This event had been eagerly anticipated with some great speakers being booked. The range of speakers  this year was particularly broad in range, and included one of the country’s leading reportage artists (Lucinda Rogers), an international award winning illustrator (Mark Smith) and a truly innovative animator (Cyriak).

After getting both Falmouth and LCC students settled in the Lecture theatre the day kicked off with Lucinda Rogers  presenting a broad range of amazing drawings from across her career, spanning her her time living in New York where she was able to thoughtfully document events surrounding the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Also covered in her presentation was an articulate discussion surrounding the threat posed to the architectural heritage of great cities like New York and London. Its really great to see an artist who feels that her work can make a difference to the world in which we live, not unlike the recent lecture given by Sue Coe at Falmouth.

Lucinda Rogers

Next up was Mark Smith. Mark has worked with students at Falmouth before but it was great to see his work once more and even more exciting to gain a glimpse of his approach to visual problem solving. Falmouth students that were present will hopefully recognise something of the strategy that Mark outlined in the workshops that they have been participating in during the first term. A really great presentation.

Mark Smith

Finally after lunch students sat down and were treated to an amazing opening sequence to what turned out to be an inspirational talk by the animator Cyriak. For those that haven’t come across his work I recommend that you seek it out on You Tube at the earliest opportunity. His work has evolved organically from early experiments with animated GIFS and now can be seen as part of major ad campaigns or in the form of innovative music videos for bands like Bonobo and Bloc Party. Cyriak delivered his presentation with a good deal of humour which went down well with the audience.

Cyriak

Cyriak, taking questions in the Illustration studio after his lecture.

The Forum event was a real success this year and both LCC and Falmouth students left feeling suitably inspired and enlightened. A big thank you to Lucinda, Mark and Cyriak for letting us into their thought processes and amazing visual worlds for the day.

Organising this event is always a challenge and great credit goes to Sue Clarke with help from Rachel Dunn, Linda Scott and Nigel Owen and the team at LCC (thanks Paul & Stuart).