Poppy Scoffings, Graphic Design BA (Hons)

Graphic Design student Poppy Scoffings, who is from Nottingham, has already been awarded what her tutor describes as “the highest design accolade you can get” before completing her final show, and is now heading to London in the hope of securing long-term work, eventually as an art director.

Poppy won a ‘New Blood’ award in the 2022 Design and Art Direction Pencils for her response to the brief set by global agency Pentagram, ‘Do the green thing’, which asked for solutions to help tackle fast fashion.

While preparing her materials for the final exhibition as part of REVEAL 2022, she said: “I’m really proud of my branding and it’s fantastic seeing everybody’s work. Because we’re the Covid class, it’s brilliant this is a hybrid exhibition with the ability to physically see people’s projects, and it’s been great that most of our final year has been in-person.”

Poppy, a keen musician whose Dad suggested she should study at Northumbria University despite the fact she’d never been to Newcastle before, devised a paid social media advertising campaign in response to the brief, called #GreaterThanSeven, which instead of using cookies to sell items to Instagram users, used them to encourage behaviour change in the form of posting selfies to encourage more thought around how they dress.

She explained: “The idea was inspired by the fact that people on average only wear a garment seven times before throwing it away, so the campaign set people the challenge of posting seven pictures of themselves wearing the same seven items on seven separate occasions, to showcase the number of looks that can be achieved, as well as the different settings an outfit can be appropriate for.”

“I wanted to encourage people to keep re-wearing their clothes to reduce landfill.”

Vic Newton of the School of Design described Poppy as a problem-solver that conducts thorough research. She said: “She’s such a hard worker and as a designer is incredibly sensitive to social, political and environmental issues. All of her projects, not least Greater Than Seven, which was bold and graphic, have been well scoped out, nuanced and beautifully practical applications.”

#GreaterThanSeven is only one example of the critical thinking and analytics skills that will be on show as part of REVEAL 2022, with graphic design projects tackling issues as wide-ranging as voter apathy and financial literacy among young people, and the need for a sunscreen that has no micro-plastics.

Vic, who explained that many of this year’s graduating class already have jobs in industry lined up, said: “The projects being featured have taken the shape of films, editorial, apps, radio and Spotify ads, and beautifully hand-bound books. The key thing is that that medium fits the problem being solved.

“Poppy is a great example of how multi-talented those entering graphic design can be.”

Both #GreaterThanSeven and Poppy’s other project, ‘It’s Party Time!’, an 18th birthday card explaining what each of the main political parties stands for to encourage young people to engage in the political system, will be featured as part of REVEAL 2022. Visit Squires Workshop, Rooms 106, 107 and 107a at Northumbria University’s City Campus between 10am until 4pm each day until Saturday, June 25th.

Find out more about Northumbria’s Graphic Design BA (Hons).