#ualfutures

UAL Futures are proud to announce the winners of The Store WPP Retail Futures Competition!

In May 2015 The Store WPP, supported by Intel, worked with UAL Futures to invite University of the Arts London students and graduates to submit designs for projects, prototypes and products that demonstrate how technologies relating to the internet of things, wearable tech and big data are transforming fashion, retail and shopping.

Launch Event

The competition was launched at a special event at Central Saint Martins, Platform Bar, on Wednesday 6 May, when industry guests discussed the latest trends and demonstrated the latest tech shaking up the way we shop. 

Speakers included Andrew Grant – The Store WPP, Neil Bruce – Mindshare, Tommy Howard – Holition, Marcus Belcher – Holition, Dominique Bonnafoux – Fitch, David Brebner – Umajin, Lynne Murray – LCF Fashion Digital Studio.

After receiving a fantastic range of submissions from across UAL, judging took place on 10th July 2015. After a thorough examination of projects proposed, the team of judges finalised a winner, a runner-up and two commendations.

The Judges: 

Duncan Wilson - Intel Director at ICRI Cities David Roth, CEO, The Store WPP, EMEA and Asia Andrew Grant, Consultant to The Store WPP and Chairman, Satalia Neil Bruce - Head of Mobile, UK at Mindshare Tim Greenhalgh, Chairman, Fitch Worldwide Dominique Bonnafoux, Senior Strategist, Fitch Worldwide Tommy Howard, Head Creative, Holition

Prize Winning Concepts 

Winning Concept: £1000

Name: Szu-Chia Chen

College: Central Saint Martins

Project Title: Cycle Surfing Soho Hunt

Runner-up: £500

Name: Milya Basharova

College: Central Saint Martins

Project Title: A wearable haptic navigator for blind people ‘Sense’

Commendation: £250

Name: Katherine Gowin, Alexa Chan, & Nikita Singh

College: London College of Fashion

Project Title: Smardrobe: The Connected Wardrobe

Commendation: £250

Name: Ji Hyun Oh

College: Central Saint Martins

Project Title: E-reflexo

Read more about each of the winning entries here. 

Congratulations to all taking part! It was a great pleasure seeing so much innovation going around UAL - it was a tough task to pick the winner. We can’t wait to see the chosen designs at Customer of One Event at Central Saint Martins in September. Until then - have a wonderful summer!

Photography: Cesare De Giglio 

UAL Futures have very exciting news for all UAL students! The submissions are now open! You can enter The Store WPP Retail Futures Competition and win a £1000. 

UAL Futures are teaming up with global marketing and retail experts The Store WPP to launch this competition. The aim is to find innovative and imaginative concepts for the future of retail. The Store WPP, WPP’s retail practice, supported by Intel, are asking University of the Arts London students to submit designs for projects, prototypes and products that demonstrate how technologies relating to the internet of things, wearable tech and big data are transforming fashion, retail and shopping. The individual student or a team that come up with the winning concept will be awarded £1000. Selected submissions may be exhibited at The Store WPP’s Customer of One conference to marketers, retailers and digital & design agencies in September 2015. To enter the Competition please fill in the online application form. Before starting your application online, please have your visual material ready to be uploaded (suggested is a presentation in PDF format, no larger than 10MB). There is no application fee. Submissions Deadline: 30 June 2015

Brief: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B96K4WdjuaoLQnNOc0VCS2MxaFE/edit

Application Form: https://ualfutures.typeform.com/to/wmyL3w

Shall you have any questions, please email Anna Kolosova [email protected]

How Might We Co-create a Digital Creative Toolkit for University of the Arts London? 

EVENTS: Futures Toolkit Co-Design Workshops. DATES: Thursday 28 May and Thursday 4 June 2015. 1pm - 6pm. VENUE: London College of Communication, Main Lecture Theatre. 

Be a part of the way University of the Arts London supports digital creativity.

We’re inviting students, academics, alumni and creative professionals to join us for one of our Co-Design Workshops.

Whether you’re in media, design, art or tech, come along, collaborate and share your ideas to create concepts for a Digital Creative Toolkit.

Join us for a light lunch, discussion and talks from creative and tech professionals. Learn about UAL Futures and digital projects from around UAL. Then form teams and take part in an interactive prototyping session to build the toolkit! 

Reserve your spot via our Eventbrite Page:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/help-shape-our-futures-tickets-17005491884

Do I need to prepare anything?

No. You just need to bring yourself, your experiences and your ideas. For the active sessions, we'll be giving you direction, with mini-briefs based on insights we've gained from our research and workshops with students and staff. 

Speakers and Mentors. 

Speakers confirmed include incredible tech startup success story Kano; digital agency Nation; Technology Will Save Us and Hirsch & Mann, and Hyper Island.  

And creative mentors from Tate, IDEO, AKQA, Huge, The British Council, Amazon, Somerset House and the Southbank Centre among many others are attending the events. These include artists, curators, technologists and educators  working across art, design, media, fashion and performance. 

Students joining one of our workshops will have the opportunity to connect with industry across a wide range of disciplines. 

Why a Digital Creative Toolkit for UAL?

At Futures, we believe that the ever-changing digital landscape means there’s never been a more exciting time to be a creative student.

Because the digital space is constantly in flux, creative students are finding it increasingly difficult to decide on career paths, predict future job roles and to know which digital skills are necessary for their chosen career.

That’s why we’re asking the University of the Arts London community to become collaborators and help us develop solutions that become part of a Digital Creative Toolkit.

Our aim is create resources, experiences and services that encourage and enable students to explore new technologies and discover how they can be opportunities, not obstacles.  

Built with students. 

We’ve been working with UAL students mapping their digital creative journeys to get an understanding of their needs and behaviors and ways they access and apply digital skills, technology and tools. The insights from these sessions are helping to shape the brief we set in the co-design workshops. 

Supported by the creative community. 

We’ve had amazing input from the creative and tech communities already with friends of Futures from the likes of IDEO, Made by Many, the Tate, Holition, Hirsch and Mann, Technology Will Save Us, and The Store WPP, supporting the project.  

But we need perspectives from right across the creative ecosystem. Join one of our workshops, share your ideas and expertise and help shape the way we support digital skills and creativity at UAL. 

Sign up via our Eventbrite Page:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/help-shape-our-futures-tickets-17005491884

Silicon Milkroundabout is back on May 9th with the hottest tech companies on the planet hiring for Designers, Marketers and Product people!​

The free tech jobs fair will have over 1,500 jobs on offer for engineers, data scientists, designers, product managers and marketers at 180 of the UK's most innovative companies. It's the perfect opportunity to have face to face conversations with founders, CTOs and Heads of Design.

We'd love to see you at the next event whether you're actively planning to move jobs or just curious about the vibrant and diverse UK tech scene.

UAL alumni and students should check out Saturday 9th May - a day dedicated to product management, design, UX and marketing roles - but you'll have to be quick, tickets are close to selling out! Apply for your free ticket at smr9.uk/1GHJKeo.

Some of you may remember that this time last year we curated an event at UAL, where Founders and Key Individuals from some of the top tech companies shared their career advice and gave tips on how to win a job at such a company. Now Matt Isherwood, Product Manager at onefinestay and UX consultant who presented at the event (and has previously gotten a job through Silicon Milkroundabout) has written a great blog post on how to get the most out of the SMR as a designer. It's the perfect guide for those of you that have a ticket or are thinking of applying!

Incase you missed it, you can check out last year's UAL event video here.

Event Details:

UAL Students and Graduates!

UAL Futures are looking for professional photographers who specialise in portraits and documentary style shots. We need someone who can create imagery for the features on our social networks and beyond. Paid. Please email Luke Whitehead with links to your portfolio and any questions at: