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For the fourth year running, graphic design and illustration students at all stages of their degree have created visualisations of poems written by the Solent Mind poetry collective.

8th October 2018
Art and design

For the fourth year running, graphic design and illustration students at all stages of their degree have created visualisations of poems written by the Solent Mind poetry collective.

Senior Lecturer Susie Smith explains: “As tutors, we are always looking for live projects that can serve the local area, as well as educate our students beyond their graphic design skills.

“The students’ brief was to play with abstract typographic forms, where typography is arranged to emphasise the meaning of the poems created by the Mind survivor poets.

One of the students' designs

“Students always respond to live projects with better outcomes than just theory-based assignments, so this is a fantastic brief to introduce them to not only getting the skills they need for employment, but also giving value to the local community.”

Solent Poetry Collective members, from Mind in Eastleigh, recently came to view some of the first-year BA (Hons) Graphic Design students’ works, which are currently being displayed in Solent’s Mountbatten Library.

Pearl Elizabeth Dell May, Therapeutic Poetry Facilitator for the group, says: “The work on display was excellent and really reflected the emotion within the poems.”

As a result of this brief, this summer two second-year BA (Hons) Illustration students and one first-year BA (Hons) Graphic Design student worked on a poetry book by Kevin Green, one of the Mind survivors, entitled What’s On Your Mind?. The set will be published by Solent University, and be sold in Re:So, the university’s retail shop in the Marlands Centre, in time for Christmas.