Issue 12 - Oct 2015

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Sep 2015

Charan Singh Documenting India’s marginalised communities Dal Chodha Understanding the global fashion market Caren Hartley Handcrafting bespoke bicycles William McGregor Directing Poldark

CREATIVE UPDATE

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Above Sam Brewer — A career built at UCA p.16 Right Meet Mark Harrison, the man who shoots celebrities p. 40 Below Roy Kimani, a platform for success p.30

CONTENTS

Latest news 04 Hilde Krohn Huse 08 Hanging around Catman 10 The artist behind the mask Charan Singh 12 Exploring India’s sexual identities Sam Brewer 16 A career built at UCA William McGregor 20 Directing Poldark Arnold Schwartzman 24 A serendiptious career Wana Udobang 28 Touching lives in Nigeria Roy Kimani 30 A platform for success Caren Hartley 34 Bespoke designs Peter Allinson 38 A graphics career in motion Mark Harrison 40 Meet the man who shoots celebrites Tina Edwards 44 Carving a niche & all that jazz Mary Branson 46 Q&A with the artist Hong Khaou 48 No such thing as a straight film Nat Urwin 50 One year on Dal Chodhra 52 Worldy wise Abhishek Kochhar 54 Bringing traditional craft to the department store

WELCOME

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UCA Alumni Team Angela Chadwick

Head of Communications & PR Carys Waters

Communications Officer Tim Pilgrim

Communications Officer Get in touch

alumni@ucreative.ac.uk www.ucreative.ac.uk Designed by UCA alumni

Welcome to Issue 12

She Was Only

shewasonly.co.uk Printed by Asendia Cover image made

by Caren Hartley and photographed by Sebastien Klein

Hello, and welcome again to Creative Update. From the highs of working alongside Orson Wells and Elizabeth Taylor on an Oscar winning documentary, to the lows of accidently being left hanging naked from a tree in Norway, we’ve got a jam-packed Issue 12 lined up.

In this edition we speak with Canterbury’s answer to Banksy, get a behind-the-scenes look at the BBC’s primetime drama Poldark, and take a fascinating peek through the curtain shrouding India’s transgender communities.

We also look at the more unusual places a creative degree can take you, profiling Caren Hartley, who’s putting her craft education to use producing bespoke bikes.

With the most recent group of graduates now unleashed into a highly competitive job market, where initial pay can be low and the hours long, we’re more keen than ever to fill our pages with stories that inspire and encourage and show just how worthwhile a creative education can be. So if you have a story that you think will be of interest to other alumni, or have a subject related to the creative industries which you think should be covered more often, please get in touch and you and your ideas could well appear in Issue 13.

The UCA Alumni Team alumni@ucreative.ac.uk

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NEWS

UCA concludes year of

league table climbs with substantial NSS gains UCA has bucked the national trend by increasing student satisfaction by four percentage points for the second year running.

According to the National Student Survey (NSS) results, released in August, 81% of UCA’s final year students were satisfied with their educational experience. The survey, which showed satisfaction remain largely static elsewhere across the country, explores a range of different areas, including student views on feedback, the support they receive, and course organisation.

The results conclude an academic year in which UCA made significant gains in every major league table, rising ten places in the Complete University Guide to become not only the fastest climber, but also the highest ranked specialist creative university.

This increase was mirrored in the most

recent Sunday Times University Guide, where UCA climbed 25 places, and in The Guardian’s subject tables where UCA entered the Architecture top 10 and the Fashion & Textiles top 20.

UCA’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Simon Ofield-Kerr said: “Over the last three years we have taken some significant steps to enhance the student experience here at UCA. We have invested in the campus environment and set ourselves rigorous standards when it comes to providing feedback to students and supporting their creative development.

“I am delighted that these efforts have been rewarded by improved performance in the NSS and league tables and am so proud of the community of staff and students here at UCA who have made it happen.

We remain ambitious for the future and I believe UCA is the university to watch over the next few years.”

NEWS

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Fashion student photographs Alexa Chung shoot for Nails Inc Second year BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion & Imaging student Kathryn Younger photographed Nail Inc’s seasonal shoot starring Alexa Chung, whilst on an internship provided by a recent UCA graduate.

With her behind the scenes role as photographer for the day, Kathryn blended into the background to capture the shoot.

“I loved the freedom to just go about my own thing and observe how everyone worked,” said Kathryn, 20, from Stevenage. “It was a fantastic insight in to seeing how everyone worked on a shoot of this scale. I can confirm that Alexa is as beautiful in real life as she is in photos!”

Kathryn was selected for a work experience placement

by BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion & Imaging 2012 graduate Bethany Duckworth, now Lead Graphic Designer for cosmetics at Nails Inc, who got in touch with UCA with the opportunity.

“Kathryn had a great eye for detail and captured a sense of atmosphere and in a fresh and modern way,” said Bethany, who chose Kathryn to work with her because she was impressed with her portfolio. “It showed a comprehensive body of work with a definitive style. My brief required reportage, documentary style photography and Kathryn’s examples were very strong.”

After her own experience on the course, Bethany was keen to get in touch with course leader Jo Hurley.

“I know from personal practice, that doing as much work experience as possible whilst studying is a must and it definitely helped me in getting started in my career,”

explained Bethany. “I really enjoyed providing a similar opportunity to a Fashion Promotion & Imaging student and being an alumna and a great advocate of UCA, I wouldn’t have chosen anywhere else to advertise the position.”

Bethany started working at Nails Inc two days after graduating from UCA as a PA to the company’s founder and CEO, with the help of the experience gained on her degree placement module in second year. Applying her knowledge of design, photography and fashion where she could, she got the chance to move into a design role and is now doing what she loves. As lead graphic designer, Bethany manages all photography and image production, including producing and art directing seasonal campaign shoots.

Kathryn found out about the opportunity at Nails Inc through her course at UCA. Now commencing her third year, she transferred to BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion & Imaging at Epsom after realising a Photography degree at Bath Spa wasn’t right for her.

“I found the Fashion Promotion & Imaging course and was completely blown away that it even existed,” said Kathryn. “The lecturers are concise, competent and wellconnected and on top of this, the alumni job roles looked promising. I felt confident in the course as it had been around for more than one cycle and I could be sure that I would not be gambling £9,000 plus on a burgeoning course!”

Kathryn’s photography will be used on Nail Inc’s website, social media posts and in digital newsletters to promote the company’s new Autumn/Winter launch later this year.

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NEWS

Graduate secures

New York Fashion Week

slot Fashion designer and recent UCA graduate Meagan Wellman will see her designs on the catwalk at New York Fashion Week this autumn, after winning Bermuda Fashion Festival’s local designer showcase.

Originally from the island, Meagan founded her own clothing line M-SEW last year after graduating with a BA (Hons) Fashion from UCA Epsom. Submitting a collection with over 10 different looks for the showcase in Bermuda, she was one of six designers chosen to present to a board of financiers.

Meagan’s winning collection, entitled Cup Match Runnings, is sporty and casual yet ladylike. Using mainly cottons with some leather pieces for the looks, her inspiration came from Bermuda’s emancipation celebration, commonly referred to as Cup Match.

“The holiday is focused around a two day cricket match with the East of the island

playing against the West,” said Meagan, who is 23 and based in London. “The collection’s colour scheme is the two team colours – red and navy versus light blue and navy – along with classic cricket whites. I used some silks in some of the looks, and took a chance with a reflective fabric!”

The fashion designer will be showing her collection in Harlem’s Fashion Row during New York Fashion Week this September.

Aspiring to focus on M-SEW and work fulltime on creative projects, Meagan is hopeful that this award win will boost her career.

“I believe it will help me to achieve my aspirations and open some doors for me in design,” she said. “I’m not 100% sure what will come out of the experience in New York but I’m excited to see what’s going to happen next!”

View more of Meagan’s collections at www.m-sew.com

NEWS

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Former students work on Avengers: Age of Ultron

Former students have found themselves reunited in the professional world – behind the scenes of one of the summer’s biggest box-office hits, Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Benjamin Crean, Eliot Speed and James Paul HattSmith, who all graduated from UCA Farnham in 2004, found themselves working in different roles on the smash superhero movie, which has so far taken over $800m at cinemas worldwide.

“It was a huge job for me,” said Animation graduate Benjamin, who worked for over eight months as a costume prop modeller on the movie, “it was the first time I had been asked to run a mould shop.

“Luckily the team I was working with are all fantastic professionals – all in the same boat – so there was a real sense of camaraderie.”

Of all the interesting jobs Benjamin ended up doing on the movie, being given the opportunity to ‘lifecast’ the film’s star, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, proved a particular favourite.

“That was definitely a highlight,” said Benjamin. “It requires a substantial amount of time and gives you an opportunity to meet someone in person and feel part of the bigger picture.”

Meanwhile, Benjamin’s fellow alumni James was brought in by visual effects firm Double Negative to work as a compositor, whose role on the film is to ‘make stuff look pretty.’

"Having worked on Guardians of the Galaxy last year I knew what to expect in terms of sheer scale and, to some degree, tone,” said Paul, who graduated with a BA (Hons) Arts and Media.

“The quality of renders I was receiving for the character of Ultron were already stunning to start with,

which made my job that bit more satisfying!”

Having left UCA into a sales job, Benjamin began his special effects work a short while later as a set and props assistant in television.

“I did that for a couple of years before taking a course in mould making,” said Benjamin. “Shortly after I was offered work with the guy who taught the course, making props for commercials and corporate events, as well as stone casting and refurbishment.

“I found myself drifting further away from what I wanted out of my career and took the plunge to go freelance. Looking to get into film, I took a prosthetics make up course at Millenium FX. This lasted seven weeks and was the best £5,000 I have ever spent.

“I immediately started applying for work at every prop house, make up team and studio I could get hold of. My first big job came on Wrath of the Titans in 2011, where my previous experience as a mould maker paid off. I haven't stopped since!”

James also left university into a sales job, before returning to the moving image by working in commercials, which he did for six years.

“I made the move to film last year,” said James.

“Working at Framestore [a large SFX company] I got to work on Jupiter Ascending and Guardians of the Galaxy.

The industry is somewhat nomadic, so, sooner or later I was going to get the opportunity to work at Double Negative, and was lucky enough to get selected for the Ultron crew. Being a bit of a fan myself it was perfect!”

Now the movie is selling-out around the world, Benjamin and James have finally been able to sit down and enjoy their hard-work on the big-screen.

“It’s always a pleasure to see your work in the film, even for a fleeting moment,“ said Benjamin, “but nothing beats your name in lights scrolling slowly at the end.”

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SPOTLIGHT

When fine art graduate Hilde Krohn Huse found herself accidently hanging alone by one foot naked from a tree in Norway, she may have thought ‘this could make for a good story one day.’ What she probably never considered though was just how many people would end up hearing it.

Hanging around graduate’s international press exposure

Hilde Krohn Huse BA (Hons) Fine Art UCA Farnham, 2012

“I had organised a residency and was in Norway with four artists,” Hilde, who is originally from Norway but now lives and works in London told UCA. “While I had a free day I went off into the woods to film some footage for a series of films I was planning. I won’t spoil it but things didn’t go to plan and I was stuck in a horrible situation for longer than anyone wants to be.

I still have a scar around my ankle over a year later.”

Whereas many would have vowed to never let another living soul see the resulting footage, Hilde decided to take a different approach – she entered it for inclusion into the prestigious Bloomberg New Contemporaries, a long running touring exhibition which brings together the best emerging talent in the world of art. And they accepted it.

At this point, UCA picked up on the story, and ever keen to promote the successes our graduates, we got in touch with Hilde with a view to put together a press release.

Given that ‘artist is left hanging naked from tree’ may be a story that was tricky to keep tasteful, interviews were arranged with a selected group of media outlets – Norwegian paper VG, local news group the Surrey Advertiser, and BBC Surrey, who were all delighted to run such a quirky, bad-situationmade-good story.

However, as news sometimes has a tendency to do, it spread. First the Daily Mail picked up on it from VG. Then The Mirror, the Daily Star, The Daily Record and The Independent all ran stories. Within three days of the article appearing on VG, over 50 outlets, from Germany to Vietnam, had run the story. Hilde’s naked backside had gone global.

Recognising that Hilde had got rather more than she’d signed up for, we got back in touch.

At this point there were two ways we could play it – let the story run its course, or strike whilst the iron’s hot, and get as many outlets involved as possible. Delighted by the attention her work was getting – the video of the mishap

HILDE KROHN HUSE

All The accidental art sensation - how the media covered Hilde's story

had jumped from 300 views to over half a million – Hilde plumped for the latter.

Within days, The Times had dedicated page three to Hilde’s story, BBC Newsnight were using the video to close the evening’s show and ITV were tweeting her to get an interview. By the end of the week, Dazed and Confused had described her as an ‘accidental art sensation.’

At the time of writing this, over 200 news organisations, from over 20 countries, have run the story of Hilde’s naked Norwegian mishap.

But how does Hilde hope people have reacted to the story?

“I hope they feel uncomfortable,” she tells us, bluntly. “That sounds horrible, wishing my audience discomfort, but it’s not that pleasant a film, when made and to watch.”

“I hope they laugh at the start and then start to question it when it all goes tits-up, or tits-down as it was in my case!”

Have you got a story you’d like to tell us?

Get in touch at alumni@ucreative.ac.uk

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FEATURES

Catman BA (Hons) Fine Art, UCA Canterbury

Catman

The artist behind the mask An urban street artist and UCA Fine Art graduate, known only as Catman, is causing a stir in Whitstable as his art pops up overnight on walls and street corners. Refusing to reveal his true identity, Catman gives us an insight into his public art and commissions, and reveals his thoughts about being labeled Kent’s very own Banksy.

How would you describe your work?

Multi-layer, stencil-based street art.

Why do you stay anonymous and where did the name ‘Catman’ come from?

I have to remain anonymous to avoid prosecution.

Essentially I am painting walls without permission. The name ‘Catman’ comes down to a nickname that my friends gave me well before I began producing street art. It comes down to my love of cats and nothing more exciting than that! I did try my hardest to shake it off but it appears to have stuck…

How do you plan what you’re going to make next and where it’s going to be?

I have learned that the placement of a piece can be almost as important as the piece itself. I like to incorporate the surrounding environment in my street pieces, for example my ‘Santa is real’ and the ‘Penguins’ pieces.

Often I’ll just be walking down a street and I see a wall or a particular feature that sparks an idea in my head, and a concept for a piece just hits me.

The urban art scene is very competitive and we are all really inspired by each other. I’ve found that you don’t necessarily need to be the best artist, but that a greater sense of imagination is more important and raises your profile as an artist.

As an artist that uses stencil work, I’ve naturally been compared to Bansky. And it’s true, he is the reason why I and the majority of other stencil artists are creating the work that we are. Even if I’m not directly influenced by Banksy, I find myself often taking inspiration from another artist whom Banksy was originally motivated by, such as Blek le Rat.

CATMAN

Do you have any consistent themes that you align your work with?

A consistent theme is vital with stencil art because if everyone is using the same technique it can be difficult to create an identity for yourself as an artist.

I have recently started producing a series of paintings incorporating old masters i.e. Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci and Johannes Vermeer, and I always try to ensure that each painting is distinctly identifiable as my own because this strengthens my reputation and means that people can recognise Catman pieces.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

I definitely enjoy the freedom that I have as an artist.

I like not knowing exactly what I’m going to be producing or where it’s going to be. Other careers are very planned out and that wouldn’t suit me. I like the ad hoc nature of my street art. This sense of flexibility also was a large part of why I enjoyed my studies at UCA and access to studio space. You really don’t realise the extent of the resources you are given access to until you graduate and find that you no longer have it. It allows you to experiment and be ambitious in your art which then gives you the confidence to create great pieces when you’re out in the real world.

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What are your career goals?

Last year I reached the final of the 2014 World Stencil Art Prize in Sydney, so at some point I would love to win it. That would be an amazing achievement for me.

One of my major goals is to get to a stage in my career where my art allows me to travel. I look up to the high-end mural and street artists who are now getting the opportunities to fly all over the world to paint their art on buildings.

What is your favourite piece to date?

A commission that I produced for a high-end coffee shop called the Coffee Lab allowed me to work on a scale that I had never had the opportunity to before. It was a 3m by 3m wall and I ended up producing a North American Red Indian woman. We created a 14 hour time lapse video condensed into a minute and I think that I nailed it.

The Mona Lisa piece that I did on a street wall in Whitstable has had the biggest reception though. It went viral on social media all over the world. Social media has definitely become the biggest gallery an artist could hope for. It’s such an important tool that should be taken advantage of. Depending on where a piece of street art is placed, it could be covered up or damaged, but as long as it is active online and being shared on social media, it can last forever.

Previous page Catman’s portrait of Nelson Mandela Left Catman’s commission for Coffee Lab Above Santa is Real

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FEATURES

CHARAN SINGH

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Charan Singh is a photographer

who documents the Kothi (underprivileged, homosexual men), Hijra (eunuch), and Giriya (partners of Kothi and Hijra) communities in India, where practising non-heterosexual relationships is essentially illegal.

Exploring India’s sexual identities

Charan Singh, MFA Photography, UCA Farnham, 2014

He began his work in these communities after finishing school, when he joined a group who would meet to discuss HIV activism. After forming a small organisation which worked with HIV NGOs, he moved on to work professionally in the field with the UN and government organisations.

“I then met some people from UCA, Anna Fox and Sunil Gupta, and they told me I should document these stories,” said Charan, who moved from his native Delhi to the UK in 2012.

“I was already documenting the stories, but I was using photography to record what we

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FEATURES

were doing at that time, the meetings that were taking place, and events that we were doing.

“I felt I was stuck in the middle working with the NGOs and the government, but the law was not there to help.

“So I started thinking about how I could tell these stories, without being constrained by the law. We could only focus on the HIV work, and not on the other parts of their lives. We can’t talk about their sexuality, about what they want to be. When I started with the photography, I realised that this could be how I can talk about these people. This work comes from there – it marries my HIV and activism work with art and photography.”

When Charan began to research Indian photography, he found a particular style popular in images from the Raj period, which he felt could be appropriated for a series on people from lower classes.

“You’d see the princes and princesses in particular poses. But there wasn’t much about people from other classes, so I thought it’d be interesting to use the formality of the studio posed images for portraits of working-class people,” said Charan.

Photographing in India’s working class communities, Charan used cultural references his models would understand in order to get them to adopt appropriate poses and postures for the series.

“Most people don’t go to art museums or study art, especially people from a working class background,” said Charan.

“For me, Bollywood cinema was the only medium for my visual education. For the people in the portraits too, it’s the only connection they have. So when they express themselves, they only have cinema, so I asked them to use that as their reference and try and imitate that.”

Having graduated from UCA with distinction, Charan has now been accepted into the Royal College of Art, where he will begin working on his PhD in photography.

Above, right and previous page The anonymous models strike poses influenced by Bollywood

DAL CHODHA

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FEATURES

Samantha Brewer reveals how, unbeknown to

her, architecture was in her blood, and shares her experience of UCA as both a student and a professional architect for international firm Pascall + Watson.

A career built at UCA How did your interest in architecture develop?

My journey to architecture is an unusual one, as I pretty much fell into it by accident.

I knew I wanted to study at university, but I didn’t know what to focus on. I eventually decided on the Interior Design course at UCA Canterbury, but I was simply flying by the seat of my pants! For the first year the Interior Design and the Architecture courses are combined, and at the end of the year I knew the Architecture side was right up my street.

It wasn’t until I called my grandad to tell him that he told me he used to be an architect before he was a pilot in the war. I knew nothing about his architecture background and it was quite a surprise; perhaps it’s fate that I ended up in this industry.

Samantha Brewer BA(Hons) Architecture RIBA Part I, UCA Canterbury, 2009 Postgraduate Diploma in Architecture RIBA Part II, UCA Canterbury, 2013

DAL CHODHA

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FEATURES

Can you tell us more about the project you’re working on for UCA?

This project is a modest building comprising four new design studios that are plugging into the existing Further Education building at UCA Epsom. Part of a 10 year master-plan for redevelopment across all the campuses, the new studios have been designed to be incredibly versatile spaces that need to change their function throughout the year; they’ll be used as seminar rooms, craft studios, presentation spaces as well as public exhibition galleries. It’s an exciting project that is progressing incredibly quickly.

Previous page and top University of Sussex Childcare Centre, one of Samantha’s projects (photography by Jim Stephenson clickclickjim.com) Above The construction site at UCA Epsom

What’s it like working on a project at the university you graduated from a few years ago?

It presents an interesting dynamic for me! Having studied at UCA, I have a certain sentimental connection to the project. It’s also forming my case study for my RIBA Part 3 architect’s qualification. So, I was trained at UCA, I am now working in a practice where

SAMANTHA BREWER

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UCA is one of my clients, and the project at UCA will form part of the next stage of my training. Swings and roundabouts…

What do you remember most about your time at UCA as a student?

There are two major aspects of UCA that are pretty unique. The first is the fact that it is a creative arts university. Studying Architecture or Interior Design, you are right next door to fine artists and graphic designers; you share some of the same spaces.

This is pretty valuable as there are some great facilities and there’s a broad depth of knowledge on both sides.

The second is the student/staff ratio.

A friend told me once that after three years of study at her previous university, her tutor didn’t even know what her name was as he was tutoring so many students. This was a completely alien concept to me! I had weekly, if not bi-weekly tutorials that lasted at least half an hour, and in between email/Skype contact. So long as you put in the effort, they do too.

What is an average day like for you at Pascall + Watson?

An average day is hard to describe as it depends what projects I’m working on at the time and what stage they’re at. For example, the UCA Epsom project is in construction at the moment which means I often get the opportunity to go down to site for meetings and to see how the building is coming along. Most of my time is spent in the office working on drawings, documentation or submissions. But I have also been lucky enough to be able to go to a couple of bid interviews. These are quite high-pressure as the bid interview is normally where a job is won or lost for the practice.

What are your most exciting and proudest achievements so far in your career?

So far I’m most proud of my postgraduate diploma thesis. I worked so hard day and night and it paid off in the end.

But I am very excited to see the studios at Epsom finished in September, so give it a few months and it may change!

Top One of Samantha’s projects, University of Sussex Childcare Centre (photography by Jim Stephenson) Above Image from Samantha’s postgraduate diploma work

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FEATURES

Directing Poldark

WILLIAM MCGREGOR

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William McGregor BA (Hons) Digital Film & Screen Arts, UCA Farnham, 2010

When the BBC decided to bring cult Cornish period-yarn Poldark sailing back onto our screens after a forty year hiatus, they needed a safe pair of hands to keep the ship steady. To graduate William McGregor’s surprise, they asked him.

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Below Poldark tells the story of one man’s turbulent return to Cornwall

FEATURES

“It was almost exactly a year ago that I read the scripts for Poldark,” said William, who graduated from Digital Film & Screen Arts at UCA Farnham in 2010.

“I thought it was moving and epic and dramatic, and something that would be rewarding to do. So I went along for a meeting, it went quite well, and they offered me the job! I was quite surprised because I think traditionally you’d go with a more experienced director for a Sunday night drama on the BBC.” William found himself shooting on Cornwall’s beautiful coastline off the back of his previous work on E4’s BAFTA-winning science fiction, Misfits, and his on-going commercial work, which includes directing Pepsi’s striking 2014 Super Bowl advert.

“It’s one of those things where after Misfits I started getting more TV scripts, but I’ve tried to be selective as it’s a big commitment - you have to put your heart and soul into something like that, so you want to make sure that it’s the right project.”

Set in 1783, Poldark tells the story of a young-man’s turbulent return to his Cornish home following the American War of

Independence. Staring The Hobbit’s Aidan Turner, and Eleanor Tomlinson (The White Queen, Jack the Giant Slayer), filming for the prime-time drama took place over twelve weeks in the summer of 2014.

It’s the second time the BBC has chosen to adapt Winston Graham’s series of Poldark novels, with the original series, which has since gained a cult following, running from 1975 to 1977.

“I didn’t really watch too much of the original series because I just wanted to make our version,” said William.

“I know a lot of people loved that show but for me I hadn’t heard of it - it aired 10 years before I was born. I can see why people love it because of the characters, the story, the performances, but for me I found it quite dated.

It was brilliant, but very much of its period.”

William joined the production as the second block director, tasked with directing episodes five to eight, although as filming progressed he was brought in to shoot parts of the first episode, including the series’ dramatic opening.

William found himself working closely with the writer Debbie Horsfield to ensure

WILLIAM MCGREGOR

Above left William (right) with stars Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson Above right Poldark was shot on location in Cornwall

that the show's larger set-pieces could be visualised on screen in a way that carried the story, but didn’t break the budget.

“That’s when the writer trusts you to take over a little bit, because you know what you can visualise, what you can create,” said William.

“You have a creative relationship with the writer, but I found that negating budget issues and working out how to do things like there’s a big riot scene and ship wreck - things like that was where I was actually most involved with the script.”

Calling on his past experience in commercials, William said he was actually most at home at the helm of the show’s more grandiose scenes, with the hardest work coming when the characters and story took centre stage.

“Big sets and lots of people - that side of it I’m used to. It’s actually one of the great things about Poldark that I enjoyed, and probably found most daunting, was when it’s scaled down and it’s all about making sure you’re telling the story with honest performances.

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“You have to make sure what you’re doing on the day, in a really rushed schedule, is truthful, otherwise people won’t buy into it, and then you’re in real trouble.

Whereas the bigger, showier bits, I found that weirdly less daunting.

“One of the most intimidating things was the final episode. The script was just heart-breaking - so when we were heading for those emotional scenes, which were all shot in the studio in Bristol, I just wanted to keep it feeling honest and authentic. That was always my main concern, it couldn’t be melodramatic, it had to be totally believable and genuine. That was the hardest stuff.”

Following Poldark’s strong critical and popular reception, the BBC commissioned William to work on his own four-part series, ‘One of Us’, a modern thriller set in the Highlands of Scotland.

William said: “When you’re a second block director you can have influence and conversations, but you’re not leading it. That’s why I’d really like to set up a show or shoot my film. I want to be setting it up and creating the tone and building the world myself.”

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FEATURES

Arnold Schwartzman NDD Graphic Design, Canterbury, 1955

The serendipitous career of

Arnold Schwartzman “I remember Barry Manilow saying to me, ‘If you only had it on one piece of film, you could enter it for the Academy Awards.’” And so goes the serendipitous career of Oscar-winner Arnold Schwartzman.

Beginning between the wars in the Dickensian workhouse that had inspired the story of Oliver Twist a century earlier, the tale of Arnold's rise from a recent graduate of the Canterbury School of Art, now UCA Canterbury, to the top table of the Hollywood establishment is one of being in the right place at the right time, and forging connections from the most unlikely of circumstances.

"A few years after graduating I was working on a charity cookbook for underprivileged children," said Arnold, talking at the Creative Challenge 2015 in London.

"I invited well known designers, artists and photographers to visually interpret recipes, and

virtually every person I asked agreed. I could ask anyone, so I wrote to Saul Bass - a big hero of mine when I was a design student - to ask if he'd do one. I even kept one recipe especially for him - sea bass! I didn't hear anything back.

"Then, just before the cookbook was about to go to press, I received a phone call and it was Saul. He said 'I'm in London making a feature film, and if it's not too late, I'd be happy to design this recipe for you. Why don't you come over to my hotel this evening and we can have dinner.'"

After a meeting in which they 'got on like a house on fire,' Arnold returned to his life as young graphic designer, happy to have got the opportunity to briefly work with one of his heroes. But a few months later, Saul was back on the phone.

Arnold continued, "He asked me, 'are you interested in being the design director at

ARNOLD SCHWARTZMAN

Above Elizabeth Taylor (right) narrates Genocide, Arnold’s (left) Oscarwinning documentary

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my studio in Hollywood?' I said I was very flattered, but didn't want to leave my home in London.

"But he said, 'I'll tell you what, I'll send you a ticket, why don't you come out and spend a week with me, and if it doesn't work out, you've had a free trip to Los Angeles."

37 years later, Arnold and his wife Isolde are still in Hollywood.

"I only actually ended up staying with him for six months, because I realised I didn't actually like the idea of running a studio. I just wanted to do my own thing,” said Arnold.

"Then one evening Saul took Isolde and me out to dinner, and during the conversation he told me that he'd been asked by a museum to make a short documentary about the Holocaust. He was too busy to do it, so he said, 'well if you've got nothing lined up, why don't you do it?'”

Arnold took on the job, growing the project over the next two and a half years from a small scale short museum documentary, to a feature length technical masterpiece narrated by Orson Welles and Elizabeth Taylor.

"The final film was on 21 projectors, all run by computers - which was state of the art in 1980. One Panavision 35mm projector, two 16mm projectors and 18 slide projectors. When it was completed, I presented it to some studio heads, and a few movie stars came along.

"I remember Barry Manilow saying to me, 'If you only had it on one piece of film, you could enter it for the Academy Awards!'

"The optical transfer to a single 35mm film was completed within a week of the submission deadline. We submitted it, and then a little while later, I won. It was all serendipity. So that was the beginning, or the end, of my film career!"

Shortly after winning his Oscar, Arnold was introduced by a colleague to an old high school friend - now the public relations officer for the Olympic Committee.

"He wanted a documentary about the history of the Olympic Games and I seemed the logical person," said Arnold.

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"It all seemed to be on track until the President of the LA Olympic Committee did a deal with ABC television. In exchange for the South American rights, they'd make the documentary. But because we'd been meeting all this time, they said 'well then, how would you like to be the director of design?'"

Unexpectedly finding himself the director of design for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Arnold set about his work, designing such icons as the Olympic torch and the tournament posters. Such was his success in the role, 28 years and an OBE later, he was brought in to consult on the 2012 London Games.

In the years following the LA Olympics, Arnold continued his work in graphic design and film, culminating in his 1994 war documentary Liberation, narrated by Ben Kingsley, Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg.

"By this time I was very much involved with The Academy as a member of the documentary executive committee, as was Saul Bass, who'd been designing the commemorative Oscar posters for the past five years. When Saul passed away, the president of The Academy called me up and said 'you seem like the logical person, would you like to design the posters?'

"I did that for five years. Not only did I design the Oscar posters, the programmes, the bus shelters and the street banners, I also produced the cinema trailers that went out to all the cinemas to promote the nominations."

It was Arnold's work within The Academy that this year saw him recognised by the city of Los Angeles for his contributions to Hollywood.

On a certificate presented to him by the mayor of LA, Eric Garcetti, his contributions to Tinseltown were laid out- Oscar winning film maker, Olympic director, OBE, Academy designer, and more.

"It was wonderful," said Arnold. "Usually people get these things wrong, but on this occasion, all the different things in there are absolutely correct."

ARNOLD SCHWARTZMAN

Right Rabbi Marvin Hier (left) and Elizabeth Taylor (right) go through their lines with Arnold Below Left One of Arnold’s Olympic posters Below Right Arnold began designing Oscar posters in 1996

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FEATURES

When Ebong Essienkan was blinded in an armed robbery in 2013, it seemed that his promising career as a computer programmer might be over. After he appeared on Wana Udobang’s show however, it may now just be back on track.

Wana Udobang BA (Hons) Journalism, Farnham, 2007

Touching lives in Nigeria

Presented by first-class journalism alumna Wana Udobang and aired on Nigerian television and YouTube, Touching Lives is a mixture of documentary and talk show which aims to shine light on the hardships faced by ordinary people.

What’s unusual about Touching Lives is that it’s sponsored and produced as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative by a large multinational telecommunications company. The show blurs the line between journalism, television programme and PR. In Ebong’s case, his story was told through a short documentary, he talked about his experience in front of a live studio audience, and then he was presented by the sponsor with a new computer, complete with braille machine and speech software.

“The show’s format is owned by a South African company but is franchised in a couple of other African countries and is sponsored by the telecom company Airtel,” says Wana, who has forged a career for herself across the Nigerian media as a journalist, broadcaster, blogger, and most recently, filmmaker.

“We basically show what difficult circumstances and situations people are going through and reward them with things that will make their lives better.

“We’ve covered some phenomenal stories – from a lady with four special needs children, and a man who was almost beaten to death because he was diagnosed with HIV, to a promising tech entrepreneur who was shot in the head by armed robbers and lost his sight.

“I am constantly holding back tears whilst taping every show but I haven’t been very successful at that quite yet.”

Whilst CSR initiatives are common in Nigeria, having a CSR television show is a new development, even in a country whose media is almost exclusively driven by commercial interests.

Building a career in such an environment has meant that Wana has had to take a flexible approach to her work, creating a brand for herself across radio, TV and online.

Aside from Touching Lives, she can be found on Inspiration FM in Lagos, promoting plus-size clothing for fashion site Jumia, or interacting with her 20,000 followers on

WANA UDOBANG

Twitter. She’s also recently taken herself behind the camera to shoot her new fictional web-series, room 313.

“I think studying in the UK taught me a great deal of professionalism, simplicity as well as flexibility. But most importantly, how to work with a global standard in mind even though my work may be of local significance.

“Flexibility because you are exposed to different broadcasting networks and channels, and with those come diverse audiences. This means that you learn to adapt very quickly.

“In Nigeria, where the market is not as segmented as the UK, you typically have more responsibilities,” says Wana. “I can move from

Left and below Wana Udobang’s career spans TV, radio, print and online

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hosting a children’s programme, to a laid back music show, to a serious hard interview.

“It can be a bit demanding, but it’s added value and taught me a lot about connecting with different sorts of people, as well as relatability. Our audience is so diverse in both age and social status, it’s a delicate balancing act not to isolate anyone.”

Not wanting to isolate anyone doesn’t only extend as far as her audience however, with those who ultimately pay for the content also having to be dealt with delicately when picking what to work on.

“Most of the media in Nigeria is privately owned. This means that there are stories and topics you can’t cover or delve too deep into for fear of losing advertising revenue, and that is always a challenge,” says Wana.

“On the flip side there are also subjects that may not even bring in advertising revenue because it may not be seen as newsworthy however important the subject is.”

And this may be where CSR television programmes may become important in the future – filling the gap between commercial and public broadcasting. Whilst its heavy branding may be overt, Touching Lives has been able to tell stories that may otherwise not be told, and help people such as Ebong who may otherwise not have been helped.

“There is a PR aspect in the fact that the company gives gifts,” says Wana, “but the show also highlights some issues that governance and leadership should be handling.

“Touching Lives has also been a great way to start addressing some issues within our community – like healthcare, education, community development and stigmatisation.”

Touching Lives returns for its second series over the coming months, for further information visit www.airteltouchinglives.com Follow Wana on Twitter @MissWanaWana

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FEATURES

Entrepreneurism is in Roy Kimani’s blood. The co-founder and CEO of video platform Nideo grew up in Kenya surrounded by a family of business owners and pioneers, before heading to the UK to pursue a creative education at age 18.

A platform for success Graduate start up hosts 17,000 videos

“I never really considered having a job. Working for someone else just wasn’t an option for me,” he says. This conviction and confidence has been the driving force behind Nideo, which Roy co-founded with fellow UCA graduate James Hakesley, a year after graduating.

“I’ve always liked freedom,” says Roy. “I guess at a young age they call that naughty, but to be honest I’ve never really wanted anyone to tell me what to do with my own life.

I like to make my own decisions, so setting up my own business was natural to me.”

Regularly involved in profitable ventures whilst at university, Roy and James provided a photography service to local nightclubs in the Rochester area, and also developed their first business, Fidgit Box, a video platform designed to help users develop new skills.

They presented Fidgit Box at UCA’s Creative Challenge, an annual scheme giving students the chance to attend workshops, develop business ideas and collaborate with industry, acting as a springboard for careers prior to graduation.

“UCA had the facilities and equipment you could leverage to start a small business – it was just a matter of spotting this opportunity,” said Roy. “In our case, it was the equipment in the photography department. We hired it out for free and used it for video and photography projects from night clubs, small businesses and anything we could get paid to do.”

After graduating, the pair spotted a gap in the market for a video platform for businesses.

After convincing angel investors to jump on board with the idea, Nideo was born.

Roy Kimani BA (Hons) Product Design, UCA Rochester, 2011

ROY KIMANI

Above The Nideo platform

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Left Roy Kimani (left) and James Hakesley (right)

Nideo provides its unified video platform to some businesses as an internal communications tool and to others as a product to resell and package as their own.

To date, Nideo has worked with over 500 businesses including Microsoft and Instacloud, and the platform has hosted more than 17,000 videos.

“When working closely with businesses, it became clear that there weren’t many platforms online for organisations to maximise the material we were creating for them,” says Roy. “They’d put videos on YouTube, but with the site being used so much more for entertainment now, it isn’t hugely valuable – businesses want to do more with their videos.”

As a photography graduate, James brings imaging expertise to Nideo and runs the day-to-day business operations as the Chief Operating Officer. James has been instrumental in the administration and implementation of the online video infrastructure for the platform.

Being young entrepreneurs hasn’t been without its challenges for Roy and James.

Shortly after graduating, the pair spent a lot of time networking with professionals to build connections, and received some tough knocks.

“As budding businessmen, we enthusiastically shared our concept for Nideo and it would so often get shut down and critiqued,” explained Roy. “It was always tough to hear as we were sure it was a great idea, but we took comments constructively where we could and set about making necessary improvements to the platform.”

Just before Nideo was established and whilst pitching Fidgit Box to a potential customer, the pair had a surprising proposal from the company which wanted to make Fidgit Box an arm of its own operation. An alluring offer for the two young businessmen early on in their careers, Roy and James wrestled with the idea. Fortunately online businessman Matthew Munson, who is now Nideo’s Chief Technology Officer, was on hand to advise.

“It was unexpected so we went away to think about it,” said Roy. “Matt was a mentor for us at the time and he said the opportunity could see us working for someone else and not in charge of our own operation. So we sat down and talked about other business ideas that we could really make something of, and that’s when we decided not to sell, but to focus on Nideo.”

ROY KIMANI

Despite his strong business acumen and drive to succeed, Roy’s inspiration remains in the inherent power of video. He continues to be fascinated by its simplicity for the viewer in contrast with the technical work behind it.

“Many take for granted the amount of hard work that goes into creating a video,” he said. “People are so used to just googling or logging onto YouTube to find funny videos, but there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes to make them. And in business, video is such an effective way to communicate an organisation’s culture. Focused and concise videos can turn viewers into customers.”

“I’m always learning new ways to capture stuff on camera,” said Roy. “The creative process never ends and I’m always adding to my knowledge. The key things I learnt whilst studying were to identify problems and create solutions for them, spotting gaps in the market as I go.”

Now 26, it’s Roy’s adaptability and belief in his business that drives him as an entrepreneur. “When you’ve got a business concept, you’ll get critiqued and knocked down many times but you have to persevere and stick to it in order to succeed. You have to believe in your own idea, against all odds.”

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Tips for creating your own video Never has there been a better opportunity for businesses to tap into the online video world without a multi-million dollar budget. Here’s some tips from Roy on how to create your own video for your business.

• Research what sites your target audience visits and what kind of videos they watch. This will help you plan video content that your customers want.

To learn more about Nideo, visit www.nideomedia.com Below Roy (right) and James present Nideo at an exhibition

• Make your script simple and focus on why you are making the video, what the key things you want to communicate are and who your target audience is.

• Shoot your videos with a shallow depth of field to give footage a cinematic feel, keeping only the subject in focus whilst blurring the background and foreground. This will also stop the viewer’s attention from wandering.

• Do not forget to use a tripod or a flat surface for your camera to avoid shaky amateur footage!

• Be creative. If you are filming a person, explore different camera angles and ways of capturing and highlighting their personality. If you are filming an object or space, explore ways you can capture the detail to evoke certain emotion from the audience that will view it. Keep it interesting. Remember at the end of the day videos are made to be watched by humans.

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FEATURES

Perfect execution, unique designs and bespoke pieces are important to any maker. One individual’s passion is displayed through commitment to their craft and a meticulous attention to detail, resulting in a thing of beauty that will sit delicately on a finger or on a mantelpiece to be cherished for years to come. Or, in Caren Hartley’s case, speed along highways and mountains, prepared for rough, gritty terrain.

Bespoke Designs

Caren Hartley BA (Hons) 3-Dimensional Design, Farnham, 2006

Right Silver details on a Hartley Cycles design

DAL CHODHA

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Caren’s creations are unique steel and stainless steel bicycles. Intended to be beautiful, her handmade bikes are custom-made to each individual and ready to perform on the road.

One of the UK’s few female framebuilders, Caren combined her passion for bikes and crafts to establish Hartley Cycles.

Fortunate to count members of the Saudi Arabian royal family as customers when working as a sculptor, her career portfolio has also spanned jewellery and silversmithing, but metal has always been at the heart of her work.

“I loved metal from the first time I worked with it,” she explained. “It’s something to do with how it feels, hard yet malleable. And then joining it by soldering and brazing - it’s like magic!

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“My inspiration often comes from looking at objects that already exist, and I’m interested in the relationships people have with them. People develop really strong relationships with their bicycles and trying to make each one personal and unique is really important.”

The award-winning Demi Porkeur is Caren’s favourite creation to date. Part classic French Porteur and part adventure bike for all terrains, the Demi Porkeur exhibits beautiful clean lines and a striking blue metallic finish, yet features high strength stainless steel and large tyres to support heavy cargo. Like all of Caren’s creations, the made-to-order Demi Porkeur perfectly combines beauty and performance.

CAREN HARTLEY

“Cycling photographer Camille McMillan contacted me as he needed a bike that could carry him and all his photography equipment off road around his home in the Pyrenees,” Caren explained. “To cope with the multitude of ground conditions and not to rattle Camille’s cameras, this bike needed to be FAT, or at least a little porky.

“Neither Camille nor I like the more usual bike aesthetic, so the challenge was to design a bike with the performance of a semi-fat hauler, and the clean lines of a mid-century French Porteur.”

A large number of Caren’s commissions are road bikes, all of which are individually created and painted by hand in her South London workshop. In order to make the perfect frame, Caren discovers more about her client’s relationship with cycling and the individuals also receive a personal fitment, so that she can create the ideal geometry for the frame.

Far left The Demi Porkeur’s fork crown Left Caren in her South London workshop Below The Demi Porkeur

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“The details are really important to me,” said Caren. “I always hand pierce a solid silver head badge for the front of my frames, and usually include a few other hand cut silver details here and there. I try and put a few hidden details on each frame, often hand pierced silver elements, placed somewhere that’s not immediately obvious - like a kind of secret between the bike and its owner.”

Caren’s hopes to grow Hartley Cycles into a larger frame-building business. “My ambition is that people will love my style and what I’m doing, and really seek out my frame,” she said. “I would also love to get involved with more women’s cycling and racing – perhaps even sponsoring a team one day!”

Hartley Cycles will be exhibiting at the Design Museum’s Cycle Revolution from 18 November.

View Caren’s designs on the Hartley Cycles website: www.hartleycycles.com

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FEATURES

A graphics career in motion

Peter Allinson BA (Hons) Graphic Design: New Media, Epsom, 2007 MA Graphic Design & Communication, Epsom, 2008

Having graduated with an MA and BA in Graphic Design from UCA Epsom, Peter Allinson is now the Head of Design at STEAM Motion and Sound, a Soho-based creative agency which produces television commercials, online content and music videos for high-profile brands in music, entertainment and theatre.

After being asked to create a mock James Bond title sequence in the first year of his undergraduate degree, Peter discovered a love for motion graphics, honing his skills over the next three years to eventually win a Design & Art Direction global student award and secure two internships.

He then went on to decline a year travelling the world, in favour of pursing an MA course at UCA Epsom.

“To a designer, it’s glaringly obvious that every single object around us has been designed for a purpose. From the seat you are sitting on right now, to the toothbrush that you use every day. It is this that has always intrigued me,” said Peter, 30.

“Completing my MA course proved to be the best decision of my life. During my degree I learnt the fundamentals of graphic design, but it was only during my MA course that I truly understood how to clearly communicate an idea and effectively answer a brief. I also gained a good understanding of the industry and the skills required to survive and thrive.”

PETER ALLINSON

Above Highlights from a portfolio filled with household names such as Sony and The Lion King

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Peter’s post-university successes include working with such luminary clients as ABC, Channel 4, Disney, HSBC, ITV, Red Bull, UBS, Sky, Sony, Universal Pictures and Warner International. Amongst his biggest projects is the music video for Michael Buble’s ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’, which has nearly 14 million hits on YouTube and was broadcast on national television.

“I love working on music videos because there are such a wide variety of artists out there,” said Peter. “There are some new musicians who are working with us on some rather ambitious videos. These projects are always fun to work on because they are becoming more abstract and inventive. I enjoy working on projects where I can let my imagination run wild and leave it partially up to the audience to decide on how to interpret the message.”

Peter recently art directed a new television campaign from concept to post-production for The Lion King on Broadway. Beginning with a green screen shoot involving the full cast in New York, and culminating back in London with intensive editing, grading, and compositing, the project ultimately collected gongs for Best Entertainment and Best Choreography at the Telly Awards in the US. “So many theatre productions are crying out for more creative content. I enjoy pushing the boundaries and presenting ideas that the client may not have considered.

“I think recent trends point toward work that is far more experimental. Designers are having more creative freedom to express themselves in ways they were never able to before. With the privilege of being in an industry that is very much in the public eye, it’s up to us to create new and inventive ideas to keep art fresh and exciting.”

“Graphic design has traditionally been seen as a two-dimensional medium, but this is no longer the case.

Graphic design is a form of visual story telling using anything from traditional media, to motion graphics or digital art.

“A good example of this was when I was working with Sony to rebuild PlayStation’s iconic brand status. This extensive rebrand covered branding guidelines, outdoor advertising, digital design, social media, in-store displays and logo animations.

“The industry demands more cross-platform executions, requiring designers to understand a greater number of software packages and become flexible in the way that they work - more now than ever before.

“I have always enjoyed the challenge of broadening a brand identity through various media. It is this passion and creative challenge that has contributed to me pursuing a career in design; I feel fortunate every day to be doing something I love.”

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FEATURES

MARK HARRISON

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“Now, these stories could go on forever,” Mark Harrison tells me when I enquire about his most memorable day at work.

I’m not really surprised – a quick look through his portfolio reads like a copy of Who’s Who. “But I’d have to say, covering Margaret Thatcher as she did the voice over for a CD was quite something.”

Mark Harrison BA (Hons) Photography, Farnham, 1987

The man who shoots celebrities Tim Pilgrim meets Mark Harrison

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Previous page Benedict Cumberbatch & Jonny Lee Miller, shot by Mark Harrison whilst promoting the stage version of Frankenstein Below Mark plans each shoot meticulously

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Mark’s worked with a lot of memorable faces since he got his first credit whilst still a student at UCA Farnham, then the West Surrey College of Art and Design (WSCAD). From Danny DeVito to Al Gore, Terry Pratchett to John Hurt, there’s a good chance that if you’ve heard of them, Mark has shot them.

But alas, as much as I’d like to chat about the great and the good he’s had in front of his camera, it’s the magic that happens behind it that I’m meant to be asking about.

“I like to think I have no set style,” says Mark, bringing us back on track.

“Stylistically, the evolution of the net and digital has kept me searching for my own approach, so I don’t fall into emulating whatever the current trend is.”

At the time Mark graduated, around 1987 he thinks, photography at WSCAD still had a very fine art bent to it, heavily influenced by his regular tutor and surrogate ‘photo dad’, Martin Parr. Whilst he ‘fell out of step’ with the general ethos of this approach, the opportunity to look at things differently and try things he’d have normally avoided helped shape his photography.

“My ‘eureka’ moment was having [renowned photographer] Nick Knight rip my work apart as a guest lecturer,” remembers Mark, “and I’d also use the lecturers as springboards to gain real life experience, getting work as their assistant.

“The real learning curve came as much from my contemporaries though, I’d never seen anyone else take a picture, so had no idea how I could approach something with a different head on.”

With a client list that now includes the likes of the BBC, Burberry and the National Portrait Gallery, it’s being able to approach his work with ‘a different head on’ that has helped shape his post-uni success. For many years his main area was shooting ‘specials’ for TV and film companies, but as needs changed, so did he.

“I’m currently moving from mainly shooting editorial photographic portraits into book and DVD covers, with a bit of corporate and advertising work through my agent,” says Mark, whose latest shoot saw him jetting off to Nice in France to work on a book cover.

In order to keep his work fresh, Mark tells me he makes sure he’s done his research

MARK HARRISON

Above Charlotte Church, shot by Mark Harrison

and planned out the shoot before he, or the famous face he’s shooting, ever steps foot in the studio or on location. After looking into the background of his sitter (as they’re known in the trade) and compiling some sketches and mood boards based on ideas and design restrictions fed-back by the client, he scouts a suitable location, hires some equipment and assistants, and gets his agent to book his flights and hotels.

“The client on the recent shoot in Nice suggested images on my website that were of the ‘flavour’ that they were looking for. I shot with that in mind, but then produced one set of pics which simply pleased me. Keeping your own vision is crucial.

“Having said all that, I had six minutes to shoot four shots of Novak Djokovic recently.

That was rehearsed like a dance beforehand and was simply based on what was possible in the time and space allowed.”

Despite being a seasoned pro, Mark still espouses to me the virtues of shaking things up

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now and again, telling me that every few years he tries to force himself to put all his usual approaches to one side, and just try something different and new.

“Different camera, different lighting, even different music – everything has a bearing on how a sitter for a portrait will respond to a photographer’s approach. Staying ahead is all about not getting comfortable.”

With time running short, I can’t resist the urge to try and eke out one celebrity story.

‘What’s been your favourite moment,’ I ask, with no real subtlety.

“My favourite moment is not so much how famous they are,” he says, seemingly not falling for it, “but that I am often allowed in to places that few would tread.

“Passing through the ‘No Entry’ sign always makes me smile.”

To see more of Mark’s work visit www.markharrisonphotography.com

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FEATURES

When she’s not presenting travel programmes from the Caribbean or discussing the centenary of the Women’s Institute on Newsnight, Tina Edwards lives her life to a different beat – bringing jazz to the masses.

Carving a niche and all that jazz “I’ve always been a bit of a rock girl at heart,” says 2012 music journalism graduate, Tina, “but back in 2010 I no longer felt stimulated by the current rock scene.

“It was around that time that I got hooked on the TV series Homeland – in typical student fashion! The music is bold, and provokes emotions which demand for you to bring your guard down. From then, having been drawn in by the most unsuspecting of mediums, I was hooked on jazz.”

Since getting the jazz bug, Tina, 26, has forged her niche working freelance for magazines such as Spindle, presenting for Balcony TV – an online music channel that receives two million viewers a month – and

promoting gigs at some of London’s biggest jazz venues. She also started hosting and producing Jazz Standard in early 2014, a podcast for which she’s landed a range of exciting guests, from the likes of MOBOwinner Zara McFarlane to industry stalwarts such as Courtney Pine OBE. “I also host my own events at Pizza Express Jazz Club called Tina Edwards Presents, which is all about making jazz more accessible to new audiences. It involves on stage interviews which are chatty and light-hearted, so that seasoned listeners as well as new ones are engaged and become invested in the performance. Following those shows there’s a certain phrase that I hear a lot – ‘I didn’t know I liked jazz!’

Tina Edwards BA (Hons) Music Journalism UCA Epsom, 2012

TINA EDWARDS

Below left & bottom right Tina Edwards, presenter of the Jazz Standard Podcast © Paul Black 2015 Below Tina on Balcony TV with artist OWS © Paul Black 2015

“It has a bad rep in some circles – people often think of lift music and the sketch from The Fast Show – which I do love – before they think of the incredible jazz musicians out there. It’s not all about celebrating old greats like Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan, there’s so much to shout about in the contemporary scene.”

She likens the jazz scene to that of hip-hop, in that it sits on two levels – the mainstream, commercial scene, and the less visible, underground scene. People are often too quick to dismiss the latter, when dismissing the former, she believes.

“Although at first glance it might be a strange thought, both genres are incredibly similar to each other. Artists like Kendrick Lemar, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Soweto Kinch are fantastic at bridging the gap between them – this genre-crossing is a great way of introducing jazz to new listeners.

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“Those who love jazz have a responsibility to be inviting with it – don’t overintellectualise whilst your friend is listening to Miles Davis for the first time. Sure, you can nerd-off about time signatures and the tone of the trumpet, but it’s always better to be left to your own thoughts on the first listen.

“If you’re new to jazz, you might be excited to discover artists like Soweto Kinch who blends jazz with hiphop, Hiatus Kaiyote who have a nu-soul vibe, and GoGo Penguin whose percussion style lends itself more to Aphex Twin than Art Blakey.”

Working across a range of mediums was always the plan says Tina, who has made herself open to a wide variety of opportunities by working with the likes of Heat TV, 4Music and London Live whilst she continues her mission in the world of jazz.

“Why work to make someone else’s dreams a reality when you can build on your own? I’m not stimulated by routine.

“My ultimate goal though is to break as many rising jazz acts as possible into a more mainstream audience, and I want to do that through a variety of platforms, namely TV and radio. Career-wise, I certainly have my eyes set on a certain opportunity – I’d love to host BBC4’s Jazz Musician of the Year Awards!”

Keep up to date with Tina’s work by visiting: www.presentingtinaedwards.com Or follow Tina on Twitter: @pickupmyhiccup

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FEATURES

Q&A with artist Mary Branson

Right ‘Red Tents’, image courtesy of Emma Brown Below ‘Containment’, image courtesy of Emma Brown

Mary Branson BA (Hons) Fine Art, Farnham, 2002

MARY BRANSON

How was your time at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design (SIAD)?

I had a really positive experience at SIAD. We had two excellent new course leaders that started at the same time as our year group – Sue Stockwell and Daphne Prevoo, who are both strong practicing installation based artists. Our lecturers, Alex Coles and Alicia Foster, were encouraging and provocative. It was an exciting time, I felt I could try out all my ideas and anything and everything was possible. Our year group was tight, we fed off each other’s ideas. I think we were competitive too.

Visiting artists such as Martin Creed were inspirational and set the tone of what was happening in the wider the art scene at the time.

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The group were good at painting, so I could only really mentor and encourage them. Each week I would suggest artists or articles that I felt would help them develop and I would go away and research and take in images and written articles for them to read, there is no access to online information within prison, so I got through a lot of printing! We also had very limited access to books, and any films or documentaries had to be vetted before approval. But somehow it worked - and I feel very privileged to have shared time with these fascinating women. Seven months on, I’m still coming to terms with my prison experience. Art has a lot to do with freedom, and I felt a strong reaction to what I witnessed. My piece ‘Containment’ was a response, but I am still working through more ideas.

What are you working on now?

I’m currently Artist in Residence for Women’s Suffrage at the Houses of Parliament, working on a memorial that is to commemorate and celebrate the women’s suffrage movement. This is a long-term project, so in between the construction and installation of the final piece I am writing about my research and my experiences so far, as a kind of extended blog. Maybe it will turn into a book one day.

I can’t say too much about it right now – but I did spend several months in the archives reading material related to suffrage, interviewing historians and academics across the country and talking to MPs and peers. My knowledge was pretty basic, so I felt it was important for me to immerse myself in the subject in order to present something that was honest and valid.

I’ve also started work on a body of prints that reflect the work - my original ideas and some more abstract images that I can develop out of them.

It’s been quite an adventure already. I feel very privileged in the access I have been given and some of the amazing people I have met in the course of my research.

Everyone has been very open and positive.

As an artist, you do have a unique perspective that enables you to speak very directly with others – it’s a wonderful way to engage with people from all walks of life very quickly.

You’ve also previously worked with prisoners at HMP Send, how was that?

Working in Send was the toughest residency I have done to date. Not because of the prisoners, they were great. We worked like a tutorial art group you would have at uni. But as an installation artist that responds to site, I found the strict security rules stifling. Most art materials except the basics were not allowed.

How do you got about tackling a new project?

I become a sponge. From the moment I start my first meetings or see a new space, I start absorbing everything.

I try to remain open throughout the process. There’s a lot of listening going on. I try to be aware of my first instinctive impressions, as they often become the most important. I don’t worry too much about the practical difficulties of realising an artistic idea – there are so many different mediums open to us that there is always a way to present a concept. I’ll go away and just think, sketch or collage images until things start to ‘fit’.

What’s your proudest achievement?

Standing on top of Guildford Mount with my ‘Red Tents’ in 2002. It was my first public piece of artwork and it is still the most exhilarating – like a kind of extreme sport.

It was a simple piece but had an energy to it - the reaction made me realise that this was something important for me. I suppose I try to develop the same feeling with everything I make, which happens to an extent, but I guess it’s never the same as the first time you are confronted with something you have put out there in front of everyone.

What are your long term goals?

I just want to make great art and maybe to have budgets that match the ambition for my work. I’d like to spend some time working in America – I love some of their land art and I think their attitude to new ideas might suit me.

For further information on Mary and her work, visit: www.marybranson.co.uk

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FEATURES

No such thing as a straight film Hong Khaou BA (Hons) Film Production Farnham, 1997

The IMDB page for Hong Khaou’s debut feature starts off like any other. It’s topped with the film’s title, Lilting, followed by Hong’s credits as writer and director, and the names of his stars – Ben Whishaw of Skyfall and Cloud Atlas, and Pei-pei Cheng, best known to western audiences for her role in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Next comes the film’s awards – a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and a BAFTA nod for Outstanding Debut from a British Director.

All impressive stuff.

The problems start to arise further down however, below the credits and film’s synopsis (“In contemporary London, a Cambodian Chinese mother mourns the untimely death of her son,”) where IMDB lists the ‘plot keywords.’ When the film was first listed, it simply read ‘gay’ and nothing else.

“It’s so easy to dismiss it like that,” said 1997 Farnham Film School graduate Hong, 38.

“Because when you look at other filmmakers you don’t say, ‘Martin Scorsese doesn’t make straight films,’ or ‘Woody Allen only makes straight films,’ it’s so reductive.

They don’t give it the depth it deserves.”

Struggling to get a film with gay protagonists identified as anything other than a ‘gay film’ has long been a thorny issue for the movie industry, with such productions often struggling for acceptance amongst the mainstream.

In 2006, Brokeback Mountain, lauded by critics and commercially successful, was expected to take the Best Picture Oscar, only to be beaten by the less lauded, less successful, Crash.

In 1994, Philadelphia was left un-nominated in favour of The Fugitive and The Remains of the Day, despite the film’s star, Tom Hanks, securing the Best Actor award.

“I even see it in my friends who are filmmakers.

They’re very quick with a very human knee-jerk reaction to say ‘oh it’s a gay film,’ and then not taking their time

HONG KHAOU

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Above The film is about grief, communication and language, says Hong

with it,” said Hong, who honed his skills writing and directing short films – many of which are also tagged simply as ‘gay’ by IMDB. It’s a label Hong prefers not to wear on his sleeve, saying that whilst his films touch on sexuality, it’s not really what they’re about.

“I think in the short films, at the forefront it’s about that [sexuality] but really it’s more about the struggle for an identity. As that reverberates, sexuality is something it touches on, but cultural identity I talk about as well.

People never seem to pick that up, I guess because it’s gay, that’s the obvious part they pick on.

“It’s odd because I think consumers tend to think like that, people reduce things in such a way as it becomes defined that way, in one or two sentences. For instance, with Spring [Hong’s 2011 short], it’s a film about S&M, but people always pick up that it’s an S&M film, but really it’s about experiencing something for the first time.

“Some might say Lilting is about the lifestyle of being queer, but it’s not really about that – it’s about grief, and communication, and language.

“It’s just that you have two gay characters.”

Previous page Hong on set

Lilting is out now on DVD and BluRay

Top Hong’s stars Ben Whishaw and Pei-Pei Chang

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SPOTLIGHT

One year on...

In this new feature, we’ll be asking recent graduates to talk to us about their first few months in their chosen careers. Here, CG Arts & Animation graduate Nat Urwin shares her experience of working to establish herself as a freelance animator and artist.

Nat Urwin BA (Hons) CG Arts & Animation UCA Rochester, 2014

Since graduating, it’s been interesting. There have been moments known as the dry spell, where companies don’t reply to any of my job applications or emails, and times where there are so many projects happening there’s barely enough time to sleep.

I’ve been the animator for a Crowdfunder campaign teaser trailer and worked in London’s Soho animating for clients such as England Rugby, with the final film screening at Twickenham Stadium during games.

There’s also been work in Margate for an animation studio, supplied with dinner and refreshments during a marathon 36hour project turning the much anticipated Superbowl ads into Lego as soon as they aired in the States.

I’ve been able to direct and animate my own little commercial for a company to launch their new mobile app promoting Kent tourism, this was shown on their internet platforms and on the big advertising screen at Chatham Dockside Shopping Complex. Aside from paid work, I stay creative in my spare time.

NAT URWIN

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01 Nat recreated Superbowl ads in Lego 02 Nigel Farage mocked in UCA’s satire competition 03 ‘Mothers Day’ won the Audience Choice Award at New Designers 04 Artwork from Nat’s WeLoveKent advert

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In May 2015 I entered UCA’s political satire competition and won 3rd prize for my depiction of Nigel Farage and Mark Reckless, UKIP leader and local candidate, as The Simpsons characters known as Mr Burns and Smithers. To my surprise, Mark Reckless used my drawing of him as Smithers as his Twitter profile picture for the duration of the election - I’m still not sure if he got the reference.

I also love experimenting with different ways of expressing visuals and the methods of making them. I’ve been referred to as a mad scientist of animation on many occasions. I’ve just started entering my graduate film ‘Mothers Day’ into the film festival circuit. It won the Audience Choice Award at the big London graduate show New Designers in 2014 and was an official selection for the Industry Vote there. Recently it screened in Leeds at a festival for Active Aging in European Cinema and the next screening will be in Texas, USA, in November at a comedy festival.

It’s really exciting to be able to make something and push it out there for people to experience. Since graduating, freelance work appeals to me a lot more than the thought of getting a full time job. Of course if the full time job was somewhere incredibly interesting then that’s a different matter, but being able to schedule days how I want to, not having to get up at stupid o’clock to commute every morning, and being able to say ‘let’s go to the beach’ on a whim is perfect for me.

Nat blogs at skygecko-nat.blogspot.co.uk

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SPOTLIGHT

As the fashion industry continues to grow exponentially, understanding the unique culture in different markets and responding to their nuances becomes crucial to success.

Meeting independent designers in emerging markets like Angola and India, fashion writer Dal Chodha explores how both local and global culture impacts the fashion industry.

Worldly-wise

by Dal Chodha

A consequence of our digital age, fashion isn’t a concept exclusive to only four capital cities of the world. The emerging markets – a grandiose moniker used to describe nations with social or business activity in the process of rapid growth – are primed to be exposed. Alongside New York, London, Milan and Paris the seasonal fashion schedule has swelled to include Copenhagen, Tokyo, Montreal, Mumbai and Honolulu, amongst others.

Three years ago I travelled to Angola in Southern Africa to meet some of Luanda’s growing creative community. A city rebuilding itself after 27 years of civil

war, the architecture is a crude mix of late 19th century palaces, the colonial buildings inspired by Corbusier and Niemeyer built in the 1960s and rows of glass and steel high-rises developed by Chinese investors. There I talked with Tekasala Ma'at Nzinga who, in 2002 alongside Shunnoz Fiel, created the menswear fashion label Projecto Mental. “Life is dynamic here,” he said.

“It cannot stand still and I think it’s important that we as a people and as a country have a global feel of what is going on, especially in terms of art, behaviour, the way we feel, the way we dress.” Africa's middle class is

DAL CHODHA

growing steadily and is estimated to comprise over 300 million people. “Our main concern is that we do not lose our identity. Even in fashion.”

Sitting on a black leather sofa, inside the label’s first concept store – with adjacent members club and bar – Nzinga went on to make clear that the aim of Projecto Mental is to be global but from Luanda. Their pink leather Chelsea boots, with green ankle straps are crafted in Italy, their suits designed in Angola and handmade elsewhere. “We have decided to communicate Angola through fashion, using it as a means to promote Angolan culture and identity. We make sure that wherever we go, people know that Projecto Mental is an Angolan brand.”

Increased access has been the biggest revolution in recent times. The curiosity with how we shop has not changed, it just has a further distance to travel. From the Bangkok based T-shirt brand Painkiller, with its roving pop up shop concept, to Nappadori, a leather accessories label working out of a workshop in the backstreets of Delhi, finding new designers from around the world is not a herculean task, it just asks us to exert a little more effort.

Ignoring the whirring of crackling electricity generators, tripping over the broken pavement slabs that swirl between tall brick buildings in Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village, you will find Ruchika Sachdeva. The designer trained in the UK and moved back to India to set up her men’s and women’s ready-to-wear label, Bodice in 2011.

“I moved back because I saw opportunity in India,” she reveals. “I did doubt my decision for months after coming back, but today I am glad that I made the right choice. I am not sure if I would have been able to start and sustain Bodice if I was in London.”

Her collections are produced in India and make use of the continent’s great treasure of traditional textile and craft techniques, which she smiles, “were just waiting to be explored by a new generation”. The handcrafted beadwork on the front of one of her cotton shirts is done in-house and Sachdeva’s small shop-cum-atelier neighbours the studios of a whole host of India’s young designers and floats underneath a no-frills South Indian restaurant called Gunpowder. “When I got back, I could see that people had already started to take more of an interest in young designers and now there is a bit of a traffic coming through.”

The fashion offering in places like India, Brazil and China are beginning to embrace local independent designers and this is thanks to a generation of people that have all been brought up with a collective consciousness of global culture. We’re all watching the same TV shows, interacting with the same social

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media platforms and watching the live stream of the same fashion shows at the same time regardless of our geographical location. The emerging markets are not far away distant lands, full of classless and rich, fashion-starved suckers. Delhi, São Paulo, Moscow and Beijing are sophisticated new markets where confidence and an education of fashion continues to flourish.

Chinese consumers, it is reported, are the top luxury spenders worldwide, accounting for 25% of total luxury purchases globally.

Many London based designers I talk to understand that the key to international growth is in understanding a global market; how do their clothes translate to a different climate and social code? The long held belief that Japan is a big market for any young designer is cast in steel. As staunch supporters of European – and in a particular – British design, it can be easier to find rails full of clothes from London in Japan, than it is to find them in London.

As our local stores become global marketplaces thanks to websites like FarFetch, which proudly boasts ‘300 boutiques at 1 address’, the “global feel” Nzinga talked about in Angola and Sachdeva’s quest to explore her own country’s creative heritage is key. These two designers – although different in style – produce welldesigned, intelligent clothes. Surely this is the only type of fashion that can have a truly universal appeal?

Dal Chodha is a tutor on UCA’s BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion & Imaging course. As a fashion writer and editor, he co-founded bi-annual lifestyle publication b Magazine until its final issue in 2012. A regular contributor to international titles including METAL, VOGUE India and Telegraph Magazine, Dal is also the editor of publication Archivist and has been a guest editor for both Paul Smith Jeans and Kenzo. Dal works as a consultant for luxury brands, recently working with Burberry on its international Art of the Trench campaigns.

Follow Dal Chodha on Twitter @dalchodha

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SPOTLIGHT

Abhishek Kochhar’s dream is to revive traditional ethical craftsmanship which he describes as a “dying art”, and assimilate it into mainstream ready-to-wear collections.

Bringing traditional crafts to the department store

Abhishek Kochhar BA (Hons) Fashion Design, UCA Rochester, 2008

Originally from India, Abhishek was preparing for a career in business administration when a fashion internship and the BA (Hons) Fashion Design course at UCA Rochester changed his path. After graduating, Abhishek returned to his home country to learn more about its traditional crafts, and went on to launch his own luxury apparel brand, House of Attuendo, in 2009.

“To get our feet on the ground we focused firstly on providing designing and manufacturing services to major luxury brands such as Dior, MaxMara and Emporio Armani,” said Abhishek. “This helped to fund and stabilise House of Attuendo, and the profits from this initiative were used to develop our own brands.”

House of Attuendo garments are now available in 143 stores across four continents, with a flagship store in Switzerland, and the label sells its High Street collections online through Amazon.

Continuing to push boundaries in the fashion industry, House of Attuendo has been exploring how innovative technology can develop fashion. The main purpose of the label’s technology division ‘Attuendo Tech Studios’ is to research and develop trends that will transform the fashion industry.

He said: “A recent example of technology within fashion in action is the development of interactive trail mirrors which measure the customer and displays all of the styles available in their size. With the flick of a wrist they can drag the styles onto themselves in the mirror to check how the style would drape and combine.”

Tackling the fashion industry on a global scale, Abhishek has addressed challenges surrounding national customs, laws and different buying habits of customers.

Each territory that House of Attuendo expands into has its own set of rules, giving Abhishek the opportunity to grasp new traditions and skills to integrate into his collections.

“My fashion degree at UCA really paid minute attention to each segment of the fashion industry and developed my skills in fields of forecasting and promotions which have proved invaluable when starting House of Attuendo. The teachings from the tutors and course leaders, who are successful in their own right, have been deeply integrated into our everyday work.”

Above left Cap-poncho in hand-woven silk

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