Plymouth College of Art Pre Degree students aged 16 to 19 exhibited and sold their original work as part of the 20th annual Design to Sell event, held in the college’s Palace Court campus, beside the Plymouth Barbican.

Design to Sell is a collaborative project involving students from the college’s range of Extended Diplomas hosting a public exhibition and pop-up shop where students can sell their work and gain valuable market exposure, as entrepreneurs and professional practitioners.

High-quality handmade products

As an enterprise, Design to Sell gives students the opportunity to develop as independent designer-makers, creating high-quality handmade products for paying customers, as well as gaining commercial experience and acquiring transferable skills with a live understanding of creative industry.

Now in its 20th year, Design to Sell featured an eclectic range of work, including illustration, painting, glasswork, metalwork, ceramics, photography, fashion, textiles, printmaking and more.

Matias Shortcook, Associate Dean, Pre Degree at Plymouth College of Art, said: “Design to Sell has been running at at the college for 20 years, and since it began we’ve seen a lot of other sixth form colleges take up the idea of creating an event where students can sell their work to the public.

Creating work from day on

“The difference, however, is that when students join our creative Extended Diplomas at Plymouth College of Art, they’re creating work from day one that’s designed to be sold and exhibited publicly in the real world.

“Employers tell us they can see the difference that this makes, and we also have a healthy amount of students who go on to set up their own businesses following Design to Sell.

Ferociously creative young talents

“These are ferociously creative young talents and it showed in the high quality of work they created in preparation for the exhibition.”

Student work was also be on show across the road from Palace Court at The Daily Fix cafe, in a mini-exhibition organised by students, including Caitlin Johns, Adam Shepard, Artemis Guy, and Fred Craige.

The Level 3 Extended Diplomas delivered by Plymouth College of Art are designed in collaboration with industry and education partners, and recognised by UCAS, arts universities throughout the UK and by employers in the creative industries.

(image by Dom Moore)

(from a press release)