A group of Birmingham City University students are playing a crucial role in promoting the City’s support for Fairtrade Fortnight.

The second year Visual Communication (Graphic Communication) students have created designs for a t-shirt, bus stop poster and a Fairtrade City guide that have been used by Fairtrade Association Birmingham (FAB) to promote this year’s campaign.

Lecturer Colette Jeffrey explains: “We worked with FAB to define the project and then the students designed some fantastic concepts aimed at helping to promote Fairtrade Fortnight to a younger target audience. FAB was so impressed with our students’ ideas that they asked a few of the students to work together to produce final solutions that FAB turned into reality. People living here, and people visiting the City, will see our students’ designs in roadside and bus stop poster frames throughout the city centre. They will be able to pick up one of 10,000 Fairtrade & Ethical City guides that have been printed for Fairtrade Fortnight and buy a limited edition t-shirt throughout the campaign.

“I am very proud of the students’ final outcomes. They really rose to the challenge of working for a real client and meeting FAB’s tight deadlines.

“Not only will the students’ designs be used for the Fairtrade Fortnight events, but an exhibition of some of the students’ work is currently on display at Birmingham Library.” Lucy Grove-Hemmings was one of the students who worked on the project.

She said: ”I really enjoyed the challenge of a live brief. We learnt a lot from the project, including how important it is to communicate well with your client. It was a fabulous opportunity to meet and work with some great people and I can’t wait to see everything come together for Fairtrade Fortnight.”

Lorraine Cookson from Birmingham City Council's Sustainability Team added: “I’m very impressed not just with the high standard and creativity of the students but with the enthusiasm and dedication to the Fairtrade Cities campaign. All students took part in a city wide audit to make sure no shop or cafe was left out. There has been so much hard work by students and their lecturer Colette to pull this together I cannot thank them enough.”

Fairtrade Fortnight runs until March 7th and is an annual event in which fair and ethical trading values are celebrated. Fairtrade in Birmingham is a voluntary organisation working to bring together campaigners for fairer trade in Birmingham.