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Design students at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ set new record

Six graphic design students have received international recognition for their work in what has been a record-breaking year for º£½ÇÖ±²¥.

The prestigious recognition, from the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD), will give the final year students an additional edge when applying for future employment. BA (Hons) Graphic Design students Esther Garcia Zurita, Rebecca Hurst, Ellie Jones and Hayley Law all achieved accreditations and Sergi Coll Capitan and Arron Wilson were awarded merits.

Senior lecturers Marcus Diamond and Jo Hamill prepped the students to submit their work to the annual ISTD competition.

Working from various briefs, their projects were undertaken as part of the Live Project and Competitions module, in which all students have the opportunity to be externally moderated through competitions.

This marks the highest number of accreditations that the University has received from the ISTD in a single year.

Marcus said: 'It is a huge success and I'm very, very pleased for both the students and the staff who teach them.

'We do get accreditations year on year, but it’s hugely difficult to attain a pass, let alone a merit, as two of our students did. All of these students worked really hard to achieve this, and needless to say, we’re delighted with the outcome.'

ISTD is a professional body run by and for typographers, graphic designers and educators. All six students are now eligible to become members and the prestigious award is particularly appealing to employers.

Esther and Sergi, who are originally from Spain, came to º£½ÇÖ±²¥ to complete their degree.

Sergi said: 'Our university in Spain has links with º£½ÇÖ±²¥ and we were able to transfer in our final year. We had heard really great things about º£½ÇÖ±²¥ and wanted to study here.'

Esther added: 'We were really impressed with the way of working here at º£½ÇÖ±²¥, it’s so professional and we really enjoyed the different briefs we were given to work on.'

Rebecca, who has secured an internship with the Northern Block type foundry when she finishes her degree, said: 'I wanted to study at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ as it has a really good reputation for design. The course was really good and has helped to prepare us for the future.'

The students are now preparing for their degree show, which will kick off the School of Arts & Media’s Creative º£½ÇÖ±²¥ celebrations on Tuesday 27 May, from 6pm – 8pm in the Athena building.

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