Okay, I'm probably going to offend some people by saying this but I'm wondering why students in the final year of their art degree can't design a good poster?  I'm talking about this poster, advertising a party to raise money for the degree show:

  It's messy, a lot of the writing is very small and the decoration consists newspaper cuttings crudely coloured in pencil.  It's not what I'd expect from highly educated artists.  It's more like the work of my year 4 class while I was teacher training. 

Maybe I'm making too much of a big deal out of this.  You may be thinking 'it's not that bad.'  Well maybe it isn't, but it ain't good either!  It was produced by Artists, soon-to-be graduates.  These people are supposed to excell in visual communication.  Designing an eye-catching, attractive poster should be simplicity itself for them.  I'm sure members of the art department will attend the fundraiser but I seriously doubt anyone else will.  This poster makes me want to shout 'Call yourselves artists?'

Actually it's kinda worrying considering I'm on exactly the same degree.  Will another year of teaching lower me to that standard?  Is this the result of emphasising concept and theory over good, old fashioned skills?  No.  I'm probably overeacting.  I'm sure the students who designed this poster are capable of a hell of a lot better.  They just forgot for a moment.