Northumbria University inspires London's creative minds

Impressing some of the creative industries’ leading names, Northumbria’s students and staff enjoyed success at every graduate awards show they attended, including Graduate Fashion Week, Free Range Interiors, Design & Art Direction’s (D&AD) New Blood and New Designers.

The London awards build on an already impressive list of accolades for Northumbria’s creative courses, bringing this year’s total to more than 50 to date. 

Their success was celebrated further in the capital through pop-up street art and a series of guerrilla projections, created by graduates and commissioned by the University, to highlight some of the stand-out work that hit this year’s shows.

And while graduates were basking in the London limelight, many also secured dream roles with major players in their fields, marking a huge step forward in their chosen career weeks before their graduation ceremonies even took place.

This year’s winning work includes seven awards at Graduate Fashion Week as well as first prize in the prestigious Sophie Hallatte competition, five Best in Show Awards at D&ADs New Blood, a top industry prize at New Designers for the third year running and Interiorist of the Year at Free Range Interiors.

Graduates who have already been snapped up by high profile companies include Interior Design students, three of whom were talent-spotted by internationally renowned agency Dalziel and Pow.

Julia Kedgley, Human Resources Manager at Dalziel and Pow, said: “We are consistently impressed with the employability standard and work showcased by Northumbria students at the end of their degrees. This year was by no means an exception and we have subsequently taken on three Northumbria Interior Design graduates to work with us. We look forward to helping them develop their creative skills and design knowledge further working on projects for leading retail global brands at Dalziel and Pow.”

In addition to its success in the Capital, Northumbria graduates also achieved industry recognition for their work separate to the London graduate show programme, with a number of Design for Industry students receiving accolades from the RSA Student Design Awards, as well as Architecture students, who picked up numerous awards including the Hadrian Medal in RIBA’s North East student Awards.

Dr Heather Robson, Associate Dean, Business and Engagement for Arts, Design and Social Sciences at Northumbria University, said: “The reception we’ve had at this year’s shows has been exceptional demonstrating the quality of our creative programmes validated by the commendations from the programmes’ external examiners’ reports.

“I am very proud to see the hard work and level of excellence put in by our students, tutors and creative professionals receiving the recognition that it deserves.”

To find out more about Northumbria’s creative courses, visit:  www.northumbria.ac.uk