Sheffield Hallam pop-up Christmas shop raises funds for Children's Hospital

John Kirkby from Design Futures selling his wares at Sheffield Hallam University.

John Kirkby and his team within the University's design consultancy, Design Futures, have been supporting local businesses across the region and providing packaging expertise as part of the Sheffield Innovation Programme which has received funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The team has supported 49 companies, engaging with a variety of businesses in the Sheffield City Region in the last year.

The pop-up shop they set up on campus gave them an opportunity to showcase their work and raise awareness of their services, with the Â£472.95 proceeds donated to Sheffield Children's Hospital.

Mary Lord, owner of successful Sheffield start-up Squidge and Pip, worked with the team to improve packaging for a baby teether she created, which is now sold in John Lewis.

She said: 'The Sheffield Innovation Programme provided me with access to the great skills of the Sheffield Hallam packaging team which has helped us develop effective retail packaging for our products.

"The pop up shop provided an opportunity to sell some products and support a great local charity.

'The products on sale in the shop certainly showed there are some great independent businesses within our region at the moment.'

John Kirkby, creative director of Design Futures, said: 'It was a great experience to be involved in selling products we had packaged in our work.

"We partnered with Sheffield Children's Hospital charity donating all profits from sales to support the care of local children.

'The outcome was a pop-up shop selling a great range of locally-produced gifts including chocolate from three local companies, scented candles and Christmas cake."

The Sheffield Innovation Programme was set up to encourage academics and businesses to collaborate on entrepreneurial projects in 2016.

The aim is to boost regional economic growth in the Sheffield City Region by fostering relationships between SMEs and academics at both of the city's universities.

In the last two years 186 academics from Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield have worked with 300 companies within the region on an assortment of projects.