinese, Hungarian, Jewish and Bengali cultures.

Now a new exhibition at The Photographers' Gallery, Shot in Soho, will celebrate Soho's diverse culture, community and creativity at a time when the area is facing radical transformation.

It's a timely opportunity to see the area through the lens of renowned photographers, such as William Klein, through a rare presentation of his candid 1980s Sunday Times commissioned photo essay; Anders Petersen with a selection of his 2011 Soho series, which capture the neighbourhood with his trademark lyrical melancholy; Corinne Day, whose images take us off the streets into her Brewer St. home where some of her most iconic editorial and personal work was shot; as well as work from less familiar figures such as Times photographer Kelvin Brodie’s night-time forays with police teams, John Goldblatt’s strip club dressing room scenes and Clancy Gebler Davies’s work in The Colony Room Club.

The exhibition features a commission from the artist Daragh Soden who will present a new body of work focusing on Soho’s reputation as a place of connection, performance and the pursuit of love.

Shot in Soho will be on display at The Photographers' Gallery, London from the 18 October 2019 until 9 February 2020. A specially produced publication by Prestel titled, Shot in Soho: Photographing Life, Love and Lawlessness in the Heart of London, will accompany the show.

Pentagram has created the visual identity for a new landmark exhibition for UNIQLO that takes a closer look at the Japanese clothing brand's LifeWear concept: simple, high-quality, everyday clothing designed to be both practical and beautiful.

Currently on show at Somerset House in London, The Art and Science of LifeWear: New Form Follows Function is an immersive show that considers the clothing line from three different perspectives: art, science and craftsmanship.

Pentagram developed the entire experience, including the exhibition identity, graphics and advertising, video content, exhibition design, installations, interactive experiments and sound design. The London agency also created the visual identity and graphics for the show as well as marketing and advertising materials.

Inspired by UNIQLO’s FW19 season styling theme 'new form follows function', both the identity and the exhibition design make use of modernist grid systems and includes new iconography for each of UNIQLO’s key products and technologies, as well as many of the areas and experiments in the show.

There are many highlights, one of which is a large-scale installation designed to demonstrate the lightweight qualities of UNIQLO’s AIRism fabric. If you get the chance to visit, you'll enter a six metre-long area filled with hundreds of floating strips of fabric that you can touch as you walk through the space.

The craftsmanship behind UNIQLO clothes, meanwhile, is showcased in five open wooden "tent" structures which are covered with different fabrics – these feature UNIQLO’s signature jeans, its knits and its shirts.

There's even a multi-sensory mirrored room which is filled with 50 hanging lamps made from UNIQLO socks in 50 different colours. The lamps pulse on and off in time to a unique music composition created by Pentagram, creating an atmospheric space which shows the Japanese brand's more playful side.

Sound plays a key part in the exhibition, with each area having its own composition. Unconventional percussive sounds, originating from industrial noises and machinery, are used to tell the story of UNIQLO LifeWear.

The Art and Science of LifeWear: New Form Follows Function is free to attend and runs concurrently with the London Design Festival and London Fashion Week until 22 September.

Sacred Shanghai by photographer and anthropologist Liz Hingley, explores the spaces, rituals and communities that weave together the spiritual fabric of China’s largest and most cosmopolitan city.

After decades of suppression during the Mao era, China has been undergoing one of the great religious revivals of our time. Unsettled by the pace of development and globalisation, millions are turning to faith for meaning and hope in the alienating megacities that now dominate Chinese life.

With around 26 million inhabitants, the megalopolis is home to a multitude of religions from Buddhism and Islam, to Christianity and Baha'ism, to Hinduism and Daoism and many other alternative faiths, which are constantly growing and evolving.

In the book's introduction, Ian Johnson, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and specialist in Chinese religion, adds: "Freed from being defined by where they were born, China’s urbanites have created new identities, discovering for themselves what they truly believe with the aid of new technologies, social media and convergence of faiths and cultures.

"Some of this religious life takes place in skyscrapers and apartment blocks, but also in the pockets of the past that still dot Shanghai: a traditional New Year’s dinner, the persistence of burning paper houses, cars, and money for the dead, or a rambunctious music group announcing a wedding, birth, or funeral. Faith in China may be vulnerable, yet its unwavering importance is beyond doubt. Its very presence in people’s hearts makes it impossible to eradicate. More than economics or politics, it is these moments that are the new heart of China."

Shanghai Sacred is currently on display at the Victoria Art Gallery and Museum at the University of Liverpool until 25 September. It is also featured in a new book, Shanghai Sacred, published by GOST Books this October. Priced at £25, you can pre-order a copy here.

How much do you know about the Mediterranean? Do you envisage playing on a pink sandy beach, or watching Formula One cars zoom past from your view on a super-yacht?

In her new book, A Journey through the Mediterranean, London illustrator Bethany Lord considers these perceptions to provide a bright and colourful travel guide for children. "Set your adventurous spirit free and imagine snorkelling in the clear turquoise sea in Malta," she says. "Try exploring the bright blue town of Chefchaouen and immerse yourself in the different cultures and views of the countries and Islands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea."

All of the book's illustrations are from different perspectives, exploring colours and cultures that encourage children to engage and explore the world around them. From aerial views of beaches in Greece and France to city landscapes of Barcelona and Venice, the playful style will undoubtedly encourage a young mind to learn more.

Bethany graduated from the Arts University Bournemouth in 2018 and is a recent MA Illustration graduate from Kingston University in London where she now lives.

Her work is bold and colourful focusing on lifestyle and travel. She adds: "My latest work explores aerial views, which is all created digitally. I have drawn on my experiences from travelling and experiencing different cultures, inspiring me to create pieces of work, around travel and lifestyle. Exploring and moving back to my hometown of London has continued to inspire me."

Could you eat absolutely anything? It's something that Chinese people are supposedly renowned for. And it's an unfair rumour that artist Lim Qi Xuan, better known as QimmyShimmy, is exploring in her latest series, A Little Heart.

The cute yet disturbing miniature sculptures feature a twist on Dim Sum (点心), a style of Chinese cuisine that dates back to the Tang and Song dynasties but remains much loved and relevant today.

Placed in traditional steamer baskets and porcelain bowls, the artworks combine the beauty of Chinese delicacies with the artist’s signature touch of macabre. "It questions why a cuisine that has millennia of history and craft is rarely associated with elegance and beauty in cultures outside its own," explains Lim.

Her miniature sculptures, which are described by many as "creepy-cute", tread a fine line between horror and beauty. The works are on show in a solo exhibition, A Little Heart, at the Beinart Gallery in Brunswick, Australia until 29 September.

"Her aesthetic sensibilities have been shaped by her love for fantasy stories, old curiosities and the idea of time travel and a yearning for worlds natural and make-believe," explains the Gallery. You can discover more at www.qimmyshimmy.com.

We can't quite get our heads around Kevin McGloughlin's latest film, Repetition. It's a mind-bending clever attempt to "convey the importance of our endless endeavours toward human development and growth amidst a chaotic and disorientating landscape," according to the Irish filmmaker.

Made in collaboration with the musician Max Cooper, it was commissioned by the Barbican as part of a larger project, Yearning for the Infinite, which will be displayed at the London museum from 28 September.

But what came first? The film? Or the music? Kevin told Creative Boom: "I had started the film before the audio was made on this one, there was a lot of back and forth between Max and me, the visual and audio were being made in unison so there was a very fresh and dynamic feel to the project.

"We talked through ideas and shared rough cuts and notions. This was very unusual, because generally when we collaborate together the music is already set in stone. I think this helped the work greatly and it was especially fun for me to witness insight into Max's approach to making his beautiful music."

For his latest series, Boston artist Mike Ryczek wanted to explore the complex identity issues surrounding international adoption, following a trip to South Korea with his partner who is a Korean American Adoptee.

"The trip was set in motion when we decided to attend a week-long gathering of adoptees from around the world," explains Mike. "Having not yet travelled outside of the US nor having any firsthand experience with international adoption myself, I was able to learn about identity issues that can arise from the experiences of other adoptees and explore a city that was as foreign to me as it was to my Korean-American partner."

The series is based on photos taken by both Mike and his partner. The photos have been collaged, added to and manipulated before being translated into paint. "They speak to my raw sensory impressions of this new environment," says Mike, "the emotions and ideas I imagined being projected onto it because of my preconceptions of East Asian culture, and contemporary social issues specific to Korea that I learned about both during and after our stay in Seoul."

This series will be exhibited for a solo show by 13Forest Gallery in Arlington, Massachusetts, launching in January 2020.

In his latest series, Kevin Krautgartner takes to the skies yet again to document a "natural wonder" in a remote bay in North-Western Australia. His resulting images pick out the patterns and lines to create beautiful abstract artworks.

"When the last vestiges of the retreating tide make their way back into the ocean, small rivers wind their way through the sand, leaving salt-encrusted banks. This phenomenon is usually called a tidal flat," explains Kevin.

"These flats are coastal wetlands formed in areas where there is a sufficient supply of fine-grained sediment and tides dominate over other hydrodynamic forces. The tidal signal is reflected in the zonation of the morphology and sediment distribution patterns in the intertidal zone. The vertical sedimentary sequences thus formulated are characterised by a fining upward pattern."

These effects are most pronounced where the tidal range is very high. In this particular bay on the North-Western coast of Australia, the range can be as much as 12 metres, the second largest in the world. Kevin adds: "This leads to these wonderful views, just captured before they’re wiped clean by the new tide, to be recreated in new forms with the next ebb."

In the late 1960s, British photographer Tony Ray-Jones travelled across the country to document English social customs and what he saw as a disappearing way of life.

This small but distinctive body of photographs was part of an evolutionary shift in British photography, placing artistic vision above commercial success. In this short period of time, Ray-Jones managed to establish an individual personal style. He constructed complex images against a uniquely English backdrop, where the spaces between the components of the image were as important as the main subject matter itself.

Speaking of his series back then, Ray-Jones remarked: "I have tried to show the sadness and humour in a gentle madness that prevails in people. The situations are sometimes ambiguous and unreal, and the juxtapositions of elements seemingly unrelated, and yet the people are real. This, I hope, helps to create a feeling of fantasy. Photography can be a mirror and reflect life as it is, but I also think that perhaps it is possible to walk, like Alice, through the looking glass, and find another kind of world with the camera."

Now a new exhibition at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol this October will celebrate this body of work as well as mark the important contribution that Tony Ray-Jones (1941 – 1972) and his legacy, have made to British documentary photography.

Ray-Jones’ skills were gleaned from a generation of street photographers he encountered whilst living in New York in the mid-1960s. These photographers included Garry Winogrand, Joel Meyerowitz and others associated with the circle of legendary Harper's Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch. Their pictures defined the era as they used the street as a framework. Ray-Jones applied this new way of seeing to his native England and photographed his observations as they had never been seen before.

In 2012, Martin Parr alongside curator Greg Hobson revisited Ray-Jones' contact sheets from this period and found previously unseen images. These new discoveries will be exhibited and published alongside iconic early images, including vintage prints from the Martin Parr Foundation collection. There'll also be an accompanying new book that will include an essay by Liz Jobey and an introduction by Martin Parr.

"Tony Ray-Jones was one of my initial inspirations as a photographer," said Parr. "His imagery showed me what was possible in shooting my own country."

The English Seen by Tony Ray-Jones will go on show from 16 October until 21 December 2019 at the Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol. To find out more visit martinparrfoundation.org.

Do you remember the madness of 2008 when the global recession hit the economy and brought everything to a grinding halt? I remember it like it was yesterday.

I'd just gone freelance and was doing well, then boom! I lost all of my clients overnight. It was how the idea for Creative Boom came about. I could see that we were all suffering on Twitter and wanted to help.

Here we are, 10 years later, and the current political crisis has many of us worried all over again. Talking to a few of you in recent weeks and the conversation isn't pretty. It seems that clients are "waiting for Brexit to happen" and are cutting back on their marketing spend.

If you're a designer, illustrator, photographer, PR consultant or copywriter, don't panic just yet. Uncertain times can bring great opportunity. For instance, some of you who went freelance a decade ago are now running successful studios and agencies. You've benefited from clients looking for more affordable and flexible support. Those difficult times proved fruitful. And they can do so again.

You just need to convince new and existing clients that your freelance services aren't just beneficial; they're crucial if they're going to survive. Here are some things to do with clients when they're stalling on making things official.

Use the old marketing line and make fear your friend

You know what they say, whilst other businesses might cut back on marketing during downturns, those who continue to make it a priority will benefit in the long term. Remind your clients of this. Be bolshy about it and put the fear of God into them. Send out a mailer to your network, reminding everyone about the importance of consistent marketing. There's a risk that their competitors will push on regardless – surely they don't want to get left behind?

Now is not the time to cut back, tell them. It's the best time to push forward. Be proactive and suggest fresh campaigns, new ideas – anything to show them that you're open for business and eager to help.

Small is the new big again

Full-service agencies have enjoyed many years of success, and they'll continue to do so. But during hard times, clients might be more inclined to hire smaller studios or niche experts – cherry-picking what they need, when they need it.

Don't be afraid to shout about your small size. Say that you're lean and adaptable. That you can work around their needs, not your own. Tell them what they want to hear: affordable, flexible services and no lengthy contracts. Small is powerful right now. Just remember to sell your skills and experience, too.

Consider a focus

Clients love experts. They're credible, reliable and can get the job done. During downturns, pitching yourself as an "expert" can prove lucrative. Are you good at one particular thing? Yes? Shout about it. No? Find something your existing clients have been asking for lately and upskill. For copywriters out there that means getting to grips with SEO. With illustrators, it might mean motion design. Photographers... small video clips for Instagram. Spot the opportunities and use or boost your skills to have a focus in an area that's in demand.

Don't hang about if you've got a bite

You've got the client interested. They've almost given the go-ahead. The last thing you want to do is give them the chance to have second thoughts. Clients often want speedy solutions. And they'll often go with the freelancer who is the most responsive. Immediately book a face-to-face meeting – whether in person or virtual. Because by building a relationship, the client will see there's a real person behind your brand. That will make it harder for them to dismiss you. You also want to take them down the road a little, so they invest in you and start the ball rolling.

Be passionate and confident in your consultancy

Don't think something is right during that initial meeting when a client is thinking about hiring you? Spotted something in their business that could be improved? Speak up. Tell them about it. But tread carefully. This is their baby, after all. And you don't yet know the politics involved – and boy, there are always politics. With time comes experience and you'll get better at offering on-the-spot advice during meetings. The point is, you need to show passion and eagerness at this early stage. Clients LOVE it when you bring energy and enthusiasm to the table.

Use "we" instead of "I"

It's an old Jedi mind trick: don't say "I" when talking about working together, say "we". You'll subconsciously place yourself in the client's team as one of its key players. You'll show that you care about their business and want it to succeed.

When it comes to money, offer an intro rate

If they're still not biting, money could be the final stubborn obstacle. Make the decision a no-brainer. Dangle an introductory rate and say, "If you're not happy with my services after three months, then no hard feelings". It reassures them that you're confident you'll still be working with them and lessens the risk for them, too.

Plus if you have loyal clients who have worked with you for years, tell them about it. It'll convince them you're the right person for the job.

It's not always the most celebrated – or even noticed – disciplines in the creative world. But the importance of packaging design simply cannot be understated.

Drawing on a variety of typography, graphics, illustration and photography to grab people's attention on the shelves and instantly convey a product's ethos and story can be a huge challenge. But getting it right is vital to the success of a new brand, especially a high-end, boutique one.

With that in mind, graphic design students at Shillington are challenged each year to create unique packaging designs for a fictional product. We've selected 20 of the best, and the imagination and execution behind them will knock your socks off. Read on and prepare for a surge of creative inspiration!

1. Yorokobi chocolate by Sheena Chong

Yum! This gorgeously colourful branding and packaging design for a fictional chocolate artisan in Melbourne made our mouths water. "I aimed to create unique packaging that promotes user interaction and fun," explains Melbourne student Sheena Chong.

2. Poppu ice cream by Linh Luu

Check out this cool (in both senses of the word) boutique ice-cream brand. New York student Linh Luu named it "Poppu", the Japanese for "pop". "The idea refers to both pop art and pop culture," she explains.

The pastel palette perfectly matches its identity as ice cream for romantics and its unconventional flavour titles. “It was a fun experiment to create a brand that could feel elevated with a feminine angle, and stand out from the general ice cream brands in the market,” Luu adds.

3. Botanic candles by Majo Crespo

Another great use of colour to tell a story, this new (pretend) candle brand draws on botanical elements to create a unique product, with varients including Rose & Palo Santo, Sage & Grapefruit, and Ginger & Bergamut. New York student Majo Crespo describes it as: "A brand inspired by nature for the empowerment of women".

4. Nikka Whisky X Sketch by Maria Vazquez

This campaign for Japanese whisky brand NIKKA targets women and aims to quash the idea of whisky as a "men's drink". London student Maria Vazquez describes it as: "A fun and vibrant multi-channel campaign designed to engage and interact with the target audience. Partnering with Sketch London, the campaign will run in Spring, during 'sakura' [cherry blossom] season."

5. Go Get Some Condoms by Jade Loh

This bright and colourful packaging houses a new brand of condoms coated with vitamin-infused lube, for health-conscious millennials. "The packaging design is simple and clinical but with a playful touch of crude innuendo," explains Brisbane student Jade Loh.

6. NZ’s Favourite Bear beer by Emma Askin

This fun and pretend brand of beer celebrates the brewing scene in New Zealand with a perfectly judged slice of self-deprecation. "It's inspired by our struggle with the pronunciation of 'beer', often confused with our grizzly mates," explains Melbourne student Emma Askin. "I wanted to create a series of cans that are playful and celebrate the charm of New Zealand humour."

7. Potion of Wisdom smoothies by Timothy Potts

With so many unhealthy drinks on our supermarket shelves, recent Sydney student Timothy Potts decided to come up with an alternative, specifically designed to captivate the eyes and imaginations of preteens. "The packaging aims to inspire healthier life decisions by tapping into the fantasy realms," he explains.

Each drink has an ability and a focus, he adds. "The illustrations draw from 16th and 17th-century wood carvings depictions of witchcraft. The type is modern and was set out to compliment the dynamic moving nature of the illustrations."

8. Seasonal beer by Minka Marriott

Get a load of this refreshingly playful branding for a new beer company from the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. "The client required branding roll out for their mouth-watering beers that played on the traditional recipes but mixed with seasonal fruits," explains Melbourne student Minka Marriott.

9. Kiah artist paint by Bracken Bollaan

Targeting the Australian market, the unique selling point for this eco-friendly artist paint is that all ingredients within are completely organic and all sourced from Australia itself. "I wanted to play on the whimsical feel of native Australian art to bring about this essence of nature, history and creativity," says Manchester student Bracken Bollaan.

10. Selene wines by Becky Mccollock

Now here’s a great idea, perfectly executed: wines targeted at mothers of newborns. "The brand story for Selene appeals to its target market by 'being in it with them'," explains recent Melbourne student Becky Mccollock. "The wine is harvested and made at night when most others are asleep."

As new mothers are often up alone and exhausted at all hours of the night, Selene offers comfort in that they’re not alone. "This also gets the consumer thinking about the brand, at times outside of when consuming it." Illustration was chosen to give the brand a softer, handmade feel, and an Australian animal was chosen to represent that the wine is made locally.

11. Mlle Colette cosmetics by Jessica Goodall

This fictional cosmetic brand takes its name from Mlle Colette, "a French botanist and beekeeper est. 1964 in Provence," explains London student Jessica Goodall. "My target audience was 30 to 60-year-old women who can indulge themselves in luxurious and beautiful cosmetic products. Inspired by botanical illustrations, I used my watercolour paintings within the packaging design for a timeless, feminine and elegant range of beauty products."

12. LAP•PA candle by Amy Sil Mil

LAP•PA is a high-end candle, botanically scented and hand-poured; a brand inspired by the famous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. "He formalised the classification of plants, inventing the dual name method for organisms called binomial nomenclature," explains recent New York student Amy Sil Mil. "This achievement did not blossom overnight. It was through his empiricism —­ for Linnaeus didn't believe anything he didn't see with his own eyes — and his interest in how plants functioned in the world that led him toward this end."

During university, Linnaeus landed a grant to go on a six-month expedition in 1732 to Lapland, the northernmost region of Finland. "He travelled 3,000 miles on foot or horse with his journal, botanical manuscripts and sheets of paper for pressing plants in hand. It was there in Lapland (Lappa in Latin) that he discovered over 100 new species of plants and started forming his methods on classification. This is the adventure in Lapland retold through our senses."

13. Astro Bites beef jerky by Georgia Duckett

Beef jerky is kind of an old-fashioned snack, but here’s a new made-up brand aimed towards children that brings it bang up-to-date. "In my research to create the brand, I discovered that astronauts eat jerky in outer space for a source of protein," explains Manchester student Georgia Duckett. "So I chose to create a brand story around this, about an explorer named Sir Thomas Flanigan who discovered the jerky in outer space, to help make the snack more appealing to a younger audience."

14. Hairliens shampoo by Nano Mariano Palomares

Another fun and funky brand for kids, Hairliens is a shampoo for pre-schoolers. Recent Sydney student Nano Mariano Palomares relates the back story, which is simple but brilliant: "Three aliens with very good hair visit planet Earth and realise that Earth children could use some intergalactic help in the hair department."

15. Look, This is Cereal by Melody Soan

“The Australian cereal market is flooded with predictability!” complains Melbourne student Melody Soan. “Children only eat ‘this’ and adults-only eat ‘that’. Boring. So why not create and package a cereal for the adventurous anybody and deliver it in an unexpected but practical way?”

That’s exactly what she’s done, and it immediately makes you realise how cliched cereal packaging really is. As this new brand, in contrast, is unique, the tone of voice and the package design had to be strong and complementary to one another, personable, and appeal to every human eye, graphically speaking.

"The Lichtenstein-inspired illustrative style meets somewhere between child and adult – neither too grown-up nor too young," says Soan. "Likewise, the tongue-in-cheek tone of voice is a play on commonly used phrases such as 'look, this is serious' and 'for real', and speaks directly to the consumer as 'you'. Overall, it’s not just a product designed to look good, but also create a sense of adventure and practicality at breakfast time."

16. Caviarra caviar by Rachel Murray

Caviarra is caviar from the Yarra Valley in Victoria, Australia. "Sustainably farmed caviar has recently taken off in Australia, and I was excited to imagine how this could look," explains Melbourne student Rachel Murray. "I wanted the overall look and to exude a simple modern luxury feel, whilst still referencing some of the bolder imagery of traditional caviar packaging."

17. Poppy Champagne by Kat Soriano

Here’s a champagne packaging design that’s going to draw attention on the shelves. "Inspired by the California super bloom, Poppy was created by scanning flowers and overlaying those scans to create a dramatic and colourful label," explains New York student Kat Soriano.

18. Gigantar guitar strings by Justin Millard

Recent Manchester student Justin Millard chose a pretty unusual product idea for this boutique branding project: guitar strings. "These are grown from the heads and beards of ancient Greek rock god family the 'Gigantars', which when played by a mortal will enhance their playing style to that of divine influence," he explains.

19. Full Moon Soap Company by Kathrin Vonlanthen

London student Kathrin Vonlanthen designed this restrained by beautiful packaging for the Full Moon Soap Company. "The brand inspired by the moon phases which bring nature to life," she explains.

20. Jaybird flavoured nuts by Merel Calkoen

There’s a fantastic back story to these sumptuously packaged flavoured nuts. "Jaybird is an artisan bird whose curiosity led him to various flavours in the world," explains Manchester student Merel Calkoen. "The nuts are a source of energy to inspire and initiate spontaneity."

"All these forms are almost logos," says Rob Lowe of his latest release of prints. "They are playing with depth and what can be suggested with very little, as most of my work is."

Known far and wide as Supermundane, Lowe is, of course, talking about turning his favourite song lyrics into abstract forms. Made for a closing exhibition in Belgium last year called, I Know It’s Over.

"Once I had this title, which is from a Smiths song, it started to make me think of nostalgia of the past," he continues. "Music has always been important to me and serves as a way of defining periods of my life. I went through songs that meant something to me and took short lyrics from them, these were then attached to the abstract forms at random.

"Through this act of indeterminacy new links where created. The forms took on new meanings other than that the of pure abstraction of their origin."

Each print has just two colours, black and then another which is unique to that print – although some are similar.

The paper used for the prints is called Tyvek, "which isn’t a paper at all but a synthetic fibrous material most commonly used for wristbands and protecting buildings during construction", Lowe adds. "I thought something was interesting in using a very tough, long-lasting, material for a show called 'I Know It’s Over'. It was also a practical choice which meant I could use tape to hang the prints in the gallery and not damage the work."

There are a whopping 71 different prints in total. Notable mentions include song lyrics such as, "I've been stung by the love bee, it stuck its thing in me" and "Your madness fits in nicely with my own".

Of the project, Lowe says "I was born in 1971, but it was also the amount I could fit in the gallery to fill it. It was a big undertaking to produce them all, one of the biggest personal projects."

The even better news? The prints will be on display in Lowe's online shop later this month as a virtual exhibition for two weeks from the 23 September. They will then go on sale on the 26 September.

MullenLowe Group UK has launched its latest campaign for NHS England and NHS Improvement, We Are Nurses. The campaign, the third for NHS, is targeted at teenagers about to choose their degree and career-switchers considering going into nursing in a drive to up recruitment numbers.

The spot launches in time for Year 13s going back to school and starting their preparations for choosing their degrees. As with previous spots in the campaign, the film features real nurses working in real hospitals. From mental health to district nursing, to A&E and learning disabilities, the campaign shows a huge range of highly rewarding opportunities nursing can offer.

Media planning is being handled by MullenLowe Mediahub and Manning Gottlieb OMD. The campaign will run throughout September and October across TV, radio, social, OOH. MullenLowe Open is handling CRM and MullenLowe Profero was responsible for the website.

Ian Hampton, lead campaign manager for NHS England and NHS Improvement said: "Following our launch campaign last year, UCAS applications for nursing degrees increased for the first time in four years. We are aiming to build on this with this new work for nurses. The campaign conveys the inspiring, extraordinary work that nurses do day-to-day, and we hope it will capture the imagination of students deciding the next step in their education."

Mark Elwood, executive creative director at MullenLowe Group UK said: "Our campaign gets to the heart of the world-class training, excellent teams, mentoring and limitless opportunities to specialise that the NHS offers. It’s an institution that never fails to inspire the British public and one that holds a special place in their heart. We hope this work will help recruit the next generation of incredible NHS nurses."

A new artwork by a contemporary Scottish artist recently chosen by writer Margaret Atwood as one of "the women who are shaping our future" makes an appearance at Scarborough’s South Bay beach at the end of this month.

Katie Paterson was one of just a dozen women selected by The Handmaid’s Tale author alongside global figures such as Swedish climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg, Handmaid’s Tale actor Amanda Brugel, novelist Esi Edugyan and Yasmeen Hassan, the executive director of Equality Now. She praised the artist’s recent Future Library project, calling it "so hopeful".

Katie’s artwork First There is a Mountain has been touring the UK’s coast since March and ends on 27 October – the period of British daylight saving time. It involves the creation of buckets and spades in the form of world mountains, from which we – the public – are invited to build mountains of sand.

Do you fancy getting involved? Go along to Scarborough’s South Bay, below the Spa Bridge, from 11am to 1pm on Sunday 29 September where you'll be able to build sandcastles using pails which are scale models of five mountains: Kilimanjaro (Africa), Shasta (USA), Fuji (Asia), Stromboli (Europe), and Uluru (Oceania).

Of course, the artwork certainly points to concepts around gravitational attraction – awareness of Earth’s tilted axis during longer daylight hours and the UK’s eroding coastline.

Katie Paterson says: "From early childhood, we understand that sand marks time. First There is a Mountain builds on this concept, making us aware of mountain rocks’ erosion over millennia, rock shifting over continents’ evolution, forming unique fingerprints of sand across our modern coastline.

"The artwork invites the public to slow down, to consider the interconnectedness of the world, its immensity conveyed in miniature: the extraordinary existing in ordinary things, everywhere."

Paterson selected each mountain range via exacting research and data from NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. The pails are made from 100% fermented plant starch and are fully bio-compostable. At the end of the tour, they will be composted, reabsorbing into the natural environment from which they were created.

There was a time when motion design was a niche skill, something that was needed only occasionally. And when that happened, there were a small number of specialised practitioners and agencies clients could turn to.

In 2019, however, that’s all changed, and the landscape is completely different.

The rise of digital over recent years means motion design has become more and more important across the creative industries. And that trend is only accelerating as devices and networks get faster, and emerging projects such as Space X’s new satellite network bring high-speed internet to the “next billion” in the developing world.

Elsewhere, the rise of digital billboards, which are now ubiquitous in major city centres and on London’s Underground, is also boosting the demand for designers skilled in motion design. After all, who wants to advertise with a boring, static image, when you can attract far more customers with a dynamic, animated one? The same principle applies to the digital ordering screens now springing up in fast-food restaurants like McDonald's.

And what about streaming TV? As new services from the likes of Disney and Apple gear up to take on Netflix and Amazon in the war for eyeballs, more and more new, high-quality video content is inevitably going to be commissioned. And again, motion design is going to be a big part of that coming explosion in creative activity.

Why you should learn motion design

In short, there are few areas of design and media that don’t have a motion design element. Motion design is being used in TV commercials and YouTube videos, explainer videos and tutorials, logo animations and social media videos, educational content and corporate promos… the list, frankly, is endless.

So if you’re working as a graphic designer, isn’t it about time you got on board with motion design?

Getting trained in motion design, right now, seems like a career no-brainer. It’s a valuable extra string to your bow which could help you get that promotion, new job or freelance opportunity you’ve been craving.

In broader terms, it’s a skill that more and more of us are inevitably going to need as graphic designers in the future. And if we get ahead of the curve now, it’s only going to be beneficial later on.

After all, consider the environment we might find ourselves in five or ten years from now. Remember, the design sector in the UK has expanded massively throughout the 2010s, and it’s now the largest in Europe. But going forward, all those hundreds of thousands of extra designers represent your competition. And if that industry begins to contract for any reason in the 2020s (cough Brexit cough), you need to be in a good position to protect your position against rivals.

New opportunities

Plus of course, if you start to enjoy motion design, there’s no reason you can make a sideways move from graphic designer to fully specialised motion designer.

Doing so, right now, would open up a whole new world of creative jobs: at time of writing, for instance, The Guardian has 23 motion design jobs listed in the UK, with salaries ranging from £22K for a graduate position at a new startup, right up to £65K for a senior position at a TV network. Vacancies are available everywhere, from advertising, marketing and design agencies, web design and development studios, and animation, videogame, TV and movie studios.

Future-proofing your career, improving your prospects and expanding your creative opportunities: whether you’re a new graduate or an established illustrator or graphic designer looking to expand on your skill set, these are all great reasons to start learning motion design.

But how, exactly, do you go about it?

How to learn motion design

There’s no reason you can’t learn the basics of motion design from video walkthroughs you can find on tutorial websites, YouTube or Vimeo. But do you want to?

Yes, it’s nice to find free resources online, but you know in your heart of hearts that it’s not the best way to learn a new discipline. It’s all going to be very bitty, there will be big gaps in your knowledge, and there’ll be no one to look over your shoulder and ask for help when you get into difficulties.

That’s why Created offers a nine-month, part-time course that will teach you the skills you need to become a motion designer, in a flexible way that you can combine with your job or education.

Whether your background is in graphic design or animation, this course will give you the training you need to master the art of motion design. You’ll learn all the fundamentals of motion (using Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D software) but there’s also a strong practical focus on the course too.

Created believes that learning is about doing, and so it has partnered with leading companies in the field to provide you with practical skills and knowledge you need to be industry-ready.

Throughout the course, you’ll tackle real-world briefs under the guidance of your mentor, including a series of one-to-one coaching sessions. The curriculum is closely aligned with what employers in today’s creative world need from motion designers, so you’ll be in a great position to be the perfect fit for any job you apply for.

Another advantage of this course over sitting at home and trying to work things out for yourself is that you’ll be in good company, learning alongside other ambitious creatives through a combination of online learning content and physical sessions. This will give you an excellent grounding from which to grow your network.

By the end, you’ll have six professional-level projects for your portfolio. And you’ll be able to do all of this in a flexible way that suits your lifestyle.

To learn more about how to become a motion designer, visit Created today.

Well, this is pretty exciting. Yorkshire-based furniture designer Plaey Workshop has teamed up with Hot Chip to make a Record Dolly in celebration of the synth-pop band's new album release, A Bath Full of Ecstasy.

Named A Dolly Full of Records to See, its design is also flooded with the colourful album artwork by Jeremy Deller and Fraser Muggeridge Studio, so it's going to appeal to many of you out there. Simple, playful and fun – the furniture piece can hold up to 40 favourites and "currently listening to" records.

But don't hang about: there will be an initial release of 30 limited edition Hot Chip X Plaey Record Dolly’s to pre-order through the Plaey Workshop webshop, which are set to be produced in November.

Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip said: "Matt Kelly at Plaey Workshop got in touch via Instagram, with a great proposal: a record dolly taking inspiration partly from the classic Isokon Penguin Donkey, and partly from your everyday record collector’s need to store, access and display their vinyl, and he set about making something simple, functional, pleasing and unique looking. Housed in the Jeremy Deller and Fraser Muggeridge Studio – adorned artwork from our latest album, A Bath Full of Ecstasy, we hope you will all enjoy A Dolly Full of Records to See!"

Matt Kelly from Plaey added: "Hot Chip are dream collaborators to launch our Record Dolly with. Through shared aesthetics and love of colour, it was a perfect fit. We already have some more Hot Chip related collaborators in mind for future Dolly designs, so I hope this will be the start of a beautiful creative process. The Dolly design takes cues from classic mid-century designs such as the Penguin Donkey while adding Plaey’s sense of purpose, play and personality."

Heading to Design Junction in London this September? That's where you'll be able to see the Record Dolly on display at The Canopy in King Cross, London. Meanwhile, you can discover more at plaey.co.uk.

This month sees the opening of Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance – Act 3 at Bristol’s Arnolfini Gallery, showcasing stories of resistance through feminist art pertaining to stories often relating to the history of Bristol itself.

Billed as focusing on "the his/her story of resistance movements and alternative forms of living from a gendered perspective”; the exhibition looks at the idea of resistance across various ages and places and in a range of scales – some works look at the domestic sphere, others at large-scale, politicised uprisings.

The pieces on show space the last 19th century to the present; all with a broader curatorial eye on intersectional thinking and feminist and queer thought and action.

More than 100 pieces by around 70 artists are on display across visual art, writing, architecture, design and activism.

The global nature of the show means that pieces relating to recent women-led uprisings and demonstrations range from mass protests in Argentina confronting violence against women,'Ni Una Menos', to the global Women’s Strike in America to the Civil Rights Movement, resistance against dictatorships in Latin America in the 1960s–70s, independence movements against colonial rule in Africa and Haiti, the Women’s Liberation Movement, the AIDS crisis and the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969 that spread headed the gay rights movement.

"At Arnolfini, Still I Rise responds to Bristol's history as a port in the Transatlantic Slave Trade by focusing on black feminist strategies of resistance, through both art and activism," says the gallery. "Amplifying a range of histories and voices, the exhibition also features a 'polyvocal' archive with contributions by guest researcher-curators.

"These emphasise Bristol's reputation as a hotbed for grassroots initiatives through a focus on local artists, activist histories, and material drawn from Feminist Archive South. Initiated in 1978 and based in Bristol, FAS is said to be the UK's first archive of feminist writing, publications, and donated material."

The show, which runs from now until 15 December 2019, will be accompanied by a series of performances, screenings, events, and conversations pertaining to the themes of the exhibition such as a performance by NYC-based performance artist Keijaun Thomas and a weekly screening programme of film and video work, including new work by Bristol-based artist Bryony Gillard, who was recently shortlisted for the Jerwood/FVU Award, as well as a family programme of artist-led workshop spaces for young people and their families.

Among the artists and collectives on show are Xenobia Bailey, Glenn Belverio (Glennda Orgasm), Judy Chicago, Blondell Cummings, Gille de Vlieg, Dyke Action Machine!, Gran Fury, Feminist Land Art Retreat, Guo Fengyi, fierce pussy (Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, and Carrie Yamaoka), Corita Kent, Ana Mendieta, Turner Prize 2019 nominee Tai Shani, Pamela Singh, Monica Sjöö, Terence Smith (Joan Jett Blakk), Linda Stupart, Ramaya Tegegne, Women Against Pit Closures and Zadie Xa, Osías Yanov.

It's that time of year again when Design Manchester announces the lineup for its flagship one-day conference as part of a city-wide festival of creativity and design.

Taking place on 22 November, DM19 will feature Partner of Pentagram New York Paula Scher, legendary artist and musician Cosey Fanni Tutti (in conversation with writer Jon Savage), creative digital business strategist Daljit Singh (ANNA), Neil Hubbard, group leader of Heatherwick Studio, and internationally renowned typographic designer Hansje van Halem.

There's also the creative directors Clive Russell and Charlie Waterhouse of Extinction Rebellion, visual storyteller Harris Elliott, and from Berlin, creative digital agency Pfadfinderei (Moderat).

Tickets are now on sale for DM19, which returns to the epic Bridgewater Hall. Just like previous years, there's a running theme and for 2019 it's about "SMART thinking, SMART technology and SMART creativity with speakers who take their own path and make and break the rules".

With politics in disarray and no end in sight to the current upheaval, the SMART conference will look at the resourceful, the nimble, the canny, the people who can lift or shapeshift an idea and inspire us to move forward. Once again the event will take over the entire venue with five separate areas featuring talks, workshops, seminars, Q&As, craft and making.

What are those extras? Idle Letters – Adventures in Lettering is a workshop hosted by Loz Ives, a designer, illustrator and letterer. Meanwhile, Ladies, Wine & Design will present a series of talks, short workshops and Q&As on the themes of 'Design Smart' and 'The Age of The Female Gaze' with speakers from all creative sectors.

RareMags, the independent print and bookseller based in neighbouring Stockport, will be back showcasing lots of investable wears.

Do That Thing x FUSE x FRESH will be a panel exploring the Do That Thing project which addresses the Manchester creative sector’s challenges with inclusion and diversity.

Design Manchester artistic director Malcolm Garrett RDI said: "In a world that appears increasingly to be acting dumb, in the face of global political upheaval and the climate crisis in the news daily, it is well past time for designers to get SMART, think SMART and ACT SMART."

Limited early bird tickets are on sale at www.designmcr.com, priced at £48 (or £30 for students/concessions), both prices inclusive of VAT. The conference will run from 10am to 6pm on Friday 22 November 2019.

If you visit the National Trust's Fenton House in Hampstead over the next few months, you'll be encouraged to slow down, sit and reflect on the history of the 17th-century merchant home.

It's part of a new exhibition curated by designer Gitta Gschwendtner to explore Fenton’s rich and characterful heritage and create a series of installations within the property.

Gitta, alongside five other participating designers, have selected and responded to a particular detail of their chosen room – whether a feature of its interior, its existing furniture or the artefacts it contains – and offer their interpretation by creating new seating. These interventions create a unique collision of past and present to encourage people to slow down their journey through the house, take time to sit, and consider the various aspects of the home and its contents from a fresh perspective.

The other designers include Michael Marriott, Nina Tolstrup, Carl Clerkin, Frith Kerr and Maisie Broadhead – the latter two, a graphic designer and jewellery artist respectively, are new to the discipline of furniture design. Varied in background and outlook, but united by a curiosity for the multiple narratives of Fenton House, the designers will each find a unique and personal way to interrupt the space, offering new perspectives on Fenton’s collections and the lives of its former residents.

Digging deeper into what we can expect, inspired by the embroidery collection in Fenton’s Rockingham Room – particularly, a silk piece titled Jacob’s Dream – Gitta Gschwendtner has translated the idea of Jacob’s ladder from heaven to earth into the form of a chair with a surreally high back, stretching upwards to the unknown. Gitta is also creating a series of Ladder Chairs in galvanised steel to feature in the gardens and orchard.

In response to the house’s collection of harpsichords, the "furnitureness" of the instrument, and the hints they suggest about their collector, Carl Clerkin is creating a wingback chair that incorporates speakers and typical speaker materials (such as ash, valchromat, foam and mesh), immersing the visitor in a fictional audio tale about imaginary past inhabitants.

Maisie Broadhead delves into the story of Fenton House’s last private owner, Lady Binning, a reclusive widow who remained in mourning for her husband long after convention would demand. Completely consumed by the carpet around it, Maisie’s chair plays upon the idea of being "trapped" by the house – part of the furniture, as it were.

For Fenton’s Oriental Room, which contains a former occupant's extensive collection of 43 snuff boxes and perfume bottles, Michael Marriott is creating a geometric, oversized plywood chair, large enough to enable two sitters to view the collection in privacy.

Taking inspiration from the Shudi Broadwood harpsichord in the Dining Room (one of only 10 that were made and the most sophisticated of its time), Nina Tolstrup is creating a sculptural bench in solid wood, its form inspired by the structure of the harpsichord, giving people a place to sit and listen to recitals.

Meanwhile, Frith Kerr is creating a piece for the Blue Porcelain Room, once the bedroom of Lady Binning. Comprising a bed installation and wall hanging, her piece considers notions of good and bad taste. With poodles.

"Asking the visitor to sit, makes them more than just a spectator," says Gitta, "they become a guest, invited to participate in the setting. I am interested in how the six designers will interpret the house differently, look at different aspects of the house and create very different seats, which become objects in the room. This creates a much richer narrative."

Please Sit is now open at Fenton House, Hampstead and will run until Spring 2020. Find out more at www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

If you're heading to the Tees Valley this month, you might come across one of many unusual artworks on the theme of clean air. The unique pieces mark the launch of this weekend's Festival of Thrift, an annual celebration of sustainable living at Kirkleatham.

Called Viewpoints, the series includes art made with pollution, an immersive lung cleaning cube, dancers wearing pollution-sensing costumes, a pair of colossal canaries, an extraordinary Green House and a series of pavilions where people are encouraged to 'Sit, Stare' – there is plenty to see until 19 September.

Cabinet of Curiosity, whose striking paper-based artworks have been exhibited nationally and internationally, are exhibiting an extraordinary greenhouse at Darlington Indoor Market. In the nineteenth century, green spaces within urban environments were identified as the "lungs of the city" due to their air-purifying qualities. This architectural installation will show contemporary fabrication techniques using materials that reduce toxicity in the home and will contain a living environment of plants that possess the most effective air cleaning properties.

Meanwhile, Haldane by Colin Davies is an enormous artwork taking over the side of the TWI Technology centre. Installed using a "dazzle" camouflage technique, which was used on ships during the First World War, the artwork will feature canaries, which were often used in mining to signify the presence of toxic gases. It also gives a visual nod to Teesside’s shipbuilding heritage as well as connecting us to its mining past.

Sally Hogarth is creating a series of pavilions which invite you to mindfully reconnect with nature through simple observation. Sit, Stop on Redcar seafront will offer a unique viewpoint to a fascinating area of the Tees Valley allowing people to "simply sit and observe the nature before you. Draw what you see, watch and observe or simply take time to connect with the surroundings".

At Middlesbrough railway station, Dawn Felicia Knox's Transpire/Respire/Inspire installation will allow you to step inside a glowing cube filled with plants, light… and breathe! Functioning as a lung cleaning station, it's a fresh air portal filled with plants that are actively cleaning the air and removing the toxins that are released from the modern built environment.

Elsewhere, Peter J Evan's unique work at Palace Arts in Redcar will use Air-InkTM – ink created from recycled exhaust fumes. You see, breathe, feel is a thought-provoking artwork that will showcase pollution in its physical form making a usually invisible environmental issue quite literally visible. Peter is working with Graviky Labs of India, who have pioneered this extraordinary process.

Viewpoints by Festival of Thrift runs until 19 September. Find out more at www.festivalofthrift.co.uk. Entry is free.

What if we could hear the city in new ways, as well as see it (and often, for better or worse, smell it)?

The Musicity x Low Line project makes that a reality, seeing music and songs composed and recorded by 15 artists specifically for 15 buildings and sites along the path of the railway viaduct through Bankside, London Bridge.

The songs can only be accessed at the actual site; so that you can take in how the sound compositions relate to each building or place within the capital.

Described as "a new way of touring an historic part of London and all about the links between music and architecture," the project was initiated by BBC Radio 3 Late Junction’s Nick Luscombe; and among the spaces that sounds have been created for are Old Union Yard Arches, Borough Market, Bermondsey Street Tunnel, London Bridge Station, Vinegar Yard, and The Biscuit Factory.

The Musicity app is free to download, and is the only way of hearing the tracks—users scan a code at each site and listen to it digitally. The idea is that it encourages people to seek out music in a sort of psycho-geographical capacity while also celebrating the heritage of the railway arches across south London’s Low Line.

Among the artists who’ve created sound pieces for the project are multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper; London-based French composer, artist and musician Lola de la Mata; electro-acoustic composer Thomas Stone; vocalist Szjerdene; live jungle and drum & bass mash-up artist Suitman Jungle; and Japanese-born, classically trained violinist and composer Chihiro Ono.

"It's a joy to be bringing new music to such a culturally rich part of the city," says Luscombe. "Following the Low Line is a fascinating, surprising way of seeing an intriguing part of London. We're encouraging audiences to venture out, explore architecture, neighbourhoods and the urban environment with a bespoke soundtrack."

Are you a designer, artist, illustrator, photographer or any other kind of creative, who's created something you're really proud of? Then you should consider how much an award for your work might help your career, and nominate yourself for the A' Design Awards today.

The A' Design Awards is a prestigious international competition that invites you to submit your work with the chance to be recognised across the world, reaching nearly two million people worldwide.

Entries are judged by an international panel of notable scholars, leading professionals and members of the press, and there's a wide range of categories you can enter in: you'll find the full list here.

If you win one of the awards, your work will appear on blogs and magazines across the world, including this one. You'll also get a physical award trophy and certificate, and have the chance to attend a gala night of celebrations at Lake Como in Italy - just think about the networking opportunities you'd have there.

Your work will also be included in a special exhibition and yearbook, plus you'll have a special winners logo that you can include on your website and other self-promo materials. That will really add a layer of credibility to your professional work, helping you to progress in your career, whether you're seeking a promotion, a new job, or better clients as a freelancer.

So whether you're a designer, artist or architect, a freelancer or part of a design studio, you'd be a fool not to take advantage of this great opportunity. All you have to do is register online and follow the simple instructions.

But be quick: the deadline is 30 September 2019 and winners will be announced on 15 April 2020 (watch this space, as we'll be sharing them on Creative Boom too). To find out more about the A' Design Awards, see 'What is a design award?'.

And if you want some extra inspiration, we share here 20 of our favourite winning designs from last year's competition. The best of luck from everyone at Creative Boom!

London design consultancy Accept & Proceed is hosting a charity art auction this evening to raise awareness and funds for Extinction Rebellion.

A number of artists were invited to each create an original piece of art for Rebel Art Auction: Bid For The Truth, relating to or based on facts and figures provided by the environmental activist group. Antony Gormley, Ranny Cooper, Catherine Hyland, Mr Bingo, Michael C. Place, Tom Hegen, Rob Ryan, Christopher Ræburn and Rankin are among the big names who are taking part.

The event will take place at Accept & Proceed's offices in East London tonight and will include a live auction starting at "20:00 sharp". Artworks will also available to buy online following the event.

If you want to support the cause on social media, use the hashtag #rebelartauction. Or to get even more involved, the agency is inviting the wider creative community to create one climate change-themed post per Instagram account. Just don't forget to use the tag.

"The climate crisis is a subject which unites us," says David Johnston, founder of Accept & Proceed. "There are no boundaries. We are stronger together and must actively search out opportunities in order to maximise effectiveness. I ask all leaders in the creative sector to join forces. Unite, take action and amplify our collective power."

In an upcoming solo show at Delphian Gallery in London, artist Rhiannon Salisbury's paintings investigate the glossy representation of women in advertising and high-end beauty campaigns to expose what she says is an "absurd dystopian reality of the capitalist dream".

"I use my paintings as a tool to investigate the role of women within a patriarchal culture," she continues. "Using colour, form, and composition as language, I am investigating western standards of beauty and the idealisation of female adolescence, within the field of advertising. I deliberately work with found imagery from aspirational fashion and lifestyle magazines, focusing on the modelling campaigns of the most luxurious brands. Composition’s and imagery are tweaked to distort and expose my dystopian perception of this capitalist dream."

Salisbury adds: "I hope that the reinterpretation of the advertisements through painting opens up a dialogue where one can re-look at the structure of ideas and references used in each highly constructed and saturated image. Using gestures which explore the borderland between a substance that is alluring in its thick luscious texture, and grotesque in its ability to turn to chaotic mush, my paint handling and synthetic colour palette seeks to strike a balance that intends to at once allure and repel the viewer."

Inspired by serious literary and philosophical works such as The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, her process begins from selecting through an archive of advertisement imagery sourced through high-end beauty campaigns online and magazines.

The resulting paintings, entitled Habitual Submission, show the disturbance caused by the social pressures born of the mass media machine. The images morph into a synthetic chaotic mush which seeks to simultaneously allure and repel us. By decontextualising the original image, she engages with an otherwise unobtainable dialogue of beauty.

On show at Delphian Gallery until 8 October, Habitual Submission by Rhiannon Salisbury hopes to disrupt and reclaim the space these luxurious images occupy. If you like, call it a feminist manifesto for our current times.

You’ve just a couple more days to catch the brilliant Jerwood Staging Series, which sees several artists working in performance staging new works at Jerwood Arts in London until 15 September.

The series has seen the three gallery spaces at Jerwood Arts emptied for a fortnight and given over to artists for the premiere of four new ambitious presentations, including film screenings, performances, readings and discussion. The artists included for the 2019 edition, the fourth in the staging series, are artist-filmmaker and researcher Onyeka Igwe, artist Rebecca Moss, multi-disciplinary artist AJ Stockwell and curator Seán Elder.

The final curator, who will be presenting a selection of work this Saturday (14 September) is Seán Elder’s Common Positions night. Birmingham-based curator Elder’s evening brings together moving image and object-based art that "depict and support moments of communal imagination, action, rest and thought".

The 1998 film Desires Will Leave the House and Take to the Streets, for instance, by Park Fiction "depicts a process of communities and networks critiquing, desiring and imagining a new public space for St Pauli, Hamburg," as the gallery puts it.

This film will be shown alongside some other films from London Community Film Archive alongside new work by Aberdeen-based artist Kirsty Russell, who investigates structures and spaces of support, "presenting the audience with opportunities for listening, reading, and spending time together," says Jerwood Arts. The event is free to attend and can be booked here.

Jerwood Staging Series works are selected by Harriet Cooper, head of visual arts, and Lauren Houlton, gallery manager at Jerwood Arts, who also provide curatorial and logistical support for the chosen artists over four months.

A tired single mum cradles her infant and a remote control, their faces lit by a desktop screen, while London at night is laid out beneath the window. A city worker performs his prayers on a rooftop, the City of London with its tall buildings and cranes before him. A venerable London church sits quietly in the moonlight, kept company by a sleeping homeless man and a security guard glimpsed through a nearby office window...

These are some of the scenes from When the City is Built, a collection of paintings by artist Julian Bell that gives a snapshot of one summer's day in modern London. But don't expect any of these to be based on reality – they're all figments of the imagination.

"Fictional characters pass through," explains Bell. "An elderly foreigner arrives and seeks, disoriented, for his granddaughter. She meanwhile nannies the infant son of a North London architect. This architect's older son is a City intern. The story is as you wish: it has no text beyond this."

Described by Bell as "a hymn to the great 21st-century city which is London", each painting, with terse one-word titles (Flightpath, Bridge, etc), stands alone as a work of art, together they veer from intimate experiences to the public sphere: a rooftop bar, business meetings, a supermarket checkout, a passport queue.

"There are different perspectives: someone seeing the city from the outside, someone involved in the building of it, and someone experiencing it as a situation she’s stuck inside," says Bell of the works, which will go on show at London's Menier Gallery in October.

It is clear that the real subject is London and that the upcoming show reflects the artist’s love of the city and his curiosity in people. "I’m not always painting literal, specific pockets of London," he adds. "Often I’ve reshuffled the evidence a bit to reach an essence of a certain London experience – be it a building site, a checkout, a man running down the street, a rainy day. Here and there I’ve added a skyscraper if a composition seemed to need it. After all, these are paintings and not a record; they're a set of thoughts about what the metropolis is like."

Bell has been working on his new body of work since 2017. Drawings at various London locations have been followed by free imaginative re-thinking in his Sussex studio. Scenarios arise and then he looks for models to help enact them. There is an element of staging to achieve his narratives. "There has been no end of people coming into the studio to be sketched, and I've gone through so much tracing paper." In London, his on-location preparatory drawings have taken him into the City, along the river and into a South London park. "The drug dealers there got used to me!" he laughs.

What does he hope to show through this exhibition? "I hope it says that painting is a good way of thinking about contemporary life and the textures of experience. What things feel like these days. I want to show the maelstrom of the contemporary world: there are divine possibilities, but more of the time you are in the middle of the shit."

When The City Is Built is a solo exhibition of paintings by Julian Bell. On show at the Menier Gallery, 51 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RU from 9 October until 19 October 2019. Discover more about Julian Bell at [jbell.co.uk](http://www.jbell.co.uk/

Their friendship began with a simple agreement in which money, business considerations and fashion had no place. "I like your images but I’m broke. Give me your photos, I’ll give you clothes," photographer Ann Ray recalls Alexander McQueen expressing to her early in their relationship.

“You know, it was simple. He was part of my life, we loved each other, I had Rendez-Vous,” said Ray. It was the start of a 13-year friendship that would see Ann (otherwise known as Anne Deniau) appointed by McQueen to document his design process and the behind-the-scenes experience of his runway shows.

Now you can see some of what she captured in a new exhibition in St. Louis, Missouri this October. Ann Ray & Lee McQueen: Rendez-Vous will feature photographs taken by Ray between 1997 and 2010, alongside garments McQueen gifted to her throughout their work together.

The exhibition will also feature over two dozen spectacular McQueen pieces from Barrett Barrera Projects’ collection, the largest private collection of McQueen’s work.

Lee Alexander McQueen is the British fashion designer who founded the iconic, eponymous label and served as chief designer of Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. McQueen was known for designing outside the conventions of the fashion world, often taking inspiration from avant-garde installations, theatre, performance art, and gothic fairytales. The immersive experience of his runway shows allowed fashion to transcend commodification.

McQueen saw fashion as an artistic medium – one capable of evoking the sublime and providing commentary on identity, culture, values, and politics. His work has been shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and, of course, London's V&A Museum in the solo exhibition Savage Beauty.

Ann Ray & Lee McQueen: Rendez-Vous takes place at Barrett Barrera Projects’ new gallery space – projects+exhibitions in St.Louis, launching on 5 October 2019 and running until February 2020.

She was the "Dancing Granny" who took this year's Notting Hill Carnival by storm, with a video of her showing off her moves going viral online. Now Colette Zacca is the star of a new campaign for underwear brand sloggi.

Granny Got Pants, created by MullenLowe, makes the case that granny pants are comfortable and cool, despite years of prescriptive ideas about what female underwear should look like.

In the spot, Colette, a 56-year-old from Sheffield who has had a double hip replacement, raps and dances along to a version of 1992 Sir Mix-A-Lot classic Baby Got Back with updated lyrics, reappropriating the song by making women the heroes of their own story. "I like big pants and I can not lie," is one class line. We also love: "I'm sick of magazines saying g-strings still a thing".

"When sloggi launched the Maxi Pant in 1979," says Jose Miguel Sokoloff of MullenLowe, "the brand caught the attention of women who wanted underwear to be comfortable and stylish. Forty years later, sloggi’s message is even more relevant today amidst the body positivity movement. This campaign demonstrates that comfort is finally cool for everyone."

What did Colette think of the campaign? "I’m still in denial that this is all happening, and that so many people have seen my dance moves. After two hip replacements, I never thought I’d dance again, let alone be signed by sloggi. The brand has been a joy to work with, and I’m really proud of the work we’re making. I’ve always loved dancing so the whole experience has been incredible. It took me a while to gain the confidence I have now, so I hope the campaign inspires others to feel the same – just confident, comfortable and happy with their bodies, in their own skin."

Without endorsing sloggi ourselves, who doesn't love a big pair of pants?