08.08.06
University College Falmouth graduate selected as Texprint Star Designer

For the second year in a row, a graduate from University College Falmouth's BA(Hons) in Textile Design has been selected as a Texprint 2006 Star Designer.

Rupert Newman, who hails from Tavistock, and graduated from the course this June, competed against 200 students from colleges and universities all over Britain to emerge as one of only 24 Star Designers to be selected.

Rupert designs digital prints for both fashion and interiors. The designs that caught the selection panel's attention were inspired by a collection of his own landscape paintings, which he transformed into abstract digital prints.

Non-profit making Texprint was established in 1972 to promote the UK's most innovative new textile designers to global industry. Each year, 24 new design graduates are selected for their creative strengths in knit, weave, print, embroidery and mixed-media by industry professionals, through a series of rigorous interviews and portfolio evaluation.

Rupert's innovative work was subsequently displayed at Chelsea College of Art's First View exhibition which was visited by some of the world's leading fashion designers and company representatives including Stuart Rose of Marks & Spencer and Christopher Bailey of Burberry. It was at this event that Rupert was also voted second in the Best Exhibitor category by trade and professional visitors.

The work of the 24 Star Designers will also be featured at the international trade fair, Indigo, in Paris, this September, to which leading company executives, design buyers and journalists from all over the world are invited.

Indigo is the international textile speciality show, part of Premiere Vision Pluriel, which groups Europe's important fashion fabrics, yarn, textile design and accessories fairs all together. The show attracts 8,000 visitors on average, and often results in invaluable contacts, sales, commissions, work placements and job offers for Texprint Star Designers.

"For Rupert to be selected as a Star Designer from 200 competing graduates from the whole of the UK is a double victory," says BA(Hons) Textile Design Course Leader, Di Downs. "It is not only a victory for Rupert and a well-deserved testament to his creative talents, but it is also a victory for University College Falmouth's Textile Design degree course in that this endorses our ability to produce graduates who are industry players."

"I am just over the moon to have been selected as a Star Designer," enthuses Rupert. "Being included amongst the best 24 design graduates in the country is a great honour and it was exciting to exhibit alongside eight MA graduates from the Royal College of Art (amongst others), as well as to be voted second in the Best Exhibitor category at First View. I am very grateful to University College Falmouth for all its help and inspiration – roll on Paris!" he adds.

There is still time to apply to University College Falmouth's BA(Hons) Textile Design course for October 2006 entry. Please visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/textiledesign, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214385 for further information.

University College Falmouth is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall, a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through higher education. The CUC is funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall County Council.

For further information please contact Jilly Easterby, Public Relations Officer, University College Falmouth on 01326 213792 or email: jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk.

The Objective One Programme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly has invested in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) project, both Phase 1 and Phase 2 through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF). Cornwall College is a partner in the CUC.

Editor's notes:

Clare Morgan
Media Relations Manager
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Mobile: 07973 813647
Telephone: 01872 223439

cmorgan@cornwall.gov.uk

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