Students on our BA (Hons) Illustration for Commercial Application degree programme presented their design outcomes to International Publishing House Headline in an online feedback session. The work presented included responses to four briefs set out by the company that challenged students to create work spanning the different genres they represent.

Headline was founded in 1986 and has spent over ‘three decades creating books people want to read’ the publishers are home to some of the UK’s biggest-selling authors covering fiction and non-fiction categories.

Speaking of the session the Headline team said, “we loved working with the students at The Northern School of Art. It was great to see the students’ early ideas and hear about their process and deep thinking behind their sketches. So many of the students took the briefs in such exciting and distinct directions. I know there will be lots of amazing future book cover designers and illustrators here! I think it’s really important for students to work on real-world briefs and take feedback from a range of points of view. We’re excited to build on this relationship with the NSA, supporting the students and working on future projects together.”

Student Ace Edwards commented: “It was great receiving feedback from experienced illustrators since it helped me get an outside perspective of my work from people who understood the brief. It also helped me see how potential clients might review my work in the future, and how I can better prepare and respond to that feedback.”

Student Louis Robson agreed that he “liked that we were given feedback from people that not only specialise in cover design but also professionals who work in the industry and know what it’s like to work for these big publishers.”

Opportunities like this underpin our degree programme which gives students real life industry experiences and insights through partnerships and live briefs. Find out more about the degree programme here.