FORMER students from a North-East art college are mixing with some of the UK’s biggest stars after launching their own businesses.

Designers Emma Tweddle, 27, and Vik Watson, 29, decided to set up Brainbox Studios in 2011 after they both graduated with degrees in graphic design from Cleveland College of Art and Design (CCAD).

Brainbox Studios, based in Skelton, east Cleveland, is a design agency focusing on graphic and web design, and the business has seen the duo working with clients including Nike for Jamie Vardy’s V9 Academy website.

Ms Tweddle said: “It feels amazing - to think two lasses from Middlesbrough are working with one of the biggest names in football at the moment is such a huge achievement.

“We are incredibly proud of the results that our business has achieved over the last five and a half years and at the start we couldn’t have ever imagined to be working on such large-scale projects."

Sherilyn Oliphant, from Hartlepool, has also found success with a career as a make up artist, which has seen her work with comedian and actor Johnny Vegas on the film Dark Net.

The 24-year-old, who graduated in 2013 with a degree in Production Design for Stage and Screen, said: “I wasn't even sure of my real passions when I first started at CCAD but in the first month of my degree I realised that this was 100 per cent how I want to spend my working life."