Sonic success

Major award marks 35 year anniversary of pioneering graphics course

UCLan has this month celebrated the 35 year anniversary of its Graphic Design degree and has marked the occasion by celebrating the success of two of its students at a prestigious industry award ceremony.

In the 1970’s UCLan (or Preston Polytechnic as it was then known) pioneered the ‘sandwich’ course in higher education, providing all it’s Graphic Design students with a placement in industry as today. As a result, UCLan's  (BA Hons) Graphic Design is now considered one of the most established and successful of its kind in the country.

In the last ten years alone, the course has collected over 90 international and national awards, including Design & Art Direction, Roses Awards, Royal Society of the Arts and the Chartered Society of Designers student of the year.

Many graduates of the course have gone on to work for top graphic design agencies both nationally and internationally.

Following on from this wave of success, two of the course's most promising students, Matt Slade and Naseem Naeem (both final year Graphics students) have been awarded the Little Chip Student Award, the junior version of the Big Chip Awards, considered the biggest digital awards event outside of London, and one of the two longest running awards ceremonies in the UK.

The brief for the winning project, which also won a YCN (Young Creative Network) Student Award, was to create a piece of communication to celebrate the 20th anniversary of classic video game character, Sonic The Hedgehog.

The duo created an animated video which chronicles Sonic’s journey from the early 90’s, jumping from box-shaped TV’s into handheld SEGA devices, then to the 21st century skipping from iPad to iPhone, before finally ending up in a plasma screen television.

The Little Chip judges described the project as combing 'dazzling execution' and predicted a 'bright future for its creators in their chosen industry.'

Commenting on his award winning project and time at UCLan, student Matt Slade said: “I feel the this degree has taught me so much about creative thinking and I am confident that the completion of this course has put me in good stead for the working environment, especially as it was a sandwich course and it gave me a taste of what it’s like to work in the industry.

"The Big Chip award is a testament that what I've learnt could really take me places.”

Jonathan Harker, Graphic Design Course Leader at UCLan said: “This is a great piece of work because it combines a strong idea with excellent execution. At UCLan creative thinking and idea generation underpin our course, and are our great strength.

"As technology improves and changes so will the platforms on which work is produced and viewed, but the importance of a good idea will never change. The best designers are those who can think, and that's an area where we specialise.”