Pentland Creative Agency (PCA) is supporting creative students from two UK universities to develop their portfolios with two live lockdown briefs.
With many UK students building their careers in uncertain times, our award-winning team of designers have taken part in a series of virtual guidance sessions with students from the University of South Wales (USW) and Nottingham Trent University (NTU). The live sessions saw students present from countries all over the world, including China and Spain.
NTU Graphic Design students worked on a live creative brief for Speedo, which asked individuals to create a campaign to engage the swimming community during lockdown. Ideas included ‘we swim together’, ‘boom we always come back’ and a lockdown journal – reflecting the swimmers’ journey so far and setting out their future goals.
Fashion Promotion students from USW worked in virtual groups on a brief to create a 360 campaign for the ellesse Tanker sneaker. Ideas included ‘it takes two’, ‘make your mark’, a triple yellow Tanker collaboration with Selfridges as well as a global influencer programme.
Pentland Brands is proud to support young talent and has many long-term relationships with creative and academic institutions. Early this year, the same students from USW visited the Pentland Brands London HQ for an introduction to working in design and what it takes to embark on a creative career.
Gareth Davies, Pentland Creative Agency Director says: “Despite challenging circumstances, we’re proud that we were able to continue our support of creative students at USW and NTU. Many of our designers started their careers with us through our university relationships, so we’re especially pleased at this difficult time to be able to nurture young creative talent and support those just getting started in their careers.”
Rob Newton, Module Leader, Graphic Design at Nottingham Trent University says: “This year presented a new challenge of how to continue this experience during lockdown, which resulted in moving the whole live brief experience online! Thanks to the Pentland Brands team for responding so quickly for giving up their valuable time to join our students for the online sessions.”
Ashleigh, a second–year student at Nottingham Trent University says: “The feedback from Pentland for the Speedo brief was so helpful. I came away with very clear constructive feedback which definitely helped me move forward with the project.”
Congratulations to all of the students for persevering and devising some excellent campaigns – we wish you all the best for the future!