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New pioneers for the creative industries

10/02/2004

"We need to invest in the next generation of creative pioneers, individuals who will design new types of companies and create new markets."

The programme aims to invest over £3 million in supporting graduates from art and design courses to build new types of companies and business markets in the creative industries.

The announcement comes on the same day that research commissioned by NESTA is published showing that improved business and financial skills were needed for people in the creative industries in order for them to attract investment[1]. As graduates make up the majority of the workforce in the creative industries the Graduate Pioneer Programme is designed to help address this.

The first thirty graduates invited onto the programme will attend a paid three-week course at the Academy. Here they will come face-to-face with creative entrepreneurs who have experienced what it's like to set up a business. They will learn business principles; explore entrepreneurship, and receive coaching for personal and professional development.

Up to fifteen of those attending the Academy will then go on to win Pioneer Awards of up to £35,000 to start their own business, and will receive the ongoing support of a NESTA mentor. With this expertise we hope to see them become the role models of the future, showing how the creative industries can produce entrepreneurs who significantly contribute to the UK's economic wealth.

Hugo Manassei, Director of the Graduate Pioneer Programme, said:

"The creative industries are fast becoming essential drivers to the UK economy. They are estimated to contribute almost 8% to GDP and have grown by 8% from 1997-2001, far more than the 2.6% average for the rest of the economy. To retain this growth, and build on the global lead the UK has taken in this market, we need to invest in the next generation of creative pioneers, individuals who will design new types of companies and create new markets. The Graduate Pioneer Programme aims to do just that."

A full list of graduates attending the Academy, which runs until the end of February 2004, is attached.

Mark Bickers (RCA) Business Idea: To start a small to medium scale glass manufacturing business that will utilise both hand-made and industrial techniques.

Joanna Bodzek (Central Saint Martins) Business Idea: A company that uses the theory of the effect of colour on wellbeing in the production of garments and interior design.

Robert Brown (RCA) Business Idea: A product design consultancy that specialises in products for mass-use that do less harm to the environment.

Mark Champkins (RCA) Business Idea: A consultancy that designs and develops products for schools, using input from teachers and pupils.

Alex Gore Browne (Central Saint Martins) Business Idea: A fashion label using knitting to express female sexuality.

Alistair Hall (Central Saint Martins) Business Idea: A graphic design consultancy that specialises in using tactile materials and print processes to communicate on an emotional level.

Harriet Harriss (RCA) Business Idea: A new magazine for architectural innovation

Sarah Johnson (Goldsmith's) Business Idea: A new sustainable design magazine that aims to communicate the present and future issues around sustainable design.

Nicola Koller (RCA) Business Idea: An architecture practice more accessible to the public through more inclusive design.

Hannah Marshall (Colchester Institute) Business Idea: Innovative new womenswear inspired by and coded with Braille.

Neil McGuire (Glasgow School of Art) Business Idea: A new business that will use innovative ways of inspiring 'brand-tired' customers.

Matthias Megyeri (RCA) Business Idea: A security company that will provide functional safety but also psychological well-being through non-threatening design.

Richard Monaghan (Northumbria University) Business Idea: A credit card company that provides the consumer with two cards, one black to be used when you are not happy to be spending the money and one white to be used when you are happy to make a purchase - a purchasing voting mechanism.

Lisa Morgan (RCA) Business Idea: A lingerie company, Strumpet and Pink, which will explore the sensuality and sexuality of women through design.

Helen Amy Murray (Chelsea School of Art) Business Idea: A bespoke textile company based on manipulating fabric to achieve sculptural depth.

Amanda Nicholls (Northumbria University) Business Idea: An alternative fast food service by developing products that connect the consumer to food in new ways.

Sarah Raffel (Glasgow School of Art) Business Idea: A Glasgow based gallery that supports new talent and caters for the more perceptive jewellery consumer by creating an integrated workshop and gallery space.

Cliona Reilly (Central St Martins) Business Idea: New plastic woven fabrics for outdoor wear made with 'intelligent' ink and dyes.

Cassie Robinson (Ravensbourne) Business Idea: To design, produce and style clothing in the form of uniforms, merchandise and unique one-off pieces representing exceptional fashion products to develop and enhance our clients profile.

Katie Rowlands (Kingston University) Business Idea: A communications company that strengthens the communication links between public services and the 'local' community, resulting in a better-informed community.

Deborah Szebeko (The London Institute and Buckinghamshire Chilterns University) Business Idea: A design consultancy to support NHS clinicians in addressing complex communication issues with their patients.

Marloes Ten Bhomer (RCA) Business Idea: A smaller production of customised shoes that take the needs of individuals into consideration.

Noam Toran (RCA) Business Idea: A design consultancy that develops customised products tailored to individual clients' needs.

Georg Tremmel (RCA) Business Idea: prolonging the life of your DNA by encoding it within the DNA of trees, without affecting the resulting trees genetically or visually in any way, in order to create living memorials and transgenic tombstones.

Indri Tulusan (RCA) Business Idea: A socio-cultural service design agency, that improves and creates consumer experiences for health style products.

Josh Uddin (Middlesex University) Business Idea: A new design consultancy based on the idea of taking redundant classic designed products and applying them in a new ways to develop new products for new uses.

Martin Vowles (RCA) Business Idea: A design consultancy that will target change through developing social and political communication materials.

Ulla Winkler (RCA) Business Idea: A new design consultancy that will specialise in developing interactive environments that react in real-time to human inputs such as voice, touch and movement.

Suzi Winstanley (RCA) Business Idea: A new architectural practice whose solution is not always to build new buildings.

Hannah White (Central St Martins) Business Idea: A textile company that develops fabrics with a 3D structure. The fabric can be worn and cleaned and will remember the 'latent' information and reform to its original state.

[1]New solutions to old problems: investing in the creative industries, by Tom Fleming

GPP launch Research into the creative industries