University of Bolton textile students’ grand designs to help company celebrate its 100th birthday

University of Bolton students impressed industry experts with their designs to help celebrate a company’s 100th anniversary.

The second-year Textile and Surface Design students were presented with a ‘live brief’ by international fabric printing business Standfast & Barracks.

The theme of the project focussed on the 1920s, the decade when the Lancaster-based company started business.

Standfast & Barracks designers Rebecca Pye and Sarah Hampson visited the campus to see the students’ work for themselves and judge an overall winning design collection.

Rebecca, who graduated from the University of Bolton’s Textile and Surface Design course in 2018, and Sarah took time to consider which design collection they would choose to be professionally produced at Standfast and Barracks, as well as selecting further ‘Highly Commended’ collections.

Each of the nine students who took part will receive individual written feedback from Rebecca and Sarah and some designs are to be added to the company’s portfolio, to be shown to their customers across North America, including New York.

Rebecca worked on placement and then an internship at Standfast and Barracks when she was studying at the University of Bolton. She was taken on permanently and in February was appointed as Head of Design.

She said: “It is great to be back at Bolton, I loved my time here. The work I am seeing today has exceeded all expectations. It is so important to get industry experience and the course’s close connections with industry was one of the things that attracted me to the University of Bolton.”

One student, Chantal Turner, said; “I have enjoyed working to this brief. I looked to the 1920s for inspiration with my designs. Everyone on the course has been really supportive.”

Kerry Walsh, Textile and Surface Design Tutor, said: “Rebecca and Sarah were impressed with the students’ work and presentations.

“This was an amazing opportunity for the students to possibly sell their work to the top of the US interior market. This project will be extremely helpful for them as they go into their third year. A dream start to any textile designer's career!”

Tom Sutton, Associate Teaching Professor on the programme, said: “This has been a 14-week project emulating a real-world learning experience and I have been really impressed with the high quality of work produced by our students in that timescale. We are grateful to Rebecca and Sarah for taking the time to come and assess the work.

“This strong relationship we have with industry is so important in terms of helping our students move into graduate careers.”