Shirebrook Academy teamed up with Mansfield-based business gifts and promotional merchandise company Pellacraft to help students gain a better understanding of creative design by running a competition for 160 Year 9 pupils.

The idea to run the competition came from Laura Parsons, a former pupil of Shirebrook Academy, who initially went back to school from Pellacraft for a one-day group exercise with students.

Students were then asked to focus on a brief to promote their favourite place by creating and developing a brand and applying that to promotional gifts appropriate for their target audience.

Laura and Pellacraft director Sam Pella visited the academy to pick the winning designs.

The winner was Abbie Fulleylove, who chose Egypt as her favourite place.

Sam said: “Abbie paid a great deal of attention to detail throughout the design process. She created a brand which, by name, colour, shape and style was sensitive to her destination but also stood out and caught attention.

“You knew in an instant where her favourite place was. Abbie put in an incredible amount of effort and that shone in her development throughout the project and her final designs.

“You could clearly see how her ideas progressed and the experiments she undertook with different media led to vibrant and creative promotional items.”

Pellacraft was so impressed with Abbie’s work that she was given a work experience placement in Pellacraft’s artwork department.

There were also runners-up prizes presented for Chloe Millband, Ilona Esanu and Sophie Buckingham.