Consumables
PaperCo and Hendersons add work experience awards to Brief Encounters
Thursday 24. March 2011 - PaperCo has extended the number of options for entering its Brief Encounters awards to enable more colleges to enter and to include different year groups within graphic arts degree courses. Three of the briefs involve direct mail and one an advertising campaign.
For the first time ever there is a joint Henderson Global Investors/PaperCo brief and the prizes will include an opportunity for students to win a work experience placement with each of these companies.
Veronica Heaven, Corporate Responsibility Director, says: “This is the ninth year of Brief Encounters and each year we are amazed and inspired by the level of creativity from the students. It is testament to just how impressive the work is and how personable the students have been that last years judge Anthony Buck, print procurement manager of Henderson Global Investors has asked to take a more direct part and to sponsor a brief and offer a work experience placement to a student. This year theres plenty of choice and challenges for the students and the colleges involved tell us that this is an extremely rewarding element of their course work.”
The briefing options include:
A challenge to create for end users and designers a direct mail piece which raises awareness of the sustainability of paper and the importance of using the right material for the right job. This includes considering the appropriateness of different materials and being guided by the PAS 2020 Direct Mail standard.
Another direct mail piece for the same target audience looks specifically at responsible procurement (Chain of Custody, PAS2020), economics, carbon loading of different papers and closed loop recycling. Students are asked to look at how communications can be made more sustainable to the environment through targeting, suppression, ink coverage and paper stocks.
Working with students handling one of the two briefs above, the advertising brief challenges students to identify a strategy to advertise the item, convey the value of using paper stock, its sustainability and communicate its economic effectiveness. They are to consider both poster advertising and digital options for their work.
The Henderson/PaperCo brief invites students to create a paper based direct mail campaign. They need to create a medium to high quality direct mail piece with a print run of about 3,000. The students must select the materials for the work and consider the sustainability of their work.
In each case the student must present 4 A3 Boards to present their solution and a single A4 sheet giving the rationale behind their approach to the brief and the decisions they have made.
Judges for assessing the completed work have already been identified and will include senior representatives from PaperCo, Coutts Bank, Henderson Global Investors. The Chair of the Judges will be designer and former President of the Chartered Society of Designers, Brian Webb.
Commenting on the briefs, Sallyanne Theodosiou, senior lecturer at the University for the Creative Arts at Epsom says: “The briefs are very challenging this year, but they offer a huge opportunity for students to develop their understanding of the industry they want to join.”
PaperCo is the merchant that delivers outstanding service, value and a one stop shop choice of high quality, environmentally sound papers, boards and other printing substrates, digital hardware, litho and digital consumables, envelopes and packaging solutions. PaperCo focuses on local service through its 20 UK sales and distribution centres. With an unrivalled range of mill- and own-brand stocks and over 35,000 tonnes of stock stored locally, it is able to offer a first rate same-and next-day service to its customers. The company has FSC, PEFC and ISO 14001 accreditation and strong Corporate Responsibility credentials. Member merchants of PaperCo include Dixon & Roe, Masons Paper, North West Paper, Donald Murray Paper, Rothera & Brereton, North West Paper, Southern Paper and Reel Paper.
Henderson Global Investors is one of Europes largest independent investment managers, with global resources and a goal to deliver sustainable, long-term investment performance. Hendersons product range covers: property, private equity, hedge funds, retail and fixed income products as well as servicing commercial and non-profit pensions, endowments and foundations. The business operates teams of portfolio managers and investment specialists to support clients.