Gavin Strange is Freelance website/ graphic designer and self processed geek from Bristol. Gavin submitted his work to NOISE back in 2006. He studied Graphic Design in Leicester before being taught the ways of the web at a design company based in the city. Gavin now owns his own company, which specialises in all things web related and graphic based.

Through his involvement in NOISE 2006 Gavin was awarded a DreamJob at Hemingway Design. During his time with Wayne, Gavin worked closely with the company on their website.

Here's his blog entry about his 1st day at the company:

"After all my initial worrying last night the journey was really quite easy. Bit busy on the ol' Tube and it took a while to get started due to delays at which time I was regretting wearing 2 tee's, a hoodie and a jacket as the ol' tubular gets a wee bit warm when it's not moving anywhere!
Anyways, the journey was fine, not too hard and I didn't get lost so that was a good start! Wayne and everyone at Hemingway design was super nice, they all drink lots of tea so that's always rad.
I spent my day working on many things for a forthcoming Hemingway project. Its web, Photoshop, flash work to basically take a site to the next level! It's good fun, it's a little strange getting used to working in an environment with other people, after working on my own for the past 3 years but I like it. It's also quite weird working from 9am - 4pm as I'm so used till 8.30am until gone Midnight, it's nice to have some stability and separation from work and life!
I do have to work on a PC though, the most frustrating thing is pressing F9 and nothing moving, it seems to take me an age to find all my windows!
Before you knew it, the school bell rang and it's time to go home!"?

Wayne was so impressed with Gavin's work and dedication during his time at the company that he's since offered him more freelance work with Hemingway Design. At the moment, in-between juggling his passion for skateboarding Gavin has his own clothing line and is currently working on a web-site for Aardman Animations.

Jenny Walters, 22, Stafford, created a piece, entitled '24'. This is a new take on how we use, record and organise our time. A booklet with 1,140 perforated circles, representing each minute of the day, demonstrates positive and negative uses of time. Negative time included queuing, waiting and travelling, a 'waste' of time. Arriving at a destination, shopping and consuming she sees as positive uses of time.

Her innovative concept was selected by legendary Factory Records designer Peter Saville, NOISE Curator for image making, as his Curator Choice. He said of, Jenny is studying time and actually wasted time and what we do with this wasted time and it's interesting. That's an art project.

As part of the festival's ongoing drive to gain exposure for the best talent, Jenny was also profiled for the NOISE documentary 'Raw Creatives' that was screened on the Community Channel and her work was exhibited in the NOISE exhibition at Urbis, Manchester.

She says of the festival 'Definitely submit to NOISE Festival 2008, you can get lots out of it and it's a great experience.

Jo Masding's work of scenes from toy objects was picked by Graphic Design Curator Peter Saville as his Curator's Choice. Jo's work then went on to be showcased at the NOISE Urbis exhibition in October 2006.

Since NOISE Festival Jo has gained a First in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University and hopes that next she can go on to do a masters. She is still pursuing her love of art and hopes to have her work featured in more exhibitions this year.

Jo says, 'NOISE is great on my CV and the whole experience was something I really enjoyed being involved with. This festival is definitely good for exhibiting young creative work and putting it in the right areas.'

Before NOISE, Alex Turvey was already making a name for himself as a talented young designer. He had won a pitch for a Channel 4 advert, won the competition for the anniversary issue of My Space and had his animations played on both Channel 4 and E4. Alex also showed a lot of ambition as he started his own company Elefant Art which he still works with to this day.

Alex's work through Elefant Art was exhibited in the NOISE exhibitions at Urbis and Magma. Alex was also commissioned to design the exhibition artwork at Urbis.

'NOISE has been a great opportunity to expose the work of Elefant Art at such an early stage. We are a young company, with big ideas, and a big ambition to succeed. Noise has been fantastic in its help to realise our dreams, bringing Elefant Art into the public eye. I highly recommend young designers to get involved with NOISE Festival.'

Elina Smith, 23, Brighton, took a degree in 3D design which has encouraged her to take a conceptual, material-based approach to design. Her degree show work entitled 'Designer Art' shows her abilities as a designer and maker, bridging the gap between sculpture and design.

Elina's NOISE 2006 submission, entitled 'Pots' won the praise of design legend Peter Saville. He said of her work;

"I'm interested in the theme of 'Designer Art' and the relationship between Fine Art and Applied Art. It's all about Art and Design borrowing from each other and work that intersects each genre"?this is interesting"?.

Following on from her selection, Elina's 'Pots' went onto be showcased at the NOISE Exhibition at Urbis, Manchester, as part of the NOISE Festival 2006 showcase of young creative talent.