Discover the future of creative practice: Plymouth College of Art’s Class of 2020

Plymouth College of Art (@plymouthart) is committed to celebrating the new wave of art, design and media professionals ready to take over the creative industries from across our School of Design + Communication and our School of Arts + Media.

Discover the future of creative practice and celebrate with us the momentous achievements of this cohort of students, who have completed their degrees with ambition, perseverance and creativity during a period of unprecedented change.

With students selected for Graduate Fashion Week, winning the Freelands Painting Prize and the BAMS Student Medal Project to name a few, this year’s cohort have continued to exceed expectations despite the challenges that Covid-19 has presented.

Students have also collaborated with household names such as Size?, Schuh and Converse as well as proving their initiative and proactive approach when faced with coronavirus shortages by supporting Makers HQ in producing PPE out of hospital curtains for local surgeries.

 BA (Hons) Fashion, Media & Marketing student Izzy Orpin gets customising with size? and Converse

Working with their Subject Leaders, each BA (Hons) and Extended BA programme has collated a collection of work to demonstrate their abilities within the competitive creative industries, using an existing festival, platform, website, exhibition, publication or alternative format, best suited to their creative specialism.

This work is all collected on the Plymouth College of Art Class of 2020 landing page, with tiles that take you to each course’s individual online expo. From digital portfolios and publications to film showreels and virtual galleries, there’s never been so much to explore from the comfort of your sofa.

Illustration as Activism by Charlotte Leadley, BA (Hons) Illustration

Courses throughout the college have explored different platforms and formats in order to best represent their hard work throughout their degree. BA (Hons) Illustration developed their own brochure, True Grit, featuring Mojo Nation Student Design Challenge winners Izzy Hazard, Jess Holloway and Charlotte Leadley, the latter of whom has been shortlisted for the New Designer of the Year Award for Social Impact Design.

BA (Hons) Fine Art have also taken this year’s graduates work into their publication Boomers, Doomers & Zoomers, featuring work from students such as Molly Erin McCarthy, who is a co-director of C.A.M.P (Contemporary Art Membership Plymouth) and has had her work exhibited online with Digital Art Residency and Silicon Valet.

Prepared by Megan Roberts, BA (Hons) Fashion

Bold, an online portfolio representing the work of our BA (Hons) Graphic Communication students, includes designs by Maha Taher, one of our Ones to Watch and Elena Ruiz Ballestero, who developed branding for Green Minds, a Plymouth initiative to create sustainable green spaces throughout the city.

While global events have changed the nature of the Class of 2020 final year degree show, they are sharing this virtual community of practice with thousands of their peers from other arts universities around the world who have faced many of the same challenges.

‘D-V-DREAMS’ (2020) by Molly Erin McCarthy, BA (Hons) Fine Art 

Physical exhibition planned for Summer 2021

Nothing can replace the experience of exhibiting work in a physical space, and so Plymouth College of Art will offer any final year student completing their studies in 2020, the opportunity to exhibit a selection of their work as part of the annual degree shows next year. The Graduate Exposé 2021 event will be open to all graduate alumni who wish to exhibit their work to industry guests and visitors in a specially curated ‘one year on’ format.

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