We caught up with Mike to find out about his experiences before joining the College, why the arts are so important to him, and his advice for anyone wanting to get into the industry.

Q: Tell us about your experiences before joining the college.

A: I’d been working for a few years as a freelance cartoonist for magazines like Punch and a broadsheet cartoon newspaper called The Cartoonist, mostly caricature and topical gag cartoons. I was balancing commercial work with teaching life drawing at a college in Newcastle upon Tyne, two jobs I really enjoyed. The whole arrangement was exciting but unsustainable, so when an old friend from Staffordshire (where I’d studied on a degree in Fine Art) told me that Newcastle-under-Lyme College were looking for someone to teach life drawing and illustration I sent in a CV and covering letter. I was invited down for an interview and my career direction moved slowly into teaching full time.

Read his full Q&A here.

We caught up with award-winning, Stafford College Graphic Design Lecturer, Dave Holcroft, on life as a designer and how he got into teaching...

Q: How did you get into Graphic Design?

A: Like most kids I had a childhood of using my imagination, drawing characters and inventing adventures for them to go on, however sport dominated my youth and I would almost certainly have picked GCSE PE but for an injury and a twist of fate which led to me to pick Graphics as a subject. I immediately loved the problem solving and creativity of Graphics and to the disappointment of some of my academic subject teachers, I never really looked back from choosing to study a BTEC Level 3 in Graphic Design at college. The rest is history!

Read Dave's full Q&A here.

We spoke to Daniel Lyttleton, Stafford College's A Level Course Leader in Photography, to chat about his experiences before joining the college, his inspirations and the various personal projects he's worked on.

Q: Tell us about your experiences before joining the college.

A: Before joining the college, I worked as a self-employed freelance photographer for approximately 2 years, before travelling and working for a year in Australia and Asia. In earlier years, I assisted a local commercial photographer, assisting on commercial projects that involved a range of digital output and design work. In addition, prior to travelling, I’ve worked in an high street photography studio supplying contemporary family portraiture.

Q: Which photographer has influenced you the most and why?

A: Many, but most of all Mark Power. I judge photographers on their ability to create a ‘product’ or a piece of work, and not just individual photographers. For me, the skill in photography is creating a narrative, a body of work that’s speaks, and his books are often the best in my opinion. His work is an important comment on the socio-political landscape, not just here in this country, but in various different countries. His current work in America, entitled ‘ Good Morning , America ‘ is an example of the power of the photobook, and how this can be an important document in terms of visual communication.

Read his full Q&A here.