COILLTE PANEL PRODUCTS SUPPORT GRADUATE SHOW FOR DESIGN STUDENTS
6th June 2008 - Coillte Panel Products supporting new talent
The exhibition of graduating design students' work is essential at the start of their careers; being seen by the commercial world is the first step toward being a success.
The South East Essex College of Arts and Technology in Southend, Essex has several BA (Hons) Art & Design course disciplines whose previous exhibitions have been at various locations around London. However, with a new landmark £52 million campus building in the centre of the town providing unsurpassed resources and facilities for its students in an easily accessible location, this year the college made the bold decision to host its own 2008 Graduate Show.
South East Essex College's School of Art and Design needed a cool and contemporary modular exhibition base for the work of nearly 50 students graduating with BA (Hons) degrees in Digital Animation, Fashion Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design and Interior Design. Coillte Panel Products has a long record of working with students and colleges across the UK - from Newcastle to Kingston-Upon-Thames - and their premium MDF and OSB products by Medite and SmartPly provided exactly what was required. “Our work with students range from design projects to exposure to our materials and manufacturing processes. However in this case, South East Essex College needed a partner to facilitate their art & design student's Graduate Show, and our products were the right ones to form the setting for this impressive event and met the sustainability requirements for the project with their FSC certification,” said Geoff Rhodes, Coillte Panel Product's marketing & business development director.
Working with the UK's premier exhibition stand supplier Nimlok, Coillte Panel Products and
the college developed a simple classic gallery design which used tongue and groove SmartPly OSB for the high traffic floor and Medite Premier MDF for the wall panels. To complete the deliberately neutral environment the SmartPly OSB floor was painted grey and the Medite wall panels covered in a white laminate. Nimlok build supervisor Dan Cooke said, “Creating a design with someone else's materials is always a challenge but Medite and SmartPly were straightforward, easy to use products, particularly as we needed to construct a structure which had as long a life as possible. The design we used blended both the paramount importance of reusability with the feeling of a permanent structure. It works exceptionally well, and we are already looking at how to adapt it for the 2009 show.”
Dave Taylor, BA (Hons) Interior Design course leader at South East Essex College said, “We researched extensively, but the best location and facilities for the show were without doubt at the college. With Coillte Panel Product's help we have created a solid, understated backdrop for our show and it has really enabled the student's work to shine, as well as giving us the chance to showcase the college as a whole.”
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Notes to editors:
Coillte Panel Products
Coillte has an international reputation for its consultancy on all aspects of forestry, providing forestry expertise to government agencies and NGOs in over 25 countries worldwide as well as to private companies, the World Bank and the EU.
Coillte Panel Products has brought together two leading European panel products operations – SmartPly OSB and Medite MDF. With turnover standing at in excess of €175,000,000, the Irish-based company has now become a significant and powerful player in Europe's composite board marketplace.
Both Medite and SmartPly are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified differentiating them from many competitor and substitute products, and enabling them to meet environmental standards which are becoming increasingly important to designers, specifiers, architects and clients for both public and private projects.
For further press information, contact:
Lucy Kamall
Character Communications
Tel: +44 (0)1376 537087
Mob: +44 (0)7876 737569
Email: lucy@charactercomms.com
