Hasta La Ideas

YCN Studio has launched a campaign promoting Plymouth College of Art’s creative facilities and the importance of hands-on learning in arts education.

While most UK art departments are facing funding cuts, Plymouth has invested heavily in new resources and opened a £7 million art, craft and digital design wing last September. YCN Studio was asked to create a campaign showcasing the college’s new facilities, and has launched a short film and poster series based on the idea of physical energy.

In a film shot on campus by director Pip, PCA students are captured welding, cutting wood, sewing, painting and developing photographs. The video features some beautiful close-ups of materials, including molten glass, charcoal, ink and ceramics, set to music by Brooklyn band Javelin.

Posters feature images from the shoot and key lines from the film in type distorted through water and glass, which YCN Studio director Alex Ostrowski says is designed to intrigue readers and ‘echo the physicality in the rest of the campaign’.

Producer William Teddy says the video was shot at a high-frame rate to slow some shots down and help people see different processes up close. “The idea was to get very close-up and cinematic, so we enlisted Pip, who’s also a photographer with an amazing eye,” he adds.

The college is also launching a social media campaign to highlight the need for physical facilities in arts colleges, and is asking users to submit photographs of their work or studios using the hashtag #YourEnergy.

In an article explaining the initiative, the college warns of the dangers of turning art schools into “offices and lecture halls”, and says it will be working to encourage “a greater focus on tangible facilities in UK art and design education, which…runs the risk of becoming over-reliant on desk-based creative learning.” You can read the full post here.

Creative direction, writing and design: YCN Studio
Film Production: Agile
Film Director: Pip
Film Producer: William Teddy
Music: ‘Susie Cues’ by Javelin