Specscart inspires the designers of the future at final of Manchester Collection competition

Students from Clarendon Sixth Form College, in Ashton-under-Lyne, used their imagination, talent and college learning to come up with a one-of-a-kind spectacles line using the city of Manchester as their inspiration.

After pouring over piles of entries from dozens of art & design, fashion, graphics, photography, animation and media students college staff finally whittled down the shortlist to six young designers of tomorrow.

At a nail-biting final at optical disruptor Specscart’s Bury headquarters the winners were announced with Lauren Smith and Cyril Hoffman coming in as runners up and Caitlin Spink winning first place.

The 16-year-old, from Tintwistle, came up with a stellar portfolio featuring Manchester’s Chinatown, urban graffiti art and the Manchester bee as her inspiration.

Caitlin, who is studying for a BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma in Art and Design said: “I was really surprised to win but so proud. I started my designs with sketches in pencil and then used Adobe Illustrator to turn them into digital images.

“I did lots of research online for the designs and it took me about eight to ten hours to finish the project.”

Sixth formers were asked to celebrate what makes Manchester great – from artists, like LS Lowry, designers such as Matthew Williamson and world-famous foods like Eccles cake and Bury black pudding to its football clubs, music from Joy Division to Oasis, iconic buildings like Manchester Town Hall and anything and everything that screams Manchester.

The design brief was to create a new limited edition glasses collection celebrating everything Manchester.

The 300 pairs of glasses that the Specscart lab produces every day are proudly made in Britain – and very proudly made in Manchester – by craftsmen with 100 years of spectacle making skills between them.

Specscart has three bricks and mortar shops across Greater Manchester and a global online customer base of more than half a million across 132 countries.

Tamsin Stringfellow, Specscart’s head of customer service and business growth, launched the Manchester Collection challenge in front of 100-plus eager sixth formers at the college in September.

She said: “Everyone at Specscart was blown away by the creativity, technical detail and imagination of all the finalists’ work. It was a tough call to narrow it down to just three winners but Caitlin’s entry really nailed some of the ingredients that make Manchester great and she is a very worthy winner.”

Caitlin took away a cash prize of £100 with both runners up collecting £50 each.

Harry Arnold, graphic design teacher at Clarendon Sixth Form College, said: “All our students did themselves proud with the enthusiasm and passion they poured into their designs.

“Taking a tour behind the scenes at Specscart is also part of their learning – to see how design, fashion and creative endeavour translates into a successful real-world commercial business.”