Jack has designs on Spamalot

GRAPHIC design student Jack Corbett won a competition to design the poster for the West Country’s first amateur production of the West End sensation Spamalot. 

Written by Eric Idle and John du Prez, Spamalot lovingly rips off the cult comedy ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ and the influence of Terry Gilliam’s unique artwork can be seen in the poster design.

The show tells the story of King Arthur and his band of brave and not-so-brave knights search the land for the legendary Holy Grail, tackling flying cows, showgirls, the French and, most terrifying of all, killer rabbits.

Yeovil College students will be putting on the show at the Octagon Theatre next month.  The production is only the fourth amateur version approved in the UK, as well as the first in the West Country and the first by a college.

Former Westfield Academy student Jack, aged 18, of Barwick, was one of a group of college students who took part in the competition.

PHOTO: Yeovil College student Jack Corbett with his winning design for the forthcoming show at the Octagon Theatre.

Working in small groups or individually, the students had just four weeks to produce a design which combined the requests of the production team and the specifications of the show creators.

Jack said: “We work on a lot of live briefs, but advertising posters can be quite restrictive.

‘’There’s a lot of writing that needs to be on the poster that takes up a lot of space and there are a lot of legalities about the size and position of people’s names.

‘’But that’s the beauty of the brief, having to design something that includes everything.  I worked with Holly Stevens at the college, who gave me a lot of pointers.  She also works freelance so her advice was invaluable.

‘’The client requested the flying cow and I liked the Terry Gilliam characters that I’d seen in other places.  I enjoyed working on this poster.  Even after I’d sent it off to New York for approval, I still had a lot to do with it.  I’ve been experimenting with mobile phone advertising and putting the design in different formats.  I’m really excited about seeing it being used.  I’m going to take lots of photos for my portfolio!”

Graphic design lecturer Adrian Ponter said: “We work hard to give our graphic design students real experiences of what it’s like to work on live briefs and they regularly take on work for outside organisations to help hone their employability skills.

‘’ Jack recently completed some work for Yeovil Ales in relation to the forthcoming Yeovil Beer Festival, while other students have designed for the British Red Cross and Yeovil District Hospital NHS Trust.’’

For more information on graphic design courses at YeovilCollege, visit www.yeovil.ac.uk.

Spamalot will be on at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil on May 15-17.  Tickets are available via www.octagon-theatre.co.uk and 01935-422884.

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