CMYUK has announced the four graduates who have been chosen to participate in its Creatives in Residence Live initiative.
Evie Venables, Sarah Willcocks, Keely Russell and Taylor Doggett will embark upon a six-month learning journey at CMYUK’s demonstration and training centre in Shrewsbury.
Venables is a recent graduate in BA (Hons) Textile Design at Leeds Arts University. She has already experienced successful commercial exposure as a winner of the ASDA Live Brief whilst in the second year of her degree. For this, she created a collection for the SS21 George Outdoor Living range – inspired by a trend called Sunset Disco. In her final year, Evie was also commended for her entry in the Patternbank design brief competition.
Willcocks is a recent graduate from the University of Southampton where she studied on the Graphic Arts degree course. Specialising in illustration, she has already garnered relevant professional experience through internships.
Russell is a recent graduate of the BA (hons) Textile Design from Birmingham City University. Specialising in print and surface pattern, her talent has been recognised via the Silentnight Sleep Award and the Materiality Award, which resulted in a placement with flooring company Amtico for her graduate collection. She was featured as a ‘One to Watch’ in the Dulux Press Lounge at New Designers in 2019, and in the same year won an award in the Epson/Dulux Industry Collaboration.
Doggett graduated from the BA (hons) Film Production course at the University of Gloucestershire. He has recently established himself as a freelance videographer, creating, developing and filming short promotional videos. His new business was set-up during Lockdown through the Prince’s Trust enterprise scheme.
The quartet will study a curriculum devised by Debbie McKeegan - CMYUK’s media partner for this initiative and the Fespa textile ambassador for this project. The project underpins the knowledge and insights required for the designers to complete monthly briefs, and is supported in collaboration with a number of industry experts, print designers, specialist practitioners and mentors.
CIRL is designed to be a collaborative exercise. Throughout the process, the experience will be captured and shared on social media to encourage a dynamic interactive community that is exposed to all the learning undertaken by the in-house creatives.
All design briefs will be made available online so that design students worldwide can participate. A monthly competition for each brief will be set, with winning entries evaluated by leading industry luminaries and showcased throughout.
The University of Bolton has announced that its final year students on the BA (Hons) Textiles and Surface Design course will be following the CMYUK CIRL curriculum this academic year. Programme leader Donna Claypool, said: “This syllabus really helps to support industry understanding - it’s much more real when you can connect to the industry first-hand.
“The opportunity for students to engage through watching the progress of the selected graduates, listening to their real experience of learning on the ground and what happens after you graduate is going to be highly valuable. There’ll also be an opportunity for not just one, but several competitions. We don’t want students to have just one look for their final portfolios, we think it’s really important for them to adapt and be flexible with various different styles because that’s how industry works.”