London’s brightest talents talk making it in the creative industries

Getting into the creative industries is tough, especially when you’re in a capital where rent prices are eye-wateringly high and a pint is (at least) a fiver. 

Over the last year, however, Converse has been encouraging and nurturing young artists, designers, and filmmakers with its Creative All Star series, an initiative that provides creatives living and working in London with exclusive talks, workshops, and classes to point them in the right direction. 

As part of this initiative, Converse recently hosted its first-ever Ideas Lab at London’s Hoxton Docks, joining forces with Dazed to host a series of creative workshops with rising talent. On the line-up were the likes of Catty Taylor, a 3D designer and creative director who makes digitised fashion bootlegs; cutting-edge menswear designer Bianca Saunders; London filmmaker and photographer Bafic; and club night maestros Pxssy Palace. 

Taking the form of a kind of less-awkward-than-usual speed dating session, groups of students were given time to pick each of the Dazed 100-ers brains, exchange ideas, and pick up tips as to how to make it in the creative industries. 

Here, we hear from the next generation of leading London talents as to the advice they’d give those following in their footsteps and trying to make it on their own.

BAFIC

Bafic’s passion for filmmaking goes all the way back to his school days, when he and his friends would make and send videos to each other via Bluetooth. “It sounds silly but I really think what got me into filmmaking was the tragic phenomenon of happy-slapping in 2004 and 2005,” he explains. “Phones just got Bluetooth so you could send videos around. It’s crazy but we were exchanging information at such a fast rate and filming the madness we saw in school, it was a wild time, but in hindsight, a really terrible thing.”

Originally hailing from the Midlands, the south London filmmaker uses the DIY effects of handheld cameras to create hypnotising, gritty visuals inspired by modern city life. His 2016 video Processing I.C.A: Processing Procession, for instance, explores the idea of an Orwellian society surveilled through CCTV cameras, while his paired-back music video for Neneh Cherry’s “Spit Three Times” featured intimate yet unsettling shots of the cityscape to moody effect. 

With the visuals for Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien’s debut solo album and a Louis Vuitton campaign under his belt so far this year, the young filmmaker offers enlightenment for aspiring creatives with similar ambitions: “Film, film, film everything you see. Make fake stories, and go shoot them. Your phone is your weapon of choice, you don’t need big equipment and crews – an idea is an idea, it’s nothing until it goes into production and becomes real. Bring your ideas into fruition.”

BIANCA SAUNDERS

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2017, Bianca Saunders has been upturning the menswear world with her androgynous, elegant clothes that aim to subvert notions of black masculinity. For her latest collection, the rising designer transformed the BFC showspace into a dancehall party, as a nod to her Jamaican heritage and the legacy of the genre, while last year she collaborated with fellow artists including Akinola Davis Jnr and Poet Laureate Caleb Femi to put on an exhibition exploring ideas of familiarity. 

Despite her meteoric success within London’s fashion scene, Saunders tells us that she only opted for menswear in the final months of her BA. “In the last six months of my course, a tutor suggested I switch to menswear. It had crossed my mind throughout my studies and getting that push from someone I respected made me think I didn’t have much to lose,” she says, adding: “With menswear, it was much easier for me to find my individual design aesthetic.”

While she describes her experience at RCA as “The best decision I ever made”, she urges budding designers to find environments where they can ‘focus and flourish’. “Have a small plan and do not give up as it is such a blessing to find something you love and want to do as a career,” she adds.

CATTY TAYLOR

Before founding Digi-Gal, a platform which champions women and non-binary digital designers in what is still a male-dominated industry, Catty Taylor actually studied textile design at Chelsea College of Art, where she ignored calls from lecturers to pursue more conventional means of design and instead opted to create digitally rendered recreations of IRL Balenciaga, A-COLD-WALL*, Vetements, and more. “I wanted to push my work into a digital space and knew that 3D fashion didn't really exist at this point,” she confirms. 

Using YouTube tutorials to teach herself how to use digital design methods (“it was a lot of trial and error,” she says) her efforts have paid off, with recent projects including campaigns for Alexander Wang x adidas Originals and Selfridges. 

Her biggest tip for starting out as a young designer is to put yourself out there and “allow yourself to take risks”. She also sees friendships and collaboration as key to creating a successful future: “Community is everything. Join groups, collectives, and support your friends!”