Web design and development by Front, a strategy, design and technology studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland

The MA is a new course intended to develop creative, self-motivated practitioners from a diverse range of design backgrounds (from textiles and visual communication through to digital media), and judging by the work on show it succeeds. I first met everyone on the MA course through a 2 day master-class I delivered about a year ago along with the two Pauls (which we all thoroughly enjoyed) and it’s incredibly cool to see the progress all the students have made since then. We have been lucky enough to recruit from the University of Ulster’s design programmes in the past, so going along to the show to see new talent is important for us.

The 3 web-based projects on show from Kyle Boyd and serial collaborators Paddy Donelly and Lee Munroe demonstrated plenty of thinking beyond the gloss that I often see dominate college design projects. Lee Munroe’s project Lookaly is a well produced and simple take on a free local directory. He says that at the moment it is populated with small, local businesses but that any company can sign up for a listing. The sign up process is a pleasure; straightforward, no fuss.

Kyle, Lee and Paddy’s work for the show is really promising, and we’ve also enjoyed other work they’ve done since we first met - including Kyle’s project Disability Heroes, an interactive e-learning site that raises awareness of disabilities, and theBig Word Project developed by Paddy and Lee which has been getting a lot of (justified) attention. All in all it’s a good sign of things to come.

Well done to all at the show from the team at FRONT :)