BTEC National Diploma and Art Foundation students studying Graphic Design have been given a rare opportunity to work with industry professionals from SKY television, on a project to benefit a national educational charity that focuses on delivering workshops in schools.
The charity in question "Creative Grammar" works closely with BskyB in order to develop literacy skills in primary schools with SKY supplying film crews and studios in support of their aims.

Central to the work of the charity is a range of printed materials which allow young children to learn the fundamentals of English through associating words with characters. Each word class (part of speech) is represented by a different character.

Amongst a range of tasks completed, students have been asked to illustrate one of 25 storybooks which are used in both a printed and electronic format. Students also worked on creating panoramas of the fictitious "Wordland" which is the backdrop for a range of mythical tales which help children learn the structures associated with the English language.

As well as being a great opportunity to our students the project has also had excellent benefits for all parties involved. Upon completion of the task, school children are being asked to select the pieces of work that they judge to be the best. Our students will then be invited to take part in an Educational TV show hosted by one of Sky's national presenters. The students will also travel to London to tour Sky's main TV studios.

Andrew Haynes from Creative Grammar added, "Travelling from London to meet the Priestley students for the first time was a rewarding experience. We hope the brief can allow the group to make the use of their creative flare and produce results that are mutually beneficial for us all."

ImageMaker Magazine is a world wide publication for Amatuer and Professional photographers. The students were set the task hit of creating double-page spreads and followon pages in concept form for the topic of Filter Factory. The whole show was run like a real job, each student was required to research the topic and to work within a strict underlying grid (7-columns, 9-point leading, Myriad 8 on 9 as the body type).

As the projects were finalised, each student had to pitch their design to their peer group. The final InDesign layouts had to be provided to a pre-press specification and pre-flighted. They were re-checked and contract proofed at the Professional Imagemaker offices, before being used in the magazine.
In the event the students did themselves proud and rather than pick a single winner (and effectively waste the rest), Mike Macnamee (editor) felt that the buzz they would get from seeing their work exported to 33 countries would over-ride any conceptual niceties!

The overall concept has relevance to many of our members. If you need your stationery freshening up, approach your local college with a brief and see if they would like to contribute. Being young, inventive, rule-breakers, students are always likely to throw up something special. You get the design,
they get the buzz of seeing their stuff go to print in a real job – marriage made in heaven in many ways, vanity publishing at its best!

Chosen lead design by Samuel Price

Orchard Studios set students a live brief In October 2006.
As an established recording studio from Crewe they required a full company re-brand of their corporate identity.

Orchard Studios have been in operation for four years and offer a range of services, primarily producing demos for professional and amateur musicians. The exciting project got underway when John Newbould and Kate Newbould from Orchard visited the Priestley campus to brief the students on the tasks ahead. The second year BTEC National Diploma Graphic Design students then spent a busy six weeks producing a range of potential designs including Logos, Marketing Materials, Vehicle Livery and Websites.

When invited back to Priestley to make a final selection of work
that would be utilised, the company were quite overwhelmed
by the quality of what had been produced.

John Newbould chose this design by Tim Sumner as their new Corporate Identity.