Exciting Times for Letterpress...

Recently we were lucky enough to have Kenneth Burnley visit our print making facility.  Ken is a print-maker specialising in letterpress who is part of Juniper Press who run letterpress workshops at The Bluecoat in Liverpool.

our small press

our larger Britannia press

Ken is passionate about letterpress and making sure it is taught at colleges.  He has kindly offered his free time and agreed to help us get letterpress up and running at Southport College.  Ken will be sharing his skills and wisdom with us in the hope we can get letterpress printing up and running in our print room here at Southport College.   

If you want to read more about Juniper Press and their quest to revive letterpress check out their interview for The Bluecoat Blog.

Put Yourself Out There!

It is really important as artists and designers to learn to put yourselves out there when it comes to your work.  Be brave, enter competitions, show the world what you are doing and who knows what could happen and where it may lead.

Doodlers Anonymous are looking for submissions for there latest fab colouring book.  Check out the details in the link and get submitting who knows you may be one of the lucky 60 artist chosen to feature in their fourth book.

Doodlers Anonymous Volume 3

Access Art are running a fab competition in conjunction with The Big Draw.  The theme for The Big Draw 2014 is "It's Our World".  Access Art are asking for postcard entries of drawings of your dinner.  Draw my Dinner is being supported by Great Art a fab art suppliers who we order from at Southport College who are providing £100 voucher for the winner!  Just think of all the fab supplies you could buy with that!

So if we could offer you one piece of advice it would be to put yourself out there and enter competitions.  What are you waiting for get creative and start entering!

Get organised

A new school year, a fresh start and a brilliant excuse for new stationery (not that I ever need an excuse)!

New School Year Gifts from Kelly bought from Hema

Here at Southport College we are really lucky to have a fab Print Shop which sell art materials at cost price to our students.  You will find all sorts from handmade paper, a variety of sketchbooks, fine liners, pencils, portfolios and much more.

Print Shop

Selection of Sketchbooks on sale

We sell a range of sketchbooks from Pink Pig and Seawhite

We stock anything from a 25p fine liner to a £40 portfolio

Assorted coloured and graph paper is 1p/sheet and is great for collage

So treat yourself to some new materials and get creative it's going to be a good year!  So if we could offer you one piece of advice as you embark on your new school year it would be GET ORGANISED!

Spotlight on Students

In Feb our students were asked to collaborate with Hairdressing students to create garments for a fashion show based on the theme Metamorphosis.  Art and Design students from level 3 and 4 were teamed up with hair dressers and asked to respond to a theme chosen by their hairdresser that sat within the umbrella theme of Metamorphosis.  This was a great opportunity for our students to work collaboratively and to a real deadline!

- Photo - Alex Lewis -  Garment - Camellia Hindley - Model - Camellia Hindley - 

The Fashion show itself was a huge success. Staff and students from Art and Design, Hair and Beauty, Performing Arts, Hospitality and Painting and Decorating were involved. It was a wonderful opportunity to show case the talent of the students here at Southport College not just within the Art Department.

- Photo - Colin Pierce -  Garment - Emme Linforth - Model - Emme Linforth - 

- Photo - Katie Whyte & Sintija Dzable -  Garment - Becky Nightingale - Model - Becky Nightingale -

- Photo - Colin Pierce -  Garment - Catherine Barlow - Model - Emme Linforth -

As a follow on from the Fashion Show 2^nd Year HND Photography students photographed a selection of the garments produced in order to meet a module they were studying on Fashion Photography and provide our students with professional looking photographs of their garments for their portfolios.

- Photo - Katie Whyte & Sintija Dzable -  Garment - Millie Hanlon - Model - Millie Hanlon -

- Photo - Katie Whyte & Sintija Dzable -  Garment - Sophie Helm - Model - Katie Cheetham -

- Photo - Phil Range  -  Garment - Sophie Helm - Model - Katie Cheetham -

- Photo - Mike Bishop -  Garment - Catherine Barlow - Model - Emme Linforth -

- Photo - Mike Bishop -  Garment - Jodi Johnston - Model - Jodi Johnston -

- Photo - Alex Lewis -  Garment - Camellia Hindley - Model - Camellia Hindley - 

- Photo - Alex Lewis -  Garment - Megan Howard - Model - Hannah Bond - 

- Photo - Colin Pierce -  Garment - Lottie Irwin - Model -  Lottie Irwin - 

- Photo - Mike Bishop -  Garment - Millie Hanlon - Model - Millie Hanlon -

Collect Primary Research

Primary research is key to developing a unique and original idea. You need to look around your world with new eyes, look at the everyday objects, tickets and labels and appreciate their beauty and design. Find the things that inspire you in the everyday, try to look at things from different angles and viewpoints, focus in on smaller areas.Collect things, collect everything that inspires you. Keep your collections somewhere safe, keep them in a folder, pin them on your studio wall surround yourself with inspiration!

The computer is a valuable tool but looking only at others work will hinder your creativity, you need to get out and explore the world around you. By looking to primary sources you will be able to develop original and imaginative ideas.

Look and record the inspiration all around you

1.      Take photographs
2.      Draw from observation
3.      Keep an inspiration file or box

Continually look around you for inspiration, even if something isn’t directly relevant now it may spark an idea later on down the line. When your stuck for ideas or have a creative block go back to your inspiration folder or box and see what you have….you’ll be surprised how you can still be inspired by something you collected months even years ago.

If we could offer you some valuable research advise it would be COLLECT PRIMARY RESEARCH



Rebekah's Work Space

Kelly's Inspiration Cabinet 





Stand Out From The Crowd

So it’s that time of year again when most of you are embarking on your final major project (FMP) which in student terms means ‘the most important project of college’. This is your time to shine, but how do you do that?

Firstly, you need to choose a theme that will keep you inspired and interested from now until June. You need to think outside the box, think beyond the obvious and choose something that’s not been done time and time again. Be original think of something new or turn something old on its head! Finally, you need to work hard, postpone the social life, be in college before 9am and after 4pm, get familiar with the library and get stuck in in the workshops!

A shark in a tank is no longer a shock, an unmade bed doesn’t make you look twice but at some point in the past this was new, this was shocking. These things made Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin stand out from the crowd. Don’t get lost in between the rest stand out from the crowd, work hard and most of all make sure this is the best project you have done so far!

So if we could offer you one piece of advice as you embark on your project it would be STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD.

Deadlines are real

At the end of last year we asked staff for life advice for our Level 4 Art & Design Foundation Studies students who were heading off to University. We compiled all these important pieces of life advice to create a screen print entitled ‘Instructions for Life’. 

The most important piece of advice for the future for our students is ‘Deadlines are Real’.  If we could give you one piece of advice when embarking on a creative career it would be DEADLINES ARE REAL! 


Continue to follow our blog for more creative life advice.  Watch this space…