I

have been involved in Europe-
an Youth Parliament, at vary-
ing levels, for nearly 5 years.
It is one of the largest and most
prestigious educational charities
dealing with European politics
operating in the UK at present.
Since taking part as a student,
I have spent a good deal of the
past four or five years acting as
an Alumnus, facilitating debate
among young people in this coun-
try, and as far abroad as Turkey,
Latvia, Italy & Ireland. However,
in the last few months or so, I process. With this I produced
have taken on more responsibil-
ity in terms of EYPUK’s external
communications. Within this role,
I have redesigned www.eypuk.
org, maintained and updated
EYPUK’s social media outlets
(Twitter, Facebook & Flickr) and
begun to redesign the internal
communications platform. In ad-
dition to this, I have rebranded
the EurVoice initiative, an educa-
tional campaign aimed at involv-
ing state schools in the EYPUK
the central logo; ensuring that it
was eye-catching yet simple, and
able to be implemented in all of
the promotional material. I have
also produced initial flyers to be
distributed to schools, and also
produced branded letterheads
and also begun work on an html
newsletter. In the future I will be
designing a teachers’ resource in
collaboration with other educa-
tionally minded Alumni.

When redesigning www.eypuk.org I based my design around the

‘Arthemia’ theme for Wordpress. I chose this particular theme to work
from because of the clean, simple design and I was able to implement
our signature colours with relative ease. In addition I added both Twit-
ter & Flickr functionality, and several easy to use and functional con-
tact forms to streamline delegate and teacher registration for regional
and national forums.
 In terms of print design, I have mainly been tasked with producing
all the external communications for the EurVoice campaign. To start,
I created an original logo that would appeal to our core audience of
students and teachers. Having established the logo, I then used the
central graphical signature of the speech bubble to expand upon the
theme of the voice, and by using a multitude of bright colours, I was
able to emphasise the idea of a variety of different voices using a
simple graphic scheme. The added benefit of this is that the design can
be implemented on a wide variety of different materials, whether it be
brochures, letterheads, webshots or even promotional items such as
stationery.

EurVoice is a dynamic development EYPUK supports and promotes aca-

of the charity organisation EYPUK. demic development within the class-
The EurVoice programme is tai- room. EurVoice events will provide
lored to the educational needs of a pragmatic approach in order to
schools and students interested in match core aspects of the nation-
EYPUK events. We aim to educate al curriculum.
and encourage participation for
young people in European issues The whole resource is designed
and UK politics. to act as a supplement for the
demonstration of skills in PSHE,
English and Citizenship as guided by
the 2010 curriculum key stage 4.
EurVoice events consist of infor-
mal discussion based workshops
which are led by EYPUK alumni,
many of which are students or
young professionals who have
participated in one or more of
our international events. Schools
can arrange these with EYPUK.
Discussions will focus on UK and
European issues. We hope to give a
rounded perspective by inviting MEPs,
MPs and local councillors.

EurVoice has three aims:

1) To promote positive citizenship among young people in the

UK,

2) To encourage discussion on European issues and create wider

understanding of relations between the UK and the EU,

3) To think creatively about difficult topics and forge an under-

standing of how parliamentary decisions are made.

The aims of EurVoice are in line with the ethos of EYPUK, and
the part we want to play in
encouraging academic and personal development in young
people.

European Youth Parliament UK aims to raise awareness of Eu-

ropean issues, encourage active European citizenship and give
young people in the United Kingdom the opportu-
nity to express their opinions, to share ideas and
to build new friendships on a local, national
and international level.

European Youth Parliament UK is a registered charity No. 1029243

I
have been working as a mar-
keting intern for the Entre-
preneurs For The Future (e4f)
business incubator at Birmingham
Science Park Aston for the past
three months and have learned
a great deal doing so. During my
time here I have been tasked with
a variety of different marketing
tasks, from producing the promo-
tional material for their Seminars
For Success series of business lec-
tures, to creating a and branding
a new digital technology meetup
held in the Science Park. I have
also been in charge of updating
the social media for these cam-
paigns as well as designing the
websites for both. In addition to
this, I have also redesigned and
maintained the e4f blog site, al-
lowing me to utilise both my web
design skills and also allowing
me to hone my copywriting skills.
Indeed, part of my task was to en-
sure that all the correct informa-
tion was portrayed in an exciting
and informative manner in order
to really sell the event to both
very specific, but in other cases
very broad audiences. Indeed,
one of the more challenging, yet
rewarding tasks that I undertook
was to produce a series of info-
graphics to represent the make
up of the entrepreneurs within
the e4f scheme. This meant that
they had to be both factually cor-
rect, but shown in an interesting
graphical manner.

To redesign the e4f blogsite I used the same theme as I did when
redesigning the EYPUK site. However, due to the more complex re-
quirements of the e4f program, a greater level of customization was
required. I implemented custom contact forms to act as an online
questionaire for potential clients; custom footers, and social media
integration.
Tech Wednesday was a campaign that I was solely responsible for
branding. Having designed a logo based around the symbol for wire-
less internet, I then implemented that logo into a design that would
be used on a series of business cards containing a qr code which,
when scanned, would direct you to a secret part of the website. I also
produced this central logo in the CYMK colours in order to reinforce
the creative, yet techincally sound, concept behind the meetup. This
central image was then applied to both the meetup.com site and the
Twitter account in order to ensure that all digital outputs for the cam-
paign were branded consistently.
While designing the promotional material for Seminars For Success
I was dealing with some fairly technical information that would be
hard to portray in an interesting manner. Therefore, I had to use some
creative methods in order to make this appealing. Having been in-
spired by websites such as Information Is Beautiful, I set about creat-
ing my own set of infographics to represent a wide range of informa-
tion and data in a aesthetically pleasing manner. From representing a
demographic breakdown of the entrepreneurs taking part in the e4f
program to a representation of the funding provided by public backed
venture capital funds to West Midlands business, I had to ensure that
both the information was clear and well presented.
£
W
hile studying at Cardiff
University I became
involved in the award-
winning print Student Media,and
rapidly was given a significant
amount of responsibility. At first I
was responsible for writing in the
television section in Gair Rhydd, a
wry tongue-in-cheek look at the
weeks television. While this was
not neccessarily the most serious
or worthy section, it had its fans
in the student populace and al-
lowed me to try and use inventive
language and humour in order to
make the television listings engag-
ing and funny. As I entered sec-
ond year, I was offered the ‘Agony
Aunt’ page which I wrote under
the moniker of ‘Ted Handsome’.
Again, while this was in no way
serious and was more of a com-
edy page than anything else, the
character of Ted Handsome rap-
idly became a cult figure among
those that read Gair Rhydd and
was another chance to develop
a more playful tone to communi-
cate with the student audience.
At the same time I was writing as
a contributor to the Music section
in the Magazine accompaniment
to Gair Rhydd. I was one of the
more frequent writers, as I was
considered to be both a good
writer and dependable. Having
gained experience writing for the
magazine, I eventually secured
the position of Interviews editor
and made it into one of the more
interesting sections. Providing
consistently creative page design
with a wide range of interview
subjects meant that the interview
section became one of the stand
out elements of the magazine.

In order to act efficiently as a section editor for the magazine I had to

both produce original content as well as effectively liasing with the
contributors and editing their content. i am equally comfortable pro-
ducing original content to a high standard or working with other con-
tent to polish it up to the highest standard. Equally, I am comfortable
writing for a wide variety of audiences; indeed I have had experience
producing material aimed at teachers, students, professionals (both
technological and financial).
 Being the Interviews editor meant that I had a certain level of free-
dom when it came to design. While obviously sticking within the
interviews
house style, I was able to investigate some more interesting lay-interviews
outs using different graphical themes. For example, for an interview
The
TheMaccabees
Maccabees
Having already dominated indie disco dancefloors
with Cage The Elephant, I used a breakfast cereal theme due to
theacross
factthe that
countrythey
with named themselves after a puzzle printed on the
their hit laden debut LP, Colour It In, The Maccabees are set to once more
take the charts by storm with their sophomoreback of ofaArms.
effort, Wall cereal packet. However, not all of my lay outs were so lit-
Prior to
album as a record as opposed to career would be enough for most art has influenced you as well as
eral; indeed
about his art, not being influenced by Paris, and not being hungover. when
their sold out gig in Solus, frontman Orlando Weeks spoke to Ben Marshall
I designed the page for the interview with Cheeky
live songs that we!ve recorded. Like,
sometimes we!d want to try using
young, thrusting indie musicians, but
not for Orlando Weeks. He also has
music?
"Absolutely. I see it as a nice

Cheeky & The Nosebleeds, I wanted to make Iitwas seem as parochial

something like a delayed glocken- a strong interest in art, escape from band stuff. I studied

I
t is an ignominious start to
my interview with the Orlando
ing time anymore. I!m slowly getting
my head round what Joel does at
“
and influence over the band!s sound, spiel as opposed to a guitar, but to be an illustrator, when I was a
always
however: “It!s a classic example of a he!d show us how to emulate it with student. Yeah when I was younger I

and middle England as possible in order to emphasise the relatively

Weeks of the Maccabees; ar-
riving as I do, bleary-eyed and
unshaven. It was perhaps an
unfortunate time for the Macca-
bees to play Cardiff, the day after
I handed in my essays (it!s almost
the sound desk, so I can be more
involved with that next time. I!m
definitely being more productive as
mundane lyrical themes that they investigate
opposed to waking up feeling as how
I imagine you do."
Ha bloody ha. The band are cur-
band not being storyworthy enough. pedals instead. He was very aware was much more into art than music.
pretty good
We don!t really conjure enough dirt
to be that interesting, so it!s just
atof the band that we are, as opposed
to what we!re not. He got us focus-
I was never listening to it in any-
thing more than a passive way. I
English. I think my
teacher in theirmemusic. There-
something for people to talk about. sing on what we could as opposed just let it wash over me, you know?
The only influence it had, if any, to should.! It!s a much quicker turnaround with
fancied
was that it gave us isolation from Orlando was also quick to ad-
“ art. I just bought a book on Andy

fore I used a Damask-esque wallpaper and a traditional photograph

as if they didn!t even care!), yet
despite my pale and shaking form,
Orlando, resplendent in a shirt
rently enjoying an unprecedented
level of interest in their work. Having
exploded onto the indiesphere with
but I was a bit too
friends and family. We were able to
get away from spats with mates and
focus on the record.!
young
dress any comments about the sup- Goldsworthy; he's an artist I really
posed lyrical darkness that has been like, and his whole angle is putting
attached to the album, himself into nature. He did this one

frame to make people think of their grandmother’s front room.

that only sought to exacerbate my
hangover, was disarmingly warm
and welcoming. First things first,
then, How is the tour going?
"I!m actually enjoying it a lot more
than the last tour. I!m figuring out a
routine after gigs, and I!m not wast-
their debut effort, Colour It In, the
band now have the weight of expec-
tation on their shoulders. Indeed, the
press seem almost unnaturally fo-
cussed on their decision to up sticks
and record in Paris. Orlando is quick
to nix any suggestions of pretention
And focus, they did. The new al-
bum has been warmly received in all
quarters with particular focus being
levelled at their supposed darker and
more expansive sound,
"If anything, the producer reined
us in a bit. We wanted to see the
!If anything, lyrically, the first
album was a lot more forlorn. The
sound of it is grander, so it!s easier
to say it!s darker. I!d like to think of
it as a bit more optimistic than the
first one."
A fruitful and burgeoning musical
which is reflected in his passionate
discussion of his interests outside
of the band, so would you say that
piece where he went into a quarry
and lay down all splayed out. He
then waited until it rained, then got
up and photographed the silhou-
ette. He just does these smart little
observations. It's very unpretentious
and beautiful."

12 / interviews@gairrhydd.com interviews@gairrhydd.com /13

interviews

interviews

Cheeky Cheeky And

The Nosebleeds
“
I was pretty shit-
housed drunk last

THE night. Were you

shit-housed? You
weren’t? I was shit-
housed. The last

ELEPHANT thing I remember

doing last night
is snorting coffee
beans…
“
“
Provincial pop-punkers Cheeky Cheeky And The Nosebleeds are one of the
most talked about unsigned artists in the country. Having already bagged
support slots with equally hotly tipped Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong
and The Wombats, the band have set out on their first headlining tour
trundling into Cardiff for an all too brief visit. Ben Marshall and Rupert
Waldron meet up with the band to discuss influences, future plans and
Polar Bears.

H
ailling from various parts
of Suffolk, Cheeky Cheeky
and The Nosebleeds are
an up-and-coming band with a
few festivals already under their
well-dressed belts. With support
from both the NME and Radio 1,
it seems as if 2009 may really be
the year that they break through
into the mainstream. The band
20/ interviews@gairrhydd.com 18/ interviews@gairrhydd.com
spared some time before their
Cardiff gig to impose their own
brand of wisdom onto the Cardiff
student populace.
How are you enjoying the tour?
It's going really, really well. It's really
picked up, because we're just about
to release our new single, and we're
getting more and more radio air-
play. We are starting to feel it a bit,
and are getting a bit tired, but we're
still absolutely loving it. However if
you spend a couple of months in a
van you do definitely know about it.
We live off sandwiches now.
I've noticed that you have a
very distinct aesthetic, which