Left to right; Jimmy McGinn, Partnership Manager at Liverpool School Sports Partnership, Lisa Williams, Quality Assurance Lead at Liverpool School Sports Partnership, Emily Manning and Graham Williams, Graphic Design tutor.
Graphic Design student Emily Manning has recently completed work on a live brief in collaboration with Liverpool School Sports Partnership.
Emily, who started the project whilst studying on the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Graphic Design at St Helens College, was tasked with a brief to create a range of characters that could be used in their POWER Programme.
POWER stands for Physical, Openness, Wellbeing, Emotions and Regulation. The POWER Programme teaches children about the importance of openness in sport, but also in their everyday lives.
The six-week programme is operated for Key Stage 2 children across 80 primary schools throughout the Liverpool City Region.
Emily, who is now in the first year of her Graphic Design degree at University Centre St Helens, was recommended for the project by her tutor, Graham, thanks to her passion and skills in character design.
She said: “I think my interest started when I was younger, when I watched cartoons and Disney films, I really liked thinking of stories in my head and then I started trying to draw characters that would be in the stories.”
She added: "I try to incorporate character design into my work whenever I can; if it's appropriate to the brief, then I would seize the opportunity to try and do it."
The brief was to inspire young children and for them to feel represented by the characters, which will be used in activity workbooks during PE lessons.
Emily created a total of 10 characters featuring a diverse range of abilities and ethnicities, in the hope that every child will find at least one they can relate to. The characters were required to display a range of abilities, sports and appearances, whilst retaining their identity as part of one team.
Graham Williams, Emily’s Graphic Design Tutor, said: “It is always great to get projects coming in from outside of College that I’m not responsible for because it means that I don’t have all the answers, so the students have to ask the client questions. I can facilitate this and act as a go-between but it’s not me saying yes or no, so that’s a great experience for them as it gives them an idea of what it’s like in the industry.”
He added: “Emily did a really good job of responding to what was being asked of her and then offering suggestions herself of details that we hadn’t thought of, like giving a character a birthmark or a prosthetic limb.”
Jimmy McGinn, Partnership Manager at Liverpool School Sports Partnership, said: “Emily has been really patient with us going back and forth with changes, and the final designs are absolutely amazing. It’s been fantastic working with Emily, Graham and the College. It would definitely be something we’d look to again to develop other programmes in the future."
Emily will now see her work printed in activity booklets and used across primary schools in the Liverpool City Region.
You can find out more about the POWER Programme by visiting the Liverpool School Sports Partnership website at www.lssp.co.uk.