Creative employment and internship opportunities flourish for Surface Pattern and Textiles students
Winning the Laura Ashley Lifestyle Award and securing a coveted, paid Rolls Royce internship – it’s been an incredibly exciting and rewarding time for UWTSD Swansea College of Art Surface Pattern and Textiles students.
Anna Eynon received the Laura Ashley Lifestyle Award at New Designers 2024 in London last week for her work, which celebrates the nature and beauty of British wetlands, centred around biophilia and bringing nature and happiness into our spaces. Anna’s collection is split into two: a home collection and a bespoke maximalist mural, using screen printing for the former, and stitch and laser cutting for the latter.
As part of the award, Anna receives £1000 in prize money for the brand to purchase the winning artwork and IP to add to Laura Ashley Archive, together with a paid freelance internship position for a month at Laura Ashley’s Head office, working with the brand licensing team and design team.
Poppy Marshal-Lawton, Vice President of Laura Ashley, said that the judging team were torn as they had such a hard job selecting from the excellent work of the students on the Surface Pattern and Textiles stand. They commented that they could easily have awarded each of them as they spoke so well about their individual projects and ideas, showing great commercial understanding of the relevance of their work to the Laura Ashley brand. The brand loved Anna Eynon’s signature and felt she was ultimately the best fit for their brand.
“We love the subject matter and interpretation of the print across the range – a beautifully commercial home interiors collection.” Laura Ashley Judges
UWTSD Surface Pattern and Textiles Programme Director Georgia McKie said: “This is testament to Anna’s fantastic vision and the brilliant work that the programme strives to maintain with regards to employability and entrepreneurship.
“The Laura Ashley brand said they are keen to rekindle their Welsh connection through the UWTSD programme, so the team will be seeking ongoing opportunities to work with the renowned British heritage brand, bringing it into the student experience for future generations of learners.”
Anna was also spotted by Sandersons, who anecdotally commented that Laura Ashley ‘pipped them to it’ in selecting Anna for their prize. Anna was also ‘love tagged’ by UK Greetings, as were her fellow exhibitors, Safiyyah Altaf and Emily Phillips. There is a lovely ‘love tag’ legacy at New Designers where the sponsoring brands present and leave beautiful tokens with selected students whose work catches their eye.
Georgia added: “There was a constant flow of visitors to the stand over the course of the week, where the students met many of their hero brands and welcomed back brands and friends of the programme that they have had the pleasure of collaborating with whilst studying.
“Students met UK Greetings, Kindred Cards, Habitat, Standfast and Barracks and so many more. It was lovely to welcome back Mini Moderns who are always so supportive, this time sharing their generosity and design world experience with the class of 24.”
The ND24 staff and student team also welcomed Rolls Royce who came to visit their next intern for the Bespoke Interiors team.
Jojo Bishop will be the next Rolls Royce Colour Material and Trim intern, following in the footsteps of Emma Landek and Rebecca Davies before her.
Georgia said: “It is doubly joyful to hear that Emma will be kept on at Rolls Royce as of August, joining Rebecca, our first intern at the brand, as permanent members of the design teams at Rolls Royce.
“Jojo will join the brand for 13 months and will be based at their design headquarters and factory in Goodwood. Her recent work has focussed on sustainability, specifically through screen print, colour, and cloth. Rolls Royce were impressed by her material knowledge and are intrigued as to how she can interpret the materiality of the brand whilst bringing conversations of sustainability to their drawing board.”
Other students have enjoyed an array of successes – Solene Parker is undertaking a six-month internship at Mitwill Textiles in France. She was also spotted by several brands at New Designers – she received ‘love tags’ from Disney Home and The Clothworkers’ Company and was shortlisted for the much-coveted New Designer of the Year Award.
Whilst at New Designers the Surface Pattern and Textiles programme team met with several companies that they have been building connections with.
The academic year 24/25 will see a live project with Swedish fashion brand Monki – it was such a pleasure for the team to welcome the brand’s Denim Designer to the stand and discuss ideas for the year ahead.
Georgia said: “Students were so grateful for the time he took to talk through their bodies of work. The team also had the great pleasure to meet with the senior design team from J Rosenthal who already employ one of our fantastic graduates, and who are now in the process of securing the future for another one of our exceptionally talented graduate designers.”
Two students have had success in being selected to work for Welsh company Corgi Textiles and have embarked on a trial period ahead of working there permanently. Other students have taken up opportunities to work on community arts projects with Welsh based artists and makers including Heidi Baker of Popty Press and former Senior Lecturer in Surface Pattern and Textiles, Julia Griffiths Jones.
“It has been a whirlwind of opportunities for the programme and the students, with opportunities coming in all the time. Continuing students are working on projects for our neighbours in the Albert Hall, and at Biophilic Living Swansea,” said Georgia.
Pic caption : Anna is pictured with the Laura Ashley team.
Further Information
Rebecca Davies
Executive Press and Media Relations Officer
Corporate Communications and PR
Email: rebecca.davies@uwtsd.ac.uk
Phone: 07384 467071