Students focus on photography

A PHOTOGRAPHY magazine read across the world has challenged Warrington students to design some of its pages.
Professional Imagemaker – which is delivered to photographers in 72 countries – has asked BTEC Graphic Design students at Priestley College to create pages fit for its readership.
Editor Mike McNamee said: “The biggest thing the students bring to it is they have no pre-conceived ideas of how our pages should look so therefore they come up with some incredibly fresh and original ideas.
“I don’t put any restraints on them other than the page size and on more than one occasion I have sought an appropriate article to fit their design.”
It is the 10th year the magazine has worked with Priestley to give students the opportunity to have their work displayed in an internationally-known publication.
All their ideas will be printed in the magazine but the best ones will be used to inspire actual feature pages with the students being credited as “guest designers.”
Priestley Tutor Paul McConnell said it was a great opportunity for the graphic designers to work on a brief set by a client.
“It gets them used to working with professionals on a project that has real expectations and deadlines,” he said.
“It is something for all of them to include in their CVs and portfolios, especially for those whose designs inspire actual pages in the magazine.”
Professional Imagemaker recently published its 75th edition and has grown over the years from a 16-page publication to now regularly boasting over 150 pages.
Readers subscribe from across the world including America, Korea and China and those involved in the magazine hold seminars in the UK, Europe and as far away as Dubai.
Mr McNamee, who lives in Wirral, said he hoped working with Priestley College was helping young graphic designers of the future.
“This will give them a story to tell when they go for job interviews and hopefully a lot of confidence in their own abilities,” he said.
Pictured: some of the students working on the Imagemaker project.