Carl P.S. Hoare is an artist and illustrator, whose industry experience began with the Winston Churchill design competition in 2015. The competition, in which Carl placed first, offers young and talented designers the chance to create a unique Pol Roger champagne gift box and winners receive a paid internship at Pentland Brands in our graduate Design Pool.
Since his internship, Carl has set up Everyone Art; a start-up that uses art workshops and pop up portraiture classes to foster a love of design and promote health and wellbeing. We spoke to Carl about how his competition win allowed him to take his first steps in the industry, and how he’s been bringing art into the lives of others ever since.
What stage of your life and career were you at when you entered the Winston Churchill design competition?
“I’d been a painter for some years with a sort of dark satire and had exhibitions in London, Berlin and New York, in gallery’s such as The Horse Hospital, The National Print Gallery and The Bankside Gallery. It was shortly after I finished my post graduate degree that I entered the competition.”
What was your design?
“I created an art work where the viewer could look into Winston Churchill’s mind. I remember drawing each half of his face split down the middle, each side of an A3 page. The drawing sat on my desk for a few weeks until I read Art Spiegelman’s book ‘Mouse’, and I had my eureka moment to tell his story like a graphic novel. The design became a sort of mind map of Winston Churchill remembering the rise to fame that made his dream of becoming politician a reality.”
What happened after you submitted your entry?
“Part of my prize was a paid internship with Pentland Brands. During the internship I worked on projects for brands such as KangaROOS, Speedo and Canterbury. With Canterbury I illustrated the brand’s history around the inside of a former rugby player’s ice bath from the original Twickenham rugby ground, which now resides in Pentland HQ. The crescendo of my time at Pentland came when the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, came to Pentland Brands and I presented the Canterbury project I was working on. Experiences like that are once in a life time moments! Pentland seem to have a gift for making things like this a reality.”
What are you working on now?
“After my time at Pentland, I set up a company called Everyone Art. We run art workshops to promote health and wellbeing for organisations and universities such as London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London and City University among many others. We also run pop up portraiture classes in collaboration with Fringe actors, spoken word artists and poets as well singer-song writers and bands. They perform and our drawers have the challenge of capturing a moving person and the ambience of the event.
“In the time that’s left over I am a practising artist and illustrator. For the last two years I’ve been asked to contribute to the Royal College of Art’s Secret exhibition and hang alongside creatives such as Grayson Perry, Nick Park, Sir Paul Smith, Ridley Scott, Billy Childish and Tracy Emmin.”
Would you recommend the competition to other young designers?
“Yes I would, because it creates incredible opportunities for contemporary designers. Even if you don’t win, the process makes you read, listen and look and that’s incredibly rewarding. It’s an educational journey as well a creative process.”
What advice would you to give student or graduate designers looking to enter the competition?
“Before you put pen to paper or mouse to screen, try and understand the brief as much as you can. Read and watch documentary films, don’t be scared to look at things that you deem as old, and look at all perspectives of the subject. Then you can make an informed design that not only looks good but one which you can talk about without hesitation.”
The deadline for the Winston Churchill Design Competition is 16th April 2019 – find out more about how to enter here.