Celebrating a Winning Year

Students and graduates from the School of Arts & Creative Industries are encouraged and supported by lecturers to enter national and international competitions, and to apply for funded programmes. Find out more about our recent successes in a truly winning year.


Competitions are a great way for students to gain experience of responding to live briefs, as well as creating noteworthy content for a CV and a topic of discussion for interviews. That’s why our lectures encourage students to enter their work.

The support doesn’t end there though – we encourage students to keep in touch once they have graduated and turn to the lecturers who know them so well for support in applying for a variety of funded opportunities.

We’re incredibly proud of all our students, but in particular wanted to give a shout out to a handful of students who have achieved some outstanding successes over the last 12 months and celebrate their success, including:

Keavey Gamwell, a Graphic Design student, was so successful in The Adobe Certified Professionals National Championships that she has been selected as one of just 20 students in the UK representing the UK and Ireland at Certiport’s Adobe Certified Professional World Championship in California, USA, from 24 to 27 July 2022. Read more about Keavey’s story here

Earlier this academic year, Fashion graduate Emily Dey completed a rigorous selection process to be selected for an exclusive and 10-month, paid training programme funded by YOOX NET-A-PORTER and The Prince’s Foundation, the YOOX NET-A-PORTER GROUP Modern Artisan paid training programme in responsible design and luxury textile craftsmanship.

fashion designs
Fashion designs from Emily Dey’s final year portfolio

3rd year Product Design student Kristina Kuzcenova has reached the next round of the Pro Carton Young Designers Award 2022. The Pro Carton Young Designers Award is Europe’s leading annual young talent competition for packaging design. Focussing exclusively on cartonboard, the award plays a pioneering role in promoting sustainable packaging and innovation amongst students across Europe.

Kristina Kuzkenova

There were over 800 entries and Kristina was notified in June that she is in the top 100. She has now sent her prototypes for the next stage of judging, taking place in the Hague. Judges will announce the shortlisted top 25 in July and these entrants will go to the public vote – if Kristina makes it to the top 25 she can be assured of the vote of all our lecturers and students!

Nick Moffatt

Nick Moffatt an MA Illustration student has been longlisted for the World Illustration Awards in the Book Covers category for his classic beat generation collection  With category winners yet to be announced we’re holding our breath and wishing Nick the very best of luck.

Zara King

Second year Product Design student, Zara King, secured a place as one of just six finalists in the Design Plastic Awards in April.  The challenge this year was to design an innovative product for use in any part of the healthcare sector and Zara desgined EASYMODE, a reusable bed pan.

The finalists presented their products to the judges in London on May 27, and the final award ceremony, announcing the results, takes place on July 1.

*** WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT ***

Zara King won the Design Plastics Award 

With the academic year drawing to a close,  lecturers are busy scheduling the next set of entry dates for competitions to share with students. Meanwhile, we’re holding our breath to find out if any students will be announced as 2022 winners…but if truth be known, they’re all winners in our eyes!

MIMA Great Create shortlisted finalists announced

Saturday 28th May sees the long-awaited finals of the MIMA Great Create competition and six worthy finalists will be joining us at MIMA with their family and friends for an intimate celebration and the revealing of the winner by Elinor Morgan, Artistic Director, MIMA.


The competition opened to entries on 26th March 2022 and in just over six weeks the School of Arts & Creative Industries at Teesside University received a range of highly creative entries, from music clips, illustrations, paintings, upholstery designs and photographs, to short films, origami sculptures, drawings and more. Judging began on the 10th May and our team of judges from across the creative industries have made their decisions.

Six entries were shortlised, with judges commenting on the high standard of entries

“What a treat to get to review such creative work. There were some absolutely fabulous entries!”

The six shortlisted finalists along with friends and family are joining us for an intimate finals celebration at MIMA on Saturday 28th May, where the winner will be revealed and all finalist entries will be displayed in a pop-up exhibition in the MIMA atrium. The exhibition will be available to view over the coming Platinum Jubilee extended Bank Holiday weekend for all visitors to explore. Whilst you can see a version of the shortlisted entries below (links to songs on artist’s name), we’d encourage you to come along to MIMA to experience them visually and audibly in their full glory, in the creative environment of the atrium:

Ella Miller 

I created this piece with a risograph printer to build up the rich layers of history and beauty and celebrate details that are important to me as an illustrator; we have so many local creative hubs, like MIMA and Darlington Hippodrome, that are so resourceful and full of inspiration. I also wanted to celebrate my pride in being northern with a bit of humour because who hasn’t had a giant seagull steal a chip in their life, and I certainly couldn’t live without a lemon top! From steam trains to bridges, the North East is built with strength and radiance.

Jonathan Raiseborough 

My entry, ‘Boro Skyline’ is an illustration inspired by the environment and landscape of Teesside and the different aspects of the area that represent it as a whole. The foreground nature scenery in the illustration is based on the RSPB saltholme and Seal Sands nature reserves and the heritage of the biodiversity preserved so close to the industrial areas that represent another, very different, part of the region’s identity. The illustration was drawn in fineliner, coloured in Adobe Photoshop and based on how varied, seemingly opposite, prominent elements of what makes up Middlesbrough and the region co-exist together as one.

Grace Coverdale

I  created an acrylic painting on canvas depicting a concept I  believe  is a dominant  part of my culture and region. ‘The decline of the Teesside Steelworks Industry’ as a result of postmodern technology and globalisation. This concept is  something that affected all generations in this region.
I chose a  long canvas and presented my painting  horizontally,  as you glance down  left to right, you see that the further along the canvas  the steelworks become less shows the industry has completely disappeared.

Airen Sopany

Since the theme of the competition is the heritage of North East England, I decided to recall all the memories I’ve made while studying here. Although I have yet to explore the whole of North East England, there are fond memories I have of this region. I’ve decided to commemorate my wonderful experience so I get to cherish it forever with this entry filled with my images.

Jake Beddow

I decided to write a piece of music to represent the history and current story of the Teesside region. Middlesbrough was one of the first towns to be bombed during WW2 so the first half of my track is full of trumpets and loud drums as an omage to the music played whilst armies marched towards battle. Using samples of the UKs greatest sports commentator, Middlesbrough born Chris Kamara, I attempted to capture how Teesside has evolved into a great and modern place as the track also evolves into a more modern sounding song.

NICEGUY

A song I wrote about the sneering at Teesside from those who’ve never lived here

The winning finalist will be revealed on Saturday 28th May – Good luck everyone!