Three students win in Society of Publication Designers awards

Three BA (Hons) Design for Publishing students have been awarded places in the Society of Publication Designers awards 2020 for their striking editorial designs. The awards, which are held every year, champions the future of visual storytelling while setting the standards for editorial excellence. There are a number of categories that each student can choose to submit to.

Ollie Turner, who was awarded third place, and Phoebe Barker, awarded fifth place, are the only students from the UK to be awarded a place in the top five. Fellow student Callan Norton was listed as a noteworthy entry in the full runners-up list.

Ollie, who entered his work in the ‘Fashion/Lifestyle’ category, took inspiration from Billie Eilish’s signature black and neon green colourway,

“Already an icon with her unique sense of style, abstract fashion sense and voice; I wanted to captivate this combining it with manipulated typography” he said.

“I really wanted to experiment with this design so I have over-contrasted textures and the images, using scratch effects and distortion to reinforce this idea. I have always been a fan of her music which I think allowed me to develop this project beyond its original limitation”.

Phoebe’s designs, based around the Danish city, Copenhagen, featured a collection of original photography from her own trips to the city.

Her design was driven by the colours of the city, found in the architecture and the reflections of the buildings in the famous Nyhavn canal.

“The piece is full of information that the reader can engage with at a glance or be drawn in to for a more in-depth read” said Phoebe.

“To link the two spreads and make the piece easy to navigate, I designed geometric icons that link the photos to a list of the top 10 places to visit in the city.”

Callan chose to focus his design around esteemed photographer Nan Goldin. 

His designs pay homage to Nan, using inspiration from film photography through aperture, light meter and view finder, and utilised this through his design.

“For a long time I have been such an admirer of Nan Goldin’s photography work and the rawness and honesty of her subject matter” said Callan.

“I also wanted to create a sense of depth within the pages and by layering up the text as well as blurring the images I was able  to create a sense of depth of field much like within photography.”

Learn more about BA (Hons) Design for Publishing