Taster Day: Pushing the Envelope Illustration Workshop

At College Road Campus – Wednesday 22nd April 2015

We run Taster Days for College-level students throughout the academic year, and we’re really looking forward to offering this hands-on workshop for budding illustrators, where they will design hand drawn envelopes to help celebrate 175 years of the postage stamp. Students will also have access to the fantastic Pushing the Envelope exhibition, and if that wasn’t enough, we’ll provide lunch!

Full Event Details

This year marks the 175 anniversary of the first ever postage stamp, the “Penny Black”. Introduced in 1840, the Penny Black stamp helped revolutionise the postal service by creating a globally recognised pre-paid standard that has been accepted throughout the world!

More interestingly though, as stamp usage increased, so too did the number of fantastically inventive and colourful illustrated designs. From ships navigating wild oceans to Kings, Queens and exotic animals in far flung places- it was often more exciting to receive the stamp than the letter!

We are proudly exhibiting work commissioned exclusively from an international group of renowned illustrators. Each practitioner has also been asked personally respond to this landmark anniversary by decorating and embellishing an envelope. This unique collection of new work will celebrate the art of postal communication.

(Some of the envelopes by our students)

Over the last year our Illustration students have been involved in a wide variety of postage themed projects including designing their own hand drawn envelopes. The envelopes were then processed by Royal Mail, although they were far too nice to send and therefore we have decided to exhibit them instead! In fact, we have also invited a number of internationally recognised professional illustrators to contribute to the project and we would love you and your students to join in too!

So if you have a group of budding illustrators that would love the chance to spend a few hours honing their skills and contributing to this milestone, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! You’ll also get free admission to the exhibition, free lunch and a fantastic opportunity to visit the home of our degree courses!

Suitable For:
Bookings by Teachers for Key Stage 5 (Students aged 16-18)
Duration: Half Day
Min. Students: 8

If you’d like to book spaces for your students, please email me.

Doug