ISTD 2009

Friday night saw The Partners host the ISTD (International Society of Typographic Designers) Student Awards for the third time in as many years. The awards night celebrates the end of a long, tough journey for each of the students involved, having sucessfully completed one of the thourough and challenging briefs set by the ISTD team.

Every entry is rigourously assessed by a team of hard-nosed typographers and designers (our own Jack Renwick and Mike Paisley included), and only the best submissions are deemed good enough to be awarded. The students are also offered membership of the society, which is a nothing to be sniffed at, with only around 30% of students making the grade.

We were especially lucky to have Alan Kitching, a revered typographer, and printmaker with us, presenting the awards to students; all of whom seemed inspired and excited to get a chance to meet him. Or was it the free bar that got them going?

Congratulations to all the students who collected their certificates on the night, and of particular note, Chris Mahoney, of Lincoln University who not only managed to receive a commendation for his typographic representation of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but also collected the Vincent Steer Award; named after the Societies founder – the highest accolade available, awarded to the single most outstanding submission. Clever boy!

Chris Mahoney, University of Lincoln

Finally a different sort of congratulations go to the affectionately dubbed ‘Drunken of Jordanstone’ students from Dundee. Who managed to withold the long-standing tradition of drinking the bar dry and being the last jolly mob to leave. Well done guys and girls, you make us proud – There’s more work featured after the break…