The Ideas Foundation - two decades of nurturing talent

We have been offering virtual workshops with agencies such as Engine, One Point Five, and brands such as Canon and Burberry, TikTok in schools and colleges across the UK during lockdown.

After a year of remote learning, we are delighted to be offering an in real life summer school hosted by Canon at the University of Arts London at the end of July. Students are challenged to create digital stories that relate to the UN Global Goals with expert input from world-class photographers including Simeon Quarrie, Clive Booth and Wanda Martin.

Our summer school programmes have set off an incredible chain reaction of creativity, inclusion, and community action. Hassan Raja, a graduate of two of our creative media camps, has been invited to Dubai Expo to represent the Ideas Foundation and Canon partnership. After his experiences using professional equipment and working on live project briefs, Hassan has developed a passion for portrait photography and photojournalism. You can check out his Insta feed on @capturedhr and his project The Pakistani Men of Cambridge.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-cambridgeshire-48141068

Hassan is one of many success stories for the Ideas Foundation over the years. IF alumni are now taking leading roles in the creative sector through various routes, including School of Communication Art, University and apprenticeships, and freelance routes as influencers.

As a charity, we are not tied to one path into the sector but want young people to see different ways to flourish and grow into the creative industries. Andrew Georgiou is now working as Global Social Lead for Unilever. Lily Charles works at the BBC Studios as a digital video executive managing YouTube channels and a side hustle of a digital art business. Sam Harris worked with McCann Torre Lazur on the award-winning Orange Project raising awareness of suicide and is now Account Director at Media Drive Europe.

Alan Chu has been an active member of the IF board and, after several years at Digitas LBI, has set up his creative agency and is giving back his creative talents to the IF. Naomi Dealsagne took part in a Hackney based two-week IF programme in year ten and then had work experience and creative media camps to add to her CV. After completing a graphic design degree at the London College of Communications, she is a digital designer at AKQA. Michael Kiggundu is an alumnus of our 2012 Creative Media Camp and is now Digital Marketing Officer at UK Active. Xandria Carelse-Datlow was first involved in the Ideas Foundation in 2007 and, having had a creative internship at Landor, has worked in both agencies and clientside evolving from creative to brand management roles from Beats by Dr. Dre at Apple. Funmi (pictured) is now setting up her own hair care brand. Demi Oriola is working as a success coach encouraging other young creatives to make the best of their potential.

IF you want to help kick off a young person's creative story, why not follow the example of other brands and sponsor a creative summer school for young people. Our next summer school takes place in July and is open to young people from less advantaged backgrounds.

The Ideas Foundation is also active in the Northwest, offering industry mentoring to students at The Manchester College. If you would like to get involved by sponsoring a brief or donating your time to mentoring, get in touch with us at ideas@ideasfoundation.org.uk