Former Salford City College student helps to design website for Foo Fighters Glastonbury campaign

Phil Earnshaw, who studied at Salford City College’s Pendleton Sixth Form Centre from 2008-2010 was the Graphic Designer for the new Foo Fighters website launch, ahead of their Glastonbury announcement.

The creative technology and production company who he works for, Modern English, designed and developed a huge campaign in which the band’s website homepage was replaced with a list of their gigs in the form of an airline departures board. The board included a missing ‘flight’ which hinted that the American band would be heading Glastonbury, and the innovative campaign achieved more than 20 million engagements.

Modern English created the website takeover which allowed selected fans who received fake airline boarding passes in the post to ‘check in’. They were then informed via post that that they had been invited to a secret Foo Fighters gig in Frome, Somerset

Phil got to meet the band backstage at the secret gig and said that Dave Grohl (frontman) ‘absolutely loved’ the campaign.

Phil’s experience at Pendleton Sixth Form Centre sparked his interest in what is now his career and he studied A-Levels in Graphic Design, IT, and Media. After College he studied for his degree in Graphic Design at university and did placements which led him to his first role at WRG, a creative engagement agency which has offices in Europe, USA, Asia and the Middle East.

Phil said, “If I was to give advice to the students at Pendleton now, it would be to definitely find yourself work placements, and do extra work – your portfolio is everything. I wouldn’t have got this job now if it hadn’t of been for my first placement”.