AN illustration of Beaminster Square by 17-year-old Beaminster School A Level Student, Benji Jackson, is to be the new design for the cover of this year’s Beaminster Festival’s brochure.

Festival director, Nigel Corbet said there had been a long collaboration between the school and the festival.

He said: “The festival has always tried to involve the schools in Beaminster and so when thinking about the front cover for this year's festival programme, particularly as this year we have the Visual Arts Exhibition, I thought it would be an excellent challenge for a student focused on illustration as a career and through Katie Brent, the head of art at Beaminster School, we were lucky to find Benji Jackson.”

Katie Brent said she was delighted to be asked to be involved.

She said “ It is important to be involved with our local community.

"Benji was the perfect choice to design the cover for the brochure as he is applying to universities to do a degree in illustration and this will give him valuable experience, as well as boost his portfolio. The work will also be included in his A level coursework."

Benji has put forward three different designs:

He said: “All the illustrations are based from photos that I’ve taken in the Square. Although they have very different roots, I wanted them all to represent Beaminster as a town with feelings of warmth, fun and energy.

"My ink painting/drawing was inspired by John Piper's artistic style, my blue painting was inspired by fireworks and their relation to festivals and celebration with a hint of Van Gogh, and my digital piece was inspired by traditional stained glass artworks.”

The Beaminster Festival of Music, Theatre, Art and Literature is running this year from June 24 to July2.

During this time there will be an art and photographic exhibition by Beaminster School Students of all ages. The Beaminster Festival will be awarding prizes to the students with the best exhibits.