This was featured in the January MMU – The Staff Newsletter:

A competition to design a poster for a drive-safe campaign aimed at pedestrian safety, sponsored by Greater Manchester Police and other public sector authorities, has been won by a web design student. Steve McKinney who is studying web development in the Department of Information and Communications explains: “The campaign was aimed to appeal to both on- and offline audiences and highlights the increasing numbers of pedestrian injuries and deaths being caused by inattention, particularly due to the rise in hand-held entertainment systems such as iPods and smart phones.” Organised by the public relations company Tangerine PR and social media sister agency Juice Digital, the multi-layered DriveSafe campaign addresses the fact that pedestrians are often overlooked when it comes to road safety communications as attention usually focuses on drivers and bikers. “It was stimulating and challenging to design to a specific brief aimed at raising awareness of an increasingly worrying issue,” says Steve. “In the end, I followed what’s always been promoted on my course and concentrated on readability and legibility.” Senior lecturer Richard Eskins, said: “Steve is a talented and hard-working web designer. It was typical of him to ‘give it a go’ and it has paid off handsomely as this is something he can add to his already growing portfolio in preparation for graduating this year.” Steve was awarded an annual travel pass – a real bonus in these cash-strapped times he says!

Full PDF: http://www.mmu.ac.uk/about/publications/mmyou/125.pdf

February 21st, 2011 - 18:11pm

The team, led by Acting Head Jonathan Willson, beat around 40 MMU departments in the inaugural I Love My Lecturer Awards hosted by the Student Union. Around 1,000 students nominated their lecturers for efforts “beyond the call of duty” enhancing the experience of University. Information and Communications was described as a “big happy family”, an “amazing course” and the home of “supportive academics” by students. Collecting the award on behalf of the department, Jonathan said: “People often do not know what we offer, because we are social scientists teaching a technical subject.” “But we are very successful and obviously good at what we do”. He had special thanks for Seamus Simpson and Dick Hartley, and Dean of Faculty Ann Holmes. Philosophy, described as “fantastic fun” and “inspiring” was nominated for ‘Best Course’, while there were two awards for the School of Law; Edwina Higgins (Outstanding Innovation in Teaching, Winner) and Cath Little (Best Personal Tutor, nominee).

November 19th, 2010 - 12:03pm