"More creative energy than a tree full of squirrels"

STUDENTS had the opportunity to work with two of the Manchester School of Art’s most successful alumni as part of a Unit X workshop.

Students from across all three undergraduate years met up with 4Creative heads John Allison and Chris Bovill.
4Creative is Channel 4’s in-house creative agency, who last year won Campaign’s Advertiser of the Year award. Recent campaigns included the e4 “shutdown” to encourage young people to vote in the General Election, the iconic Skoda “cake” and rebranding the Grand National as “the original extreme sport”.

In 2012, 4Creative were responsible for the multi-award winning Paralympics campaign ‘Meet the Superhumans’. The film received widespread acclaim and has earned 4Creative multiple awards including the UK’s only Grand Prix at the 2013 Lions, a Black Pencil and four Yellow Pencils at the D&AD Awards, multiple Gold Awards at Creative Circle and British Arrows where the ad was awarded ‘commercial of the year’, a Grand Prix at the Marketing Society Awards (jointly with Sainsbury’s); it was Campaign magazine’s Campaign of the Year in 2012 and was also voted one of TED’s Ads Worth Spreading.

John Allison said: “We absolutely loved going back. It has changed so much since we were there 20 years ago. The whole building had more creative energy than a tree full of squirrels. It was a hive of activity. All the students seemed smart and asked so many insightful questions. They were a great crowd and they’re in great hands with all the tutors. We left feeling that the future of creativity is going to be ok.”

Senior Lecturer Graham Jones said: “We were extremely excited to have Chris & John from 4Creative in as leading lights in their field and with such a vast body of engaging and forward-thinking work. As Alumni of the Graphic Design course it was great for our current students, of all year groups, to see the level of success that can be achieved with some hard work, passion and most of all a sense of humour.”

Unit X is a 10-week project spanning media, art and design undergraduate courses. Students work with studios, venues and businesses across the city, culminating in a city-wide arts festival, which will take place on May 12 at London Scottish House.

The event was part of a project exploring the nature of publishing, led by staff in the School’s department of graphic design.

You can read more about recent Unit X events on the blog, at https://projectunitx.wordpress.com/2016-events/