Crackling with creativity – graphic design in the UK is alive and well, judging by the work by 1,000 graduates from art schools across the UK on show in the Truman Brewery at the New Blood Festival in London, which of course these days includes digital graphics and animation.

Also on show are the finalists from over 5000 submissions to the New Blood Awards, responding to challenging briefs set by major companies including Adidas, Nationwide, the BBC, John Lewis, Adobe and Bacardi, with the best using graphics to highlight social issues such as rising water levels in Miami due to climate change, a campaign to raise awareness of deafness and hearing difficulties (affecting 9 million people in the UK) and of the lack of skilled practitioners in sign language, trying to make the Housing Minister realise what it means to be homeless (though Housing Ministers change more quickly than students graduate) and a app in India to give millions of illiterate people access to their bank accounts.

A wall of digital collages by Rob Halhead Baker celebrate 40 of the 50 selected ‘Faces of the Future’ – talented young graduates who gain a leg-up in the industry by attending the two-week long New Blood Academy bootcamp supported by WPP.

Sponsored by D&AD and supported by many industry partners, the New Blood Festival 2018 not only the creative talent coming out of the UK’s art schools, but also the support given by industry to nurture and develop their careers, much needed in the brave new world after Brexit.

Other professions and industries take note!