Platforms of Exchange

P L AT F O R M S O F E X C H A N G E

Celebrating collaborations between first year students in the School of Design + Communication, Arts University Pymouth.

Published June 2022

The team behind this publication:

Printed by: Newspaper Club Room 103 South Block 58-60 Osborne St Glasgow G1 5QH

Editor: Mel Brown Graphic Designer/Art Director: Julia Tokarska Copy Editors: Julia Tokarska, Mel Brown and Peter Barker

A number of sensitive topics are addressed within this publication, including violence against women, mental health, the war in Ukraine, issues of representation, and animal welfare. Please exercise caution when reading if you have been affected directly by any of these issues, or skip to pages 44 and 45 if you’d like to find out more about these topics.

THANK YOU Thank you to the 2022 Platforms of Exchange tutors: Alanna Morgan, Bridgette Ashton, Frédérique Santune, Ilker Cinarel, Jerry Moore, Jon Blyth, Katie Beasley and Naomi Batts.

Thank you to Peter Barker, Jason Hirons, Naomi Batts and Bridgette Ashton for their written contributions.

Thank you to Julia Tokarska for this publication. What Julia delivered in her designs was such a clear, fresh vision for the newspaper before we had even started the delivery of the unit.

The newspaper truly came to life when our students’ work started to be added and Julia’s vision held it all together beautifully.

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Copyright All rights reserved. All images are copyright to their respective owners and may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the owner’s express written permission. This publication or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the editor.

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TA B L E O F CONTENTS Welcome

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Head of School

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We Are What We Do

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Staff Perspective

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Student Quotes

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Student Work

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Further Info

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Contact

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Behind the Scenes

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WELCOME Welcome to Platforms of Exchange - a cross-school Unit where we invite first year students to collaborate with their peers from courses across the School of Design and Communication. We encourage our students to share their creative skills in pursuit of problem solving, exploring their potential as communicators and designers who are able to provide creative solutions to real world issues.

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Design educator Sarah Stein Greenberg in Creative Acts for Curious People states that since we live “in an era of ambiguous, messy problems…it’s vital to have both an inquisitive mind and the ability to act with intention”. As we travel through our lives encountering those ‘messy problems’, it’s important to remember that although we face them together, our lived experiences differ widely.

But how can we experience what another person thinks or feels?

In When Strangers Meet, Kio Stark observes that simply talking to strangers pulls you into experiences of shared humanity and creates genuine emotional connections…Talking to people who are different from us can be radically transformative. It’s the antidote to fear.”

Philosopher Roman Krznaric is an internationally renowned expert on empathy and at the start of the Unit we watched The Power of Outrospection, a short animated lecture where Krznaric explores how we can help drive social change by stepping outside ourselves. Krznaric encourages us to expand our moral universe to become empathic adventurers.

We see this Unit as a journey our students undertake as empathic adventurers, collectively testing their capacity to become more empathic designers, communicators and creatives. Journeys by their very nature can be enriching and rewarding, but they can also be unpredictable and frustrating.

The paths we follow can be sprawling and littered with crossroads and diversions or they can be narrow and unnavigable, leading to dead ends and obstructions. Decisions need to be made and directions chosen and when we travel with others we are constantly negotiating and compromising to try to ensure the experience is valuable for all involved.

Platforms of Exchange tested our students in terms of their resilience and patience. We’ve learnt so much from them and their feedback will shape how the Unit evolves in the future. They wanted more variety in terms of collaborative opportunities available to them, to experience different approaches to teamwork. They wanted the pace of the Unit to match their creativity - there were times when the delivery travelled at a steady pace while they were ready to sprint.

Having said that, what they created by the end of the Unit impressed us all - a wonderful array of

carefully and kindly considered responses to real world issues, thought provoking and inspirational.

Challenged to explore themes they cared about, the range of responses was impressive and in this publication you will find statements from each team explaining what they achieved.

As educators, I believe it is vital that we provide opportunities for students to work together to explore the impact and influence of creativity in providing solutions to issues of social justice and global challenge that we – the human race – face in these early decades of the Twenty-first Century.

As communicators and designers, whatever our chosen specialism, grappling with these questions of what we can do for the world and each other, is why I believe the world needs creatives now more than ever. We live in a world that is divided by inequality and intolerance, but creative skill can help to bridge those gaps and remind us to treat each other with compassion and patience, uniting us to solve the problems of both the present and the future together.

Mel Brown Assistant Head of School, Design + Communication

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HEAD OF SCHOOL When we were conceiving of Arts University Plymouth’s innovative undergraduate Common Unit Framework back in 2018/19 one of the central pillars of the new plan was for students to be able to collaborate on projects across disciplines and courses.

This was intended to be the case for Years one and two, with the final year being dedicated to specialist study.

The benefits of cross-course collaborative working are immense: new forms of art and design can arise, fresh expressions of visual creativity possibly enabled by new technology are feasilble. This potentially leads to increased student satisfaction and graduate employability. More profoundly, collaboration with others enables the professions of design and communication to develop, change and grow to suit new realities both now and in the future.

The Platforms of Exchange School-wide brief for 2022 was to examine the benefits of diversity. This year’s projects from students within the School of Design + Communication at AUP are strikingly caring and altruistic in their response. The expression of concern about issues and offering of a designed solution to those issues is uplifting. There are many situations facing young (and not so young) people in the world today, here are some of the great projects that resulted from this Unit and its brief.

Peter Barker Head of School, Design + Communication

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WE ARE W H AT W E D O When I was asked to write the three cross school lectures connected to the Platforms of Exchange Unit, I had to think about what the themes of this project meant to me. Terms such as Social Justice, Community, and Change can sometimes be lost in translation; they are easy to use as part of a branding exercise, and much harder to put into practice. But I see social justice and creative education as ways our specialist arts university can enter into the discourse on what the arts and humanities are for, and what good they can do. By good, I mean how do they keep the social progress we’ve made over the last two centuries going in a forward direction when so many of the gains have been lost in the midst of the decade of austerity and the constant attacks that have led to the diminishing role of the arts and humanities in British mainstream culture?

century: are we just here to make stuff, or are we here to make stuff that makes people’s lives a little better?

Art schools are heterotopias of discourse and engagement. People come to art school because they want to say something, do something and be something.

Everything is connected. All ideas, all concepts, all phenomena… it’s all part of the smorgasbord of life and living. In the words of the late great Kurt Kobain… all in all is all we are. We are what we do, not what we say we’ll do.

The three lectures explored ideas of connection to this city’s past and present. They covered ideas of free speech and responsibility, and what it truly means to discuss community as a thing that can be about something, and can truly do something. With these lectures I tried to focus on examples of hope, such as when citing the way IDLES responded to the darkness creeping into our culture by creating an album that challenged us to love ourselves, and to love others, despite the creeping negativism of the mid 2010s. As Rebecca Solnit says in her book of essays Hope in the Dark, “Hope just means another world might be possible… not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.” Social Justice and community is part of finding that hope.

Design lies at the heart of everything we are about in the Design + Communication School here at Arts University Plymouth. When we say something is done ‘by design’ we mean it has been considered, thought through, and arrived at after consideration.

And we operate within the boundaries of that word; design. Philippe Starck is an example of a designer who understands that if we are just adding to the myriad of stuff that already exists then we are for nothing. But if we are thinking how what we make can slightly improve the day to day life of (in Starck’s words) our friends, then perhaps we have something good to add to this discourse on design and change.

Action calls to action. And through practice and reflection, as makers and thinkers at the heart of the city’s creative heart, we are part of the change we want to see in the world.

It starts with an idea. It starts with an action.

It starts with us.

Jason Hirons Senior Lecturer, Contextual Studies

When Paul Bowman asked what are we for he was making explicit an implicit question that has been at the heart of design since the start of the last

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S TA F F PERSPECTIVE ‘Embracing visual and cultural enrichment’ has been a steep yet important learning curve for our students. At the beginning of the Unit, our students were apprehensive about combining their chosen disciplines with other student’s skill sets and knowledge. A show ‘n’ tell task in small groups where our students presented their favourite work from the academic year so far became the starting point for breaking down the barriers of not knowing each other. They started to see that, even though their disciplines are different, they had common interests and passions. Combining this with the introduction of challenging subjects through seminars and lectures, it felt like a turning point in how our students interacted with their discipline and each other. The value of shared knowledge started to become apparent.

The joy of teaching this Unit has been seeing the students consider their audience and how their work will interact with the outside world

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above all else. The students I’ve taught have been passionate about communicating ideas and creating positive, creative solutions to problems they see within education, the community or wider society. An additional triumph has been seeing students form friendship groups within the studio space. Being given the opportunity to work with others outside of their course has formed connections that will be beneficial to their degrees and consequently their careers in their chosen fields. Overall the Unit has given the students the space and time to embrace visual and cultural enrichment not only through outcomes, but within their practice too.

Naomi Batts Platforms of Exchange Tutor

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This Unit challenged the students to stretch themselves by working collaboratively with new people and researching unfamiliar topics. It was good to see the many different ways each team approached this provocation – some jumping straight in and others slowly developing ideas to creatively address and highlight important issues.

As tutors it was our role to guide the students to tease out what was important to them as creatives in the world today. Their resourcefulness allowed them to work together, recognising their individual strengths and contributing to team outcomes that they would probably not previously considered working towards.

The final flurry of activity as the students concluded their outcomes and together formulated plans for its presentation created a real sense of community.

And it was great to hear in the final critique each team’s acknowledgement of the vitality of their achievements.

Bridgette Ashton, Platforms of Exchange Tutor

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AT T H E S TA R T O F T H I S P R O J E C T, W E A S K E D OUR STUDENTS WHY

Here are a few of those responses:

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Art is the foundation of ‘good living’ and not just surviving.

Chelsea Vance

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We need ethical, thoughtful change that speaks to the masses.

Li Hughes

Ultimately I think creativity is communication. Any way of sharing the breadth of human experience is essential to progression as a society. It is connection, and without connection we have no meaning.

Lily-Elle Bragg

The world around us is in need of change, it is broken and deserves nurturing with creativity.

Jay Sherratt

Today’s world is full of issues which need to be addressed and sometimes the best way to do that is through creative methods, creative power.

Samuel Whetter

Reshaping the future. Creativity has the power to inspire new solutions to a rapidly changing world.

Thomas Pope

The world needs change, and creative minds can bring that in their own unique way.

Brandon Burch

An opportunity to challenge and reimagine to address inequalities.

Alison Netherton

Creatives have the ability to challenge and disrupt ideas in new and exciting ways.

Amy Owen

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STUDENT WORK 14

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PROJECT PLASTIC POLLUTION Our project raises awareness for environmental issues, in particular the effects of plastic pollution on our health, wildlife and environment. This is a widespread problem affecting our marine wildlife and oceans.

We felt passionate about this issue as we are situated in Plymouth, where

the ocean is at the heart of the city and needs to be protected.

We have made a series of 3 posters that educate and increase awareness of pollution. We hope the viewer is left feeling passionate about this issue and can move forward living a more ecofriendly and plastic free lifestyle.

Zara McDermott

BA (Hons) Illustration

Martha Pengelly

BA (Hons) Illustration

Faith Divito

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Tutor: Ilker Cinarel

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Liam Olczyk

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication

Lydia Pennell

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

Emily Woodall

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

Megan White

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Carter Woods

PERIODS, PERIOD.

BA (Hons) Illustration

Charlie-Ann Johnson

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Ace Hayward

BA (Hons) Illustration

Georgia Eason

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Tutor: Jon Blyth

We aimed to address the issues of stigma, shame and taboo surrounding periods through this project. “Abolishing stigma, period” is our main message that we hope to convey within this project and is also our Instagram bio.

In order to achieve this, we have produced a magazine. We believe, as a group, that this would be the

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most effective method to best demonstrate visuals, such as illustration and photography plus open conversations surrounding periods.

Our intended audience is anyone who feels as though they might want to learn more about periods or anyone who has experienced/ currently experiences periods.

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Our project is based around domestic violence specifically against women. Our main focus with this project was to create a final visual design that had the ability to evoke emotion and raise awareness while capturing the audience’s attention, without becoming long-winded or personal.

For our audience, we based the idea upon being presented in high schools. We specifically wanted to highlight a taboo subject so we created leaflets to display information on domestic violence with the hand sign for domestic violence on the front to spread more awareness.

Alexis Allen

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Cally Coombes

BA (Hons) Illustration

Katherine Iremonger BA (Hons) Textile Design

Heather Langan

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Hannah Morgan-Leeman BA (Hons) Textile Design

Chloe Laycock

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Tutors: Bridgette Ashton & Naomi Batts

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Christina Camborne-Paynter

Magnus Cooper

Hannah Davies

Dannielle Hunter

BA (Hons) Illustration

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Matt Marshall

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

BA (Hons) Illustration

Tutors: Bridgette Ashton & Naomi Batts

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Ksenia Volgemut

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication

U N L E A R N I N G TO X I C MASCULINITY For our project, we are addressing toxic masculinity and the effect this has on children from an early stage in their lives. We want to present this to primary school children because people’s beliefs and views as a person tend to be formed when they are young.

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Toxic masculinity can be very damaging to all children as they grow, causing many struggles for their mental and physical health.

We decided an effective way to bring this into their everyday lives would be in the form of a poster which can be displayed in an educational environment.

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WA L K I N G & M E N TA L H E A LT H Walking within a city has been researched and proven to improve one’s mental health. We wanted to make a sort of guide with three paths within the city centre, starting at AUP and then heading towards the Barbican. Each path will vary in length depending on your well-being with the longest path used for leisure walking.

providing easy access to the paths and hotspots within those paths.

The project is aimed towards people aged between 18-27 years, and anyone who lives in Plymouth.

We hope that this project will provide a helpful guide for those who don’t feel as well as they would like.

Toby Lever

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Ethan Horner

BA (Hons) Illustration

Aaron Aragon

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication

Olivia Antoszkiewicz

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication

Tutors: Bridgette Ashton & Naomi Batts

There will be a map, a zine and a website, with the last of the three

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A disproportionate number of people are unhappy with their body and with higher body dissatisfaction being associated with a poorer quality of life, psychological distress and the risk of unhealthy eating behaviours, we thought it was time to make a change.

Our team decided to make a patchwork quilt full of textures that related to various physical features deemed as undesirable by mainstream Western media. We wanted to make something comforting and beautiful in order to change people’s perspectives on themselves.

Lydia Head

BA (Hons) Textile Design

Max Davies

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

Sophie Gollop

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Beth Conway

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Esme Chinnery

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Tutor: Ilker Cinarel

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SEWCIAL CENTRAL We felt the need to tackle the issue of fast fashion. As well as this, the fact that sewing skills were taken away from school curriculums and many are left with no choice but to buy from big chains.

We have created a concept for a community shop. We created a brochure and a 3D drawing of the space. Our intended audience is the local people of Plymouth; gender, age and race are not issues.

The message we want to convey throughout our project is that fast fashion is harmful and environmentally costly. We want to see a change of consumption habits and awareness of our action impact.

We don’t want to only create a shop to mend and create new clothes, we want a community, a safe place to be oneself and to learn and grow together.

Emily Grant

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication

Abbey Golds

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Diane Manoury

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Daria Sora

BA (Hons) Illustration

Olivia Walker

BA (Hons) Illustration

Zaq Slade

BA (Hons) Illustration

Tutor: Jon Blyth

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H E A LT H CONDITIONS Our project is aimed at addressing and destigmatising physical and mental health conditions, and portraying daily struggles.

Our audience isn’t exactly a specific demographic, it’s more anyone that is willing to listen.

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It can be recieved by people who share the same conditions to make them feel less alienated; but it is also applicable to people who don’t have such conditions, to show them the invisible daily struggles of other people around them.

Amy Wilkinson

BA (Hons) Illustration

Kelsey Cruddace

BA (Hons) Illustration

Olivia Moore

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Catt Barlow

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Tutor: Jerry Moore

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P LY M O U T H ’ S HOUSING CRISIS IS REAL Originally we looked at rough sleepers in Plymouth, speaking to Luke Pollard MP informed us that the provision was satisfactory. So we turned our focus to another form of homelessness; the lack of social housing for the 9000+ people on Plymouth’s waiting list for accommodation.

We created an interactive textile - ‘Stick a Brick’. To have people show their support by helping to build our street and start conversations.

We aim to raise awareness and start a campaign calling for change. Since we spoke to Luke Pollard MP about our progress, he has introduced this issue twice in the House of Commons.

We aim to attract media attention to continue building public pressure for action. Our message is “Plymouth’s Housing Crisis is Real”, the city needs targeted funds to create 600+ new social rent homes by 2026. Let’s make it happen!

Alison Netherton

BA (Hons) Textile Design

Fiona Bennett

BA (Hons) Textile Design

Willow Frost

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Tutor: Jerry Moore

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Cliche is an exploration of the unrealistic and changing beauty standards within the media which we are conditioned to comply with.

We feel our generation has beentoo focused around beauty ideals, from make up all the way through to surgery.

The project aims to show how easy it is to manipulate your images to fit into modern day society and to remind our audiences not to believe everything they see as reality and to not to change the way they look in order to be accepted. Instead they should be their most confident self.

Eloise Moore

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Amy Owen

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

Darcey Ball

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

Tutor: Katie Beasley

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M A L E M E N TA L H E A LT H With this project, I wanted to investigate the stereotype that men do not require mental health treatment. My major goal was to learn about and communicate the problems that men face on a daily basis when it comes to expressing their feelings.

Jonza Loughran

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

Tutors: Bridgette Ashton & Naomi Batts

Because the issue is difficult to discuss, it is heavily downplayed in talks. I wanted to make it more visible, so I designed a t-shirt design that could be viewed without having to speak.

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Lauren Barrow

Elise May

Caitlin Evans

Candice Morgan

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Izzy Anstice-Mitchell

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Tutor: Jerry Moore

PROJECT UKRAINE Our project on the theme of media propaganda is based on the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Feeling strongly about this issue we chose to take this direction for our project.

We chose to create a GIF that exposes media propaganda. We have put 6 images in a GIF that alternates between the Russian and Ukrainian representatives holding statements from each country.

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We feel this will show how simple it is for the media propaganda to influence society.

Media propaganda can be extremely damaging and everyone should be aware that Russian civillians are being lied to by their government. Our ultimate aim is to show people how easy it is for the media to control society.

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W H AT ’ S Y O U R M I L E ?

‘You never truly know someone’s story till you walk a mile in their shoes.’

We focused on people who have a diagnosis, chronic illness or are disabled.

We have shared stories to the public, to give an understanding of what goes on in day-to-day life and to help people reflect on how they behave around others with a disability or chronic illness. Not always jumping to judgement.

We created embroidered imagery and typography from quotes of the stories we heard to educate, and empower.

Special thanks to the people who shared their stories, Charity Friends and Families Devon and The Ground Coffee House.

Bailey Doe

BA (Hons) Fashion Design

Amber Jutson

BA (Hons) Textile Design

Catherine Witcher BA (Hons) Illustration

Tutor: Ilker Cinarel

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S U S TA I N ABILITY WITH-IN FA S T FA S H I O N Megan Ellse

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Lexy Andrew

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Eve McCartney

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Sophie Checkley

BA (Hons) Textile Design

Jake Grenney

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Josh Seal

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Tutors: Bridgette Ashton & Naomi Batts

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Our group explored the effects of fast fashion on the environment. We had very little issue regarding the aims of this project, we wanted to create tote bags and scrunchies.

Our theme was to make products out of fast fashion clothes and create a social media platform where we could share information on the effects of fashion on the environment.

We wanted to show people how to recycle their clothing and what they can create.

Our audience is 18-25 year olds due to our product focus on reusing clothes and educating people as to the effects on the environment.

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Jade McCabe

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Laura Murray

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Tutor: Katie Beasley

Our audience is young men.

We want to make them aware as boys that women will face more struggles regarding safety in their lives.We want to make young men aware that their comments and actions have a big impact on how females feel in public, and that they can be the change in how females act when in public.

We hope that our message gets heard by young men, and that they begin to understand that no matter what females do, the blame always gets pushed back on women even if it’s not their fault. We want them to understand that it’s their actions that can prevent violence against women and have them take responsibility for that.

We could print our posters in bulk to use for protesters to use in a public peaceful protest for violence against women.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN We want to bring awareness towards young men about ‘violence against women’. We realise that men don’t feel as unsafe as women and girls; from walking home from school to being out alone at night etc.

We captured and edited these images to convey fear through eerie atmospheres. We want to make men aware that even though they are in public settings, most women will still not feel safe whilst being alone.

We have made 3 different posters of public settings where females may feel uncomfortable walking on their own.

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NEURODIVERSITY For this project we are celebrating neurodiversity in women as we collectively felt that women are often misdiagnosed or diagnosed late due to common symptoms that can be mistaken for other medical conditions.

We used this idea and created a zine to educate and celebrate this issue through the use of visuals, collective data and research.

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We wanted to portray our project in a lighthearted positive way but also showing the individual struggles that could occur day to day so that we could really get the message across to viewers as to what neurological disorders are actually like.

Poppy Stroud

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Courtney Drummond

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Lauren Pemberton BA (Hons) Illustration

Phoebe Hawkins

BA (Hons) Illustration

Tutors: Bridgette Ashton & Naomi Batts

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Ash Tinkler

BA (Hons) Illustration

Sam Whetter

BA (Hons) Illustration

Brandon Burch

BA (Hons) Illustration

Tutor: Alanna Morgan

M E N TA L H E A LT H ZINE The issue that our team chose to work with was the mental health crisis in teenagers and young adults.

The way we chose to address this issue was by creating a zine based on mental health. We felt that this would be a good way for us to offer help to those who need it in a more fun, colourful and light-hearted way.

Our intended audience was teenagers and young adults, however we also took into consideration the chance that parents may see it and get the zine for their children, or that doctors and mental health experts may use it. Because of this we had to ensure that it was suitable for both audiences.

The message that we aimed to convey throughout the whole zine was one of acceptance and to hopefully work towards destigmatizing mental health.

We hope that our audience would benefit from the information provided, and also that the zine helps them to feel more at ease with their mental health as a whole. We also createded some activities with the aim to provide our audience with a safe space to take their mind off of things.

There are many ways that this project could progress further.

A few that we discussed were: creating a QR code for the PDF version of the zine, creating a social media platform for it, and having it in Mind centres.

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MY BODY IS NOT A TREND Having grown up with social media at our fingertips, we have all experienced the impact of body shaming and misreprsentation within the media.

With this in mind we have produced an inclusive zine, showcasing the issues surrounding day to day life created by toxic and manipulated images, with the aim to educate and have a positive impact on the younger generation.

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Social media has been proven to cause psychological stress, anxiety and induce harm on young peoples mental health.

Jasmine Atkinson

Within our zine we have created a campaign; “Where’s your will to be weird?” in which people are encouraged to post unedited photos to social media platforms with the (Hashtag)Beweirdcampaign, in order to make a visual change.

Charlotte Wright

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Laura Corbey

BA (Hons) Costume Production

Faye Crook

BA (Hons) Costume Production BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Amy Ewer

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Tutor: Frédérique Santune

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C R E AT I V E LY QUEER When we started this project, we wanted to uplift and represent the queer artists of the South West, most of us being queer artists ourselves. Living in a very much white and CisHet part of the country, we found that we were quite underrepresented, so our goal in mind was simply this - create something made for and by only queer artists.

Our first step was setting up an Instagram account, from there we had somewhat of a casting call if you will, vetting for people that were looking to showcase their work.

With help from the Student Union, we then advertised and hosted an exhibition, showing the work of the artists we had featured, with Paolo taking photos of a few of the artists we were featuring. All in all the event went swimmingly, and as a group I think we absolutely smashed it.

Boo Crispin

BA (Hons) Textile Design

Drew Hartnell

BA (Hons) Illustration

Paolo Benito

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Tutor: Jerry Moore

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W H AT ’ S T H E R E TO SMILE ABOUT? We believe in mass representation, opening converstations, speaking of issues that may be uneasy but important topics of discussion, being all-inclusive and subjective about the different aspects of what it is to be a femenist.

We want to create a platform for all - accessible and free. We are here

Express but don’t oppress. Bringing awareness to topics through our podcast and zine. Women discussing their shared experinces, both good and bad.

Gloria Matera

Molly Royston

Matilda Shelley

Alexa Yapp

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

BA (Hons) Fashion Design BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Arianwen Hewer

Layla-Sophia Truelove-Noorani

Anna English

Daisy Buckley

Laura Smith

Hannah Williams

BA (Hons) Illustration BA (Hons) Fashion Design BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Tutor: Alanna Morgan

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to educate and debate but not hate.

Speaking on credited and anonymous experiences. A safe space and community.

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication BA (Hons) Fashion Design

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FEMPOWERMENT Our project addresses the issue of violence against women, and gender based harassment. We aim to do this by empowering women and fighting the negativity surrounding feminism.

Instead of focusing on the prominence of gender based violence, we have embraced a more positive response and have decided to celebrate women in order to inspire strength in our community.

Our project is focused around a zine that promotes positivity by including inspiring and affirming messages.

As well as the zine, we created an Instagram account with the intent to promote our zine and continue the encouraging messages after the project is over.

Paisley Ginter

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Mia Kinchin

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Georgia Albano

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Constance Flynn

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

Jessie Nel-Barker

BA (Hons) Illustration

We felt that a zine was the best way to reflect our individual creativity in a cooperative way.

Our project is all about the empowerment of women, therefore our target audience is women. It is a project by women for women.

We would love for anyone experiencing emotional or physical abuse to find our Instagram page and know that there is a community out there; they are not alone. We would love them to read our zine and feel empowered and encouraged.

Our zine is a safe space for them to feel strong and powerful. We could definitely have developed our project further by pushing our zine and promoting in the form of sales, and we could have sold the prints to raise money for a charity that already helps women.

Rosmarie Hurrell BA (Hons) Illustration

Tutor: Frédérique Santune

Ellie Mead

BA (Hons) Illustration

Chelsea Vance

BA (Hons) Illustration

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EXPRESSZINE Our project is about Gender Expression.

For this Issue we produced a creative journal zine, where the team explored all sorts of directions surrounding gender expression. We did this as we believed there was such a range to explore that we thought creating multiple media responses would suit the context best.

Our intended audience is the younger generation, both progressives and non progressives in order to further inspire or

help to inspire and encourage others. The message we want to convey is to provide education, hope and confidence for those who read, to feel powerful in expressing their gender as they wish.

We also hope it will have an impact of new found confidence to feel powerful within themselves. To further develop this project we could create a brand of clothing posters and podcasts to continue the message.

Mia Canvin

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Ceri Robinson

BA (Hons) Illustration

Lauren McCullum

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Jay Sherratt

BA (Hons) Illustration

Shantisha Pande

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Tutor: Ilker Cinarel

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PLATFORMS OF EXCHANGE

OCEAN POLLUTION As a group we have looked at sustainability focusing more specifically on plastic pollution and its effects on marine wildlife as it is a current, recurring issue that we are passionate about.

For our artefact we created a series of posters to try and grab people’s attention.

We want them to take action and become more aware of the amount of plastic they are using and how there are more sustainable options.

From our research, we chose easily recognisable and loved animals both on land and in the sea which include a seagull, whale and turtle. We used forms of textiles, made out of recycled plastic, to raise awareness of the danger plastic can cause to both the ocean and marine life by mimicking the silhouettes.

Megan Blackwell

BA (Hons) Interior Design & Styling

Ruthie Holmes

BA (Hons) Textile Design

Faith Hallett

BA (Hons) Textile Design

Emily Thomas-Lewin BA (Hons) Textile Design

Tutor: Katie Beasley

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THE BOOKWORMS

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The Shhhhh Book Club. Our team created a secret, exclusive book club.

Our book club shows just how ‘cool’ and ‘exclusive’ a library can be.

Hannah Gray

The impact we wanted our project to have was to raise awareness.

We wanted to bring to light a forgotten injustice, library closures. There’s more to libraries than musty old books.

Our book club could be considered counterproductive, considering the fact we want to raise awareness, but as everyone knows the first rule of Book Club is “You don’t talk about Book Club”.

Tutors: Bridgette Ashton & Naomi Batts

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication

Elliot Tilling

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication

PLATFORMS OF EXCHANGE

We positioned environmental sustainability as our core value for this project.

Our oceans are a critical organ for our planet, and the influence of fast fashion is detrimental to its health. Approximately 93 billion metric tons of clean water is used by the fashion industry each year (as found by the UNEP and Ellen MacArthur Foundation).

Our mission was to raise awareness of this issue.

This staggering statistic is difficult to visualise completely, so we broke it down in a way that was visually impactful. This fashion-centric approach visually connects the fashion industry to this detriment.

Our outcome was a dress appliquéd with found denim and embroidered with sashiko stitching.

Sashiko is an ancient Japanese technique used to repair existing garments to increase their longevity. Each white stitch represents approximately 12.6 million metric tons, which collectively present 93 billion metric tons of clean water.

TEAM VIRID

Madeleine Franklin

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Peter Lloyd-Dimitrov BA (Hons) Illustration

Thomas Pope

BA (Hons) Illustration

Lily-Elle Bragg

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Tutor: Alanna Morgan

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Caitlin Hughes

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication

Oli Scott-Lawson

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication

Josh Elvey

BA (Hons) Illustration

Tutor: Frédérique Santune

Through sustainable, slow fashion and empathetic design we intend to create a collection of apparel that helps to start a conversation about animal rights.

Our designs combine thoughtful illustration and typography that sidestep the shock imagery and gore of past animal rights campaigns to create an accessible and widespread movement of “walking posters”.

This concept introduces a multidimensional way of helping the animal rights movement.

ANIMANIACS Free From Fashion is an awareness campaign designed to spark conversation and action within the animal rights movement.

Animal rights, especially in the fashion industry, is something that

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is often pushed aside to focus on human rights issues.

The systematic process of using animals for human gain is one that needs to be discussed and this is where our project comes in.

PLATFORMS OF EXCHANGE

Amelia Clifton

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Paulina Walenta

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication

Amber Potts

BA (Hons) Illustration

Paige Harris

BA (Hons) Illustration

Tutor: Katie Beasley

NOT TYPIC A L LY TYPICAL

Not typically typical - we decided to address the issue of mental health in young adults in our project. We focused on depression, anxiety and panic disorder as these three are the most common mental health illnesses in the chosen age group.

We also have an Instagram page @nottypicallytypical. Our aim for this project is to raise and widen awareness about mental health in young adults. We ensured that we used reliable sources such as mental health charities websites to inform our research.

We produced 3 posters, a digital gif and laminated handouts for mental heath helplines.

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Lily-Elle Bragg

Li Hughes

Jason Crabb

Harriet Rawlings

BA (Hons) Fashion Communication BA (Hons) Fashion Design

BA (Hons) Illustration

Tutor: Bridgette Ashton

BA (Hons) Commercial Photography

S H E LT E R The Shelter Zine group gathered together to research and create ideas around the theme of ‘activism’ for housing rights, exploring how they could use their creativity as a vehicle to educate and drive positive change in society.

SHELTER, the charity that campaigns for tenants rights, have created three key subcategories to expose the housing emergency: Housing Emergency Renters’ Rights Build more social housing Both Lily-Elle and Li advocated for a re-think about social housing in the UK, prioritising ideas around care for our communities.

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Lily-Elle with her upcycled skirt making reference to communist housing blocks and Li utilised illustration to help communicate the history of social housing and the current crisis as a product of long term government negligence. Through infographics, Harriet exposed ways that poor student accomodation conditions could impact negatively on students’ physical and mental health and Jason visualised bold slogans on T-shirts shouting out their message about renters rights.

To gather their different approaches together, their work was then curated and presented as a collaborative zine.

PLATFORMS OF EXCHANGE

A huge thank you to all our students for their thought provoking work and their care and concern for others expressed in these collaborative projects.

WELL DONE!

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FURTHER INFO ANIMAL RIGHTS DeGrazia, D., (2002) Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: OUP Regan, T., (2001) Defending Animal Rights. Illinois: University of Illinois Press Rowlands, M., (2013) Animal Rights: All That Matters.

London: John Murray https://viva.org.uk/ https://www.hsi.org/ https://www.furfreealliance.com/ https://www.peta.org BODY IMAGE / SELF IMAGE Orbach, S., (2010) Bodies. London: Profile Books Storr, W., (2017) Selfie: how we became so selfobsessed and what it’s doing to us. London: Picador Sturino, K., (2021) Body Talk. London: Bantam Wolf, N., (1991) The Beauty Myth. London: Vintage Mental Health Foundation, (2019). Body Image: How we think and feel about our bodies.

DISABILITY Burnell, C., (2020) I Am Not a Label: 30 artists, thinkers, athletes, and activists with disabilities from past and present. London: Wide Eyed Editions Guffey, E., (2018) Designing disability: symbols, space and society. London: Bloomsbury 44

Kupper, P., (2019) Disability, arts, and culture: methods and approaches. Bristol: Intellect Books https://www.diverseeducators.co.uk/disabilityawareness-toolkit/ https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/ http://disability-equality.org.uk/history/ FAST FASHION / SUSTAINABLE FASHION Black, S., (2012) The Sustainable Fashion Handbook.

London: Thames & Hudson Bravo, L., (2020) How to Break up with Fast Fashion: a guilt-free guide to changing the way you shop - for good. London: Headline Siegle, L., (2011) To Die For: is fashion wearing out the world? London: Fourth Estate Thomas, D., (2019) Fashionopolis the price of fast fashion and the future of clothes. New York: Penguin Press https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ Taking action on fashion and the climate crisis (2021).

[Online]. Available at https://www.fashionrevolution.org/climatecrisis/

PLATFORMS OF EXCHANGE

FEMINISM Beard, M., (2018) Women & Power: A Manifesto. London: Profile Books Ford, C., (2018) Fight LIke a Girl. London: Oneworld Publications Guerrilla Girls (2020) Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly. London: Chronicle Books Ngozi Adichie, C., (2012). We should all be feminists.

London: Fourth Estate Perez, C., (2020) Invisible Women: exposing the gender bias women face every day. London: Vintage Reckitt, H., (2019) The Art of Feminism: Images That Shaped the Fight for Equality. London: Tate Publishing Zakaria, R., (2021) Against White Feminism. London: Hamish Hamilton https://www.ted.com/playlists/338/talks_on_feminism https://guiltyfeminist.com GENDER EXPRESSION Barker, M-J., & Iantaffi, A., (2020) Life Isn’t Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Barker, M-J., (2019) Gender: A Graphic Guide. London: Icon Books Hines, S. & Taylor, M., (2018) Is Gender Fluid? A primer for the 21st century. London: Thames & Hudson https://www.ted.com/playlists/459/the_gender_spectrum HOUSING Gibbs, L., (2021) How Ten Global Cities Take On Homelessness: Innovations That Work. Berkley: University of California Press Potts, D., (2020) Broken Cities: Inside the Global Housing Crisis. London: Zed Books Spratt., (2022) Tenants: The People on the Frontline of Britain’s Housing Emergency. London: Profile Books https://www.ted.com/playlists/564/the_issue_of_ homelessness https://www.crisis.org.uk/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=homelessness https://england.shelter.org.uk/ MENTAL HEALTH Meddings, E., (2021) The Sad Ghost Club. London: Hodder Pilgirm, D., (2017) Key Concepts in Mental Health. London: Sage https://www.mind.org.uk/ https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/ https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/ https://happiful.com/tag/podcast/ https://www.ted.com/playlists/175/the_struggle_of_mental_ health https://www.ted.com/playlists/638/how_to_practice_ emotional_first_aid

https://www.geniuswithin.org/what-is-neurodiversity/ https://adhdaware.org.uk/what-is-adhd/neurodiversityand-other-conditions/ PLASTIC POLLUTION Bell, A. & Taylor, M., (2020) Can We Save The Planet? A primer for the 21st century. London: Thames & Hudson Dorey, M., (2018) No. More. Plastic.: What you can do to make a difference. London: Ebury Press Extinction Rebellion, (2019) This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook. London: Penguin McCallum, W., (2018) How to Give Up Plastic: A Conscious Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time. London: Penguin Thunberg, G., (2019) No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. London: Penguin https://www.ted.com/playlists/154/how_do_you_solve_a_ problem_like the climate crisis TOXIC MASCULINITY Ford, C., (2020) Boys Will Be Boys: Power, Patriarchy and Toxic Masculinity London: Oneworld Publications Perry, G., (2017) The Descent of Man London: Penguin Smiler, A. & Taylor, M., (2019) Is Masculinity Toxic?: A primer for the 21st century London: Thames & Hudson Urwin, J., (2016) Man Up: Surviving Modern Masculinity London: Icon Books UKRAINE Cunningham, D., (2021) Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator. Brighton: Myriad Editions Reid, A., (2015) Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weiss-Wendt, A., (2022) Putin’s Russia and the Falsification of History: Reasserting Control over the Past.

London: Bloomsbury https://www.ted.com/talks/yuval_noah_harari_the_war_ in_ukraine_could_change_everything? language=en VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Bates, L., (2022) Fix the System, Not the Women. London: Simon & Schuster Greenberg, M., (2015) Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women. Oxford: OUP True, J., (2021) Violence against Women: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: OUP Una (2015) Becoming unbecoming Brighton: Myriad Editions https://www.ted.com/playlists/471/let_s_end_the_silence_ around_abuse https://metoomvmt.org/ https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/newsroom/plymouthnews/ violenceagainstwomenandgirls

NEURODIVERSTY Silberman, S., (2016) Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently.

Australia: Allen and Unwin Kirby, A., Where have all the girls gone? - Neurodiversity and females.

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C O N TA C T U S Arts University Plymouth: an independent specialist university run by artists and designers for artists and designers, widely regarded as a dynamic catalyst for creative learning and social justice.

Arts University Plymouth, Tavistock Place, Plymouth, PL4 8AT Website: Plymouthart.ac.uk Email: enquiries@pca.ac.uk Instagram: @artsuniplym

School of Design + Communication Contact details: Peter Barker, Head of School email: pbarker@pca.ac.uk Mel Brown, Assistant Head of School email: melbrown@pca.ac.uk

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PLATFORMS OF EXCHANGE

Contact details: Julia Tokarska LemonMilk Studio www.lemonmilkstudio.co.uk IG: @lemonmilk_studio

BEHIND THE SCENES It has been an absolute pleasure being able to work on such a big, collaborative project, celebrating the work of so many students and staff. I underwent a very interesting and exciting journey, from making templates and empty layouts to attending multiple meetings and finally inputing all the content and editing the newspaper into a final finished product.

I have learned so much from this experience and I feel like I finally found my niche. In a way, this newspaper has helped me realise the path I want to take and I am very proud of being a part of its creation.

I just wanted to say a big thank you to the whole team and in particular, Mel Brown. I have genuinely enjoyed my time working closely with Mel to make this newspaper a reality. I feel very lucky to have been trusted with the art direction for this project and for recieving complete creative freedom.

Julia Tokarska Graphic Designer

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P L AT F O R M S O F E X C H A N G E