UAL Showcase represents the end of one journey and the start of another for students from University of the Arts London (UAL) as they share their work and prepare to help shape the creative industries. Just as the world has evolved since they began their journeys across the University’s six colleges, so have their practices: from the local to the global, individual to systemic issues concerning people and planet, creatives on UAL Showcase understand that almost every complex problem needs a creative solution.

They’re not alone in that belief: Lucy Swift, partnerships assistant at London Design Festival, who was invited to curate a collection of UAL Showcase projects that celebrate design through the senses, says that “designers have a way of thinking that can help translate particular values around sustainability and wellbeing into lived experiences — whether through an installation, a collaborative product or clear messaging.”

Designers have a way of thinking that can help translate particular values around sustainability and wellbeing into lived experiences

While UAL Showcase was launched in 2020 as a digital version of the university’s degree shows, it quickly became a useful directory to connect with recent graduates who are keen to bring their fresh ideas into industry.

CHALLENGING DOMINANT NARRATIVES

‘Tuning In’ by Lucy Swift is one of many industry-curated collections, which contextualise UAL Showcase projects under a theme that’s relevant to the curator’s industry.

Among Swift’s selections is ‘This Wonderful Imperfect World’, a visual communication project by London College of Communication (LCC) graduate Moe Nakagawa. It uses design to challenge dominant narratives around imperfection to counteract its negative effects: from discarded “ugly” foods which lead to food waste, to the pressures of appearing “perfect” on social media.

“The use of graphics and slogans within that project celebrates imperfection as a strength,” says Swift.

“It was a really exciting piece to include in the collection — it demonstrates how design can be a powerful storytelling tool and emphasises the importance of accessibility for audiences.”

INCLUSIVITY BY DESIGN

While some UAL Showcase projects address issues outside of the creative industries, others advocate for positive change within them: ‘Beyond Sight’ by LCC graduate Zihan Li embodies design’s affinity with collaboration and accessibility. Informed by experiences of visually impaired communities, the project is a toolkit for making museums inclusive by design — not by retrofitting accessibility points, but by centring non-visual engagement such as sound, touch, smell and taste.

“The project shows that accessibility should never be an afterthought, but rather an innovation driver,” explains Swift. “It highlights how design can dismantle barriers that policy alone can’t always reach on its own.”

HUMANISING HEALTH

Swift sees design as a vital agent of positive change and notes a growing interest in using it to make health services more human-centred. Few understand this better than Niamh White, co-founder of Hospital Rooms, a UK-based arts charity that seeks to transform mental health hospitals through artworks and creative programmes. A fellow curator for UAL Showcase, her collection focused on how art and design can reimagine mental health care.

The arts enable us to see each other in our full complexity

“Mental health wards are often described as dehumanising,” explains White. “When someone is sectioned under the Mental Health Act, many of their belongings and liberties are taken away. It chips away at your dignity, your humanity. The arts enable us to see each other in our full complexity.”

One of her chosen projects, The Book of Henry by Central Saint Martins graduate Lucinda Siegler, is a semi-fictionalised graphic novel about her brother’s experiences at a therapeutic boarding school.

“I really connected with this. We know from so many accounts that people’s experiences in hospital can be extremely sanitised by the clinical model,” says White. “There’s real value in using creativity and storytelling to reflect people’s lived experiences.”

While Hospital Rooms collaborates with NHS trusts and cultural institutions to engage patients already admitted to hospital, ‘WDYDFY?’ by LCC graduate James Pancaldi approaches mental health from a preventative angle, namely through social prescribing via the arts.

“This project has real affinity with our Digital Art School,” says White. Besides commissioning artworks in three to four hospitals per year, Hospital Rooms invites artists to come up with digital creative workshops for patients and sends out art supplies to hospitals without compromising safety or access.

“‘WDYDFY?’ offers some wonderful provocations — I could even imagine adding them to the boxes we send out or adding them to the Art School, because it doesn’t have to be a video or a PDF, sometimes people just need a small prompt.”

NARRATIVE ART CAPTURING ATTENTION

The intersection of art and activism — or artivism — isn’t new, but in today’s image-saturated world, visual communication has become an ever more prevalent tool for social change.

“I think we’re all visual learners these days,” says Eliza Hatch, photographer and founder of Cheer Up Luv, an internationally recognised photo series turned feminist platform dedicated to ending gender-based violence and discrimination.

We’re only going to need more creatives who can take the temperature of the time and use their practice as a form of protest

“Narrative-driven art captures people’s attention in a way that traditional journalism can’t. Adolescence is a recent example of a television drama that managed to grip people’s attention and change policy in a way that, frustratingly, years of campaigning hadn’t.”

While curating her collection, Hatch kept returning to ‘Pretty Crazy’, a film by London College of Fashion graduate Mathilde Mellor about trauma responses, including hypersexuality, in the aftermath of sexual assault.

“It deals with something so taboo, which I had never seen portrayed on screen before. It was so raw and arresting,” recalls Hatch.

“Art and storytelling enable you to speak plainly about these issues in a way that softens the conversation and offers room to explore them on a different level than if you were, say, reading about it in a paper or a piece of research.

“We’re only going to need more creatives who can take the temperature of the time and use their practice as a form of protest. There’s lots to be angry about, but I have a lot of hope that the next generation of creatives are going to feel particularly passionate to do something about that.”

IMAGINING SOMETHING DIFFERENT

On UAL Showcase, you’re just one search away from finding a collaborator who can inject your campaign with the creativity it needs to succeed. At the time of writing, inserting the words “climate”, “justice”, and “access” to the platform’s search bar collectively bring up over 300 projects alone. If you’re looking for someone with a specific skillset, from branding to creative computing, you can filter your search by over 30 subjects and connect with a creative straight through their profile. Developing the right solution to a problem can be tricky — but finding the missing link doesn’t have to be.

“I strongly believe that when something is so entrenched, coming up with solutions or alternatives is almost impossible without the arts,” says White. “How else might we imagine something different?”

Discover the world as seen by the creators and innovators of tomorrow on UALshowcase.arts.ac.uk