Madeleine Gates
Madeleine Gates is an aspiring graphic designer and illustrator from North East London who has recently completed her Foundation Diploma in Visual Communication Design at Ravensbourne University London and will begin a BA (Hons) in Graphic Communication Design at Central Saint Martins in the coming year.
Gates enjoys combining both digital and traditional analogue mediums to enhance her designs, often bringing a more colourful and vibrant energy to design briefs. During the Foundation course, she has grown in confidence using digital software such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Her work is often driven by current political and social issues and explores ways to encourage people to engage more actively with the creative world.
Her Final Major Project, “Craft Your Voice”, focused on encouraging political engagement through art. She created a protest banner-making kit designed to make activism more accessible and welcoming. The project aimed to demonstrate the importance of art in strengthening protest movements and to show that creativity can often be a more truthful expression of opinions and feelings about an issue.
Playing Cards – A design for a set of playing cards focused on how objects can become more than inanimate things. Titled “Unlock Your Curiosity” they encourage people to still be curious and creative beyond childhood.
“Care Goes Deeper” – Paper collage using a three colour palette to represent Sustainable Development Goal 14-Life Below Water. It focuses on the contrast between the beauty of the ocean and the impacts of human activity.
Illustration of James Harrison – Digital illustration of James Harrison as part of idea generation for an Unsung Heroes Children's Book Project.
“Better To Be A Rebel Than A Slave” – Mixed-media protest art on denim background focused on the empowerment of women in society. Inspired by the work done by Tracey Emin.
Craft Your Voice – Mixed-media and digital cover art of packaging for a “make your own protest banner” starter kit.