In collaboration with We Are Boutique, a Leeds-based media communication agency, final year BA (Hons) Illustration students were invited to respond to a professional brief; to design a mural for the agency’s new office space.
The winning pitch was submitted by Ian Fulcher, whose design was selected for its elaborate detail and links to the industrial heritage of the building.
Ian spent a day at We Are Boutique to realise his design, using white paint pens to bring his concept to life. Speaking of his winning pitch Ian said:
“After receiving the brief I was keen to come up with a design that not only represented the local mill history, but one that I could also successfully replicate by hand onto the grey wall. As someone who predominantly produces digital artwork it was a great challenge for me to create a striking, graphical design whilst retaining the hand-drawn element.”
Image: Illustration student Ian Fulcher with We Are Boutique MD Simon Bollon in front of the winning design. Image courtesy of We Are Boutique.
“I still can’t quite believe they chose my design - it’s been a great experience working with the guys at We Are Boutique and it has given me a whole load of confidence to pursue further large-scale, 'live' drawing projects in the future."
We Are Boutique’s Managing Director Simon Bollon was impressed by the level of professionalism shown by the students:
“We could’ve easily paid a professional artist but we thought it’d be a great opportunity to give local students a chance to show off their talent – for a fee of course! Our brief was simple but the variety of submissions was testament to the creative minds of the talented students - it was clear that a lot of time and thought had gone into them. We wanted something that would create a talking point in meetings and it won’t be the last time we team up with the students on creative projects!”
