Mia Campbell (she/her)
Graphic designer with a love for layout, editorial design and identity. This year I have enjoyed working on socially relevant projects that are research focused, with a particular interest in themes regarding gender and femininity. I take joy in playful experimentation, combining analogue and digital techniques when bringing ideas to life.
Nocturne
A nocturne: a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night.
Classical music has experienced a recent boom among young people due to the rise of streaming services. Of those listening to classical music in the last year, a third were 18-25 years old, and streams by listeners under 35 rose by 17 percent. This is a vast difference to a decade ago – when 70% of classical listeners were over 50.
The portrayal of classical music as stuffy and highbrow puts many off the genre. The identity for fictitious nightclub Nocturne brings these two seemingly contrasting worlds together, aiming to engage young people into the world of classical music in a playful, modern way. Using musical notation as a visual device, the identity also also takes inspiration from the sense of movement and rhythm in an orchestra and the whackiness of classic 90’s club ephemera.
The Deep End
“The pool represents a lot of things, but it has also served as a straightforward tool for satisfying the male gaze on film. It is a pretense for babes to appear. Recently female creators have reframed the pool as something new: a place where a woman can be the complicated subject, with her own issues and her own fantasies.” – Amanda Hess
The Deep End is a collection of film reviews for contemporary coming of age films, which all feature a pool scene as a symbol of adolescence. Water is often used as a metaphor in film to represent the physical and mental vulnerabilities of a character. The pool in film can be exciting, overwhelming, dangerous, and freeing, much like the journey of adolescence. Classic pool tiles inspired the square ratio of the booklet, while faded, hazy images were used to create a nostalgic and dreamy feel.
Penguin Book Cover Redesign
Book cover redesign for Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty – “an autistic teenager coping with the uprooting of home, school, and his mental health, while pursuing his life as a conservationist and environmental activist.” I wanted the cover to have a calming and gentle feeling to represent Dara’s nature and the tone of the book.
I incorporated the hand drawn element of the tree rings to represent the rapid building of connections, patterns and activity in a neurodivergent brain.
See The Difference
See The Difference is a hypothetical campaign in association with grassroots charity Women’s Aid. The campaign is formed by short TikTok videos aimed at girls aged 13-18 to inform them of the signs of abusive relationships. A common misconception is that domestic violence only affects adults, however according to NSPCC nearly 75% of girls have experienced some form of intimate partner violence. Domestic violence is not just physical, emotional and sexual violence are equally damaging and are often normalised for young people – it is important that controlling behaviour is not confused as romance. The design was inspired by the term ‘grey area’ which is often used when discussing consent.