Posted on Wednesday, 15 June 2011 |

NEWQUAY TEENAGERS CANVAS THEIR PRIDE FOR THE TOWN TO A T
Four enthusiastic 14 and 15 year-olds from Treviglas Community College are rapidly designing, developing and planning to promote their own range of T-shirts for the innovative My A’th Kar Newquay campaign. Within two months, the vibrant, imaginative set of T-shirts will be available to buy in most surf and clothing stores in Newquay, as well as at festivals and events, and the proceeds from the sales will go towards transforming the town with amazing artworks. My A’th Kar Newquay means ‘I love you Newquay’ in Cornish and a team of determined young artist activists have been working for months to mastermind works which have now gone up around town. All of the artwork reflects the pride that these young people feel about their town and messages about how they would like visitors and tourists to see and treat the place. As a separate project, the four Treviglas teenagers have come together to form a social enterprise to support the overall project which is funded by FEAST and the Real Ideas Organisation. In the past few weeks, the designer team have been working with Newquay-based Excess Energy Communications and facesnap graphic designers to develop their ideas and ranges. They have studied and created logos, masterminded a range of T-shirt design for guys and girls and researched the market and sales options with a number of local retailers. They have also visited IAMWHY clothing company in Kilkhampton to find out how the production process works and understand the potential complications and challenges of their project. They have also considered labels, display boards and guerrilla marketing and are rapidly pushing forward with all their plans. The overall aim of the retail project is to create a range of products that grab the attention of tourists and make them want to purchase the goods as their key souvenir on their trip to Newquay. The labels will show important information about MAKN and what the project means and the team is also hoping to expand into further product ranges in the future. Fifteen year-old Alex Remizov says, “This is a really great experience so far. Getting out of the classroom and into a creative workspace at Excess Energy - with designers and a dog - has been brilliant. Seeing behind the scenes at IAMWHY was really interesting and really revved us all up about making our own T-shirts and it was brilliant that they let us come along. It’s been really cool to see our own designs in production and we’re all proud to be part of this project to transform Newquay into a better place.”