We have caught up with our CIDA winners and ones to watch to find out how it really is in the gritty world beyond the glittery awards. It's tough out there we know, but our colourful creative community are doing all right. Read on to find out what they've been doing since the awards and what they are up to now.
What was the first big thing you did after winning the award (new work, exhibition, show, event, meeting, pitch?).
Right after the award, the summer was pretty quiet but I was exhibiting in three different shows between September and October: Creative Unions at Central Saint Martins, !00% Design in the Design Fresh Selection, and Cluster Craft Fair in Brick Lane.
How successful was it and what did you learn?
I got a few enquiries, including a request for a pop up event for Elle Decoration during the Dutch Design Week. It was great to be able to work with professionals on a bespoke project and I was very happy with the result.
Creative Unions was also very exciting as it was open for a bit more than a month, and I got to show my animated wallpaper live for the first time. With the help of the exhibition team I had to work with the layout of the wallpaper and the projector at the same time so everything would fit perfectly. It made me want to play around with this idea a bit more.
What have been the hardest creative obstacles to overcome recently and do you think you have overcome them?
Confidence and motivation. At uni I was always in a creative mindset, experimenting in the workshops, talking about my project, getting feedback, etc. I was quite busy until November but it got a lot quieter after that and I have found myself struggling to push myself to work on something new since. Working on the side makes it even harder to find time to focus on my personal projects. In this situation it can be quite easy to get stuck in the daily routine without moving forward. But the Christmas break was a good time to reflect on all of this, and I am confident that I will have more time to focus on my practice this year.
What have been the best things you’ve done since winning the award and what have you learnt as a result?
I turned my wallpaper into 16 prints to be framed for NHS Forth Valley in Scotland, and I am now selling them as limited editions. It was good to learn about the different type of fine art prints available and the different type of papers, frames, etc.I would love to do more framed prints in the future.
I was also happy to work on my colourful patterns again, as I wasn’t really sure what to do with my wallpaper until then.
What’s next?
For now I want to continue to explore different techniques and mediums. Although I love my colourful wallpaper I feel like there is more for me to experiment with.