Cristina Zani

Recent graduate of the MFA in Jewellery at Edinburgh College of Art Cristina Zani approaches the creation of her work in the same way she would compose a story and is inspired by the colours, textures and materials she encounters on her travels. Her latest collection, which will also be exhibited at New Designer in London at the end of June, is inspired by Italo Calvino’s novel, Invisible Cities and is a reflection on the urban environment and the concept of invisibility.

Lisa Scrimgeour

Painter Lisa Scrimgeour explores issues of beauty and ugliness in her work, which is partly inspired by her experience of school bullying. Her images of solitary human figures are striking for the contrast between their hauntingly beautiful eyes and the abstract, grotesque nature of their faces. ‘They work when they aren’t too literal,’ explains the Duncan of Jordanstone graduate, meaning that these are not ‘real’ deformed people, but artistic inventions.

Gabriella DiTano

Visual Communication student at Glasgow School of Art, Gabriella DiTano, has just won the £10,000 Deutsche Bank Award in Creative Practice, which will enable her to set up a business using a bespoke printing approach which she calls the Risotto Risograph. Her innovation creates prints that resemble quality screen prints and are perfect for smaller jobs that may have previously been digitally printed.

Felix Davey

The ‘Water Folk’ project, from Felix Davey, BA (Hons) Photography & Film student at Edinburgh Napier University comprises a series of portraits and audio interviews around people and their relationships with water. Focusing on the northwest coasts, including the Inner and Outer Hebrides, Davey explores water-rich and water-defined Scotland, portraying the ways in which the solitude and fortitude of these individuals speaks of wild and beautiful places and of our place within them.

Sam de Santis

The Glasgow School of Art’s image for the Degree Show 2012 publicity materials is ‘Hand Compacted Sphere’ by fourth-year Fine Art photography student Sam de Santis, who has just been elected Student Representative Council President for 2012/13. The sphere was created from soil collected from the physics department at Glasgow University, formed into a lacquered ball and then treated with a lengthy Japanese process that allows the sphere to crack and distort.

Louise Robinson

‘Shedding Perceptions’, the photography project from BA (Hons) Photography & Film student at Napier, Louise Robinson, was inspired by the artist’s belief that media has a strong influence on society and people’s self-image, particularly among the younger generation. Her project focuses on the perceptions people have of themselves compared to celebrities and models and seeks to celebrate different body types, with dust being used as a metaphor for the shedding of perceptions.

Gillian Boyd

Gillian Boyd is currently an MFA student in textiles at Edinburgh College of Art. The culmination of her studies is a series of panels that provide acoustic insulation and thus have a clear practical purpose as well as an aesthetic appeal. Boyd, who believes her product to be unique, previously won a competition to design an interior look for the Stirling Management Centre and has also previously been shortlisted for the Deutsche Bank award.

Heather Anderson

Anderson, a final year undergraduate in Time Based Art at Duncan of Jordanstone, creates photographic portraits and soundworks that respond to her experience of having overcome a childhood weight problem and a sense of being ‘different’ as a child. She has photographed her own body in its altered states, emphasizing the sense of identity that comes from embodied experience and reclaiming the idea of ‘difference’ again.