Aidan Dunbar

Recently I have been working with the Leeds University Student Action for Refugees (STAR) committee, helping to organise a photographic display to be shown at a conference on forced migration at the end of last week at Bodington Hall, Leeds.

STAR is liaising with a group called Citizens for Sanctuary in getting influential people to sign a pledge, and I was tasked with producing a 6x4 postcard that could be handed out to delegates. The idea of this card along with the photo display is to make people aware of the incredibly poor housing conditions some Asylum Seekers in Leeds are living in while awaiting news of whether they will be deported back to the country they originally came from. The end result of the campaign is to hopefully have some influence over the contracts the private contractors will be signing this year with the city council.

It’s very tempting to ask “Why don’t they fix it themselves?” but due to regulating laws Asylum Seekers are no longer allowed to work (the law allowing work after 6 months was rescinded in 2002) the only money is in the form of £35 per week via a voucher/payment card scheme redeemable at certain shops. But this is beside the point, the buildings shouldn’t really be in such a state in the first place.

Anyway, political message aside I’m really happy with the way the postcards turned out. Printed on Matt Laminated card stock by Print100, with a Spot UV varnish over the text on the front they looked - and felt - high quality and for a low cost as well. Adam pointed out when that a slightly heavier card stock would have been nice, but the 230gsm certainly did the job well enough for this purpose.

The only downside is the airmiles they travelled in order to get here and the local FedEx depot messing us about before their Customer Service kicked them into shape.

Something to take away from this first design for print? Writing on matt-laminated paper works great with a generic ballpoint pen. Not so great with fibre-nib pens (ink takes a long time to dry, a little bit smudgy.) As it happens the majority of the audience were writing with such ballpoints, so it wasn’t as much a problem as I thought it might be when I saw the prints on the morning of the conference.