There’s always something to get involved with at the School of Visual Communication, including the incredibly popular Print Club.
We caught up with co-founder and Graphic Communication student Joshua Cutts to find out more about the club and took a look at what students created for their last session.
How did Print Club begin?
Me and my tutor Becky Howson started Print Club officially September 2017, though we had been having the idea for it in early 2017. We both wanted to have a non-academic platform for students to make stuff in, whilst simultaneously giving students a chance to meet people from their course that they may not have otherwise spoken to.
We also wanted the Risograph printer (which we use in most sessions of print club) to be looked after, so Print Club at first was a way of demonstrating to everyone (staff and students) how it worked.
I became a Co-Director sort of organically, by the time we had a dozen students in and collaging, I was helping organising, branding, printing and sharing the work all the students produced (lately we have started exhibiting it as well).
What types of activities can students get involved with?
Print Club revolves around sessions with different themes (though you can go your own way and make something non-related if you want to), mainly using collage, letraset and printed imagery/text which we then like to Risograph print (a method of mono printing similar to screen printing). It’s really an excuse to make something purely for fun of it and either meet new people or hang with people you like whilst you all make things.
What are your responsibilities at Print Club?
My responsibilities (along with Becky, and our two other members of the team, alumni Adam Lloyd and first-year student Meg Hickman) lie in planning the sessions and picking the themes, running each session, providing branding and posters advertising each session and also looking for possible collaborations. Our most successful collaboration so far was with Patrick Thomas’ “The People Are Revolting” exhibition at Design Manchester, which lead to Print Club and work from some of our Club members being featured in the latest annual of Creative Review (a wide-reaching monthly magazine that delivers opinion, analysis and advice on life in the creative industries).
What do you enjoy most the Club?
I love putting the work up that people make. I find a lot of people my age and younger (especially creative ones) can struggle showing their work or talking to people in general, so I’m always happy to see everyone’s (often very expressive) work go up on a wall outside the class room, and then seeing people walk by, stop, and look. A lot of the time, we go for a drink after as well, there's a really nice community that is building around it.
Jazz versus Rave
For their most recent session students created album cover designs that focused on the theme of jazz or rave.
Following Print Club, students were invited to attend a Type Talk from Sarah Boris, an award winning graphic designer, art director and artist. She spoke about her journey from studying type design in Paris to establishing herself as a designer specialising in branding and editorial design and collaborating with people in the arts and culture fields.
Over the last few years the BCU Type Talks has built up a regular audience of students, staff, and public interest from many creative agencies and other educational institutions. The Talks are a voluntary, student run, venture and have big-name, influential speakers including David Carson, Neville Brody, Jonathan Barnbrook, Adrian Shaughnessy, Morag Myerscough and Freda Sack.
Find out more about the types of activities you can get involved with as a student with us by visiting our course pages or joining us at an Open Day.
