MA Theatre Design graduate Hugo Aguirre on competing in The Big Design Challenge 

Each week, we were given a challenge to work on individually, within a team or in pairs. There were fewer than 2 days to complete the task, which was intense. These challenges ranged from designing outdoor sculptures and lamps, to chairs, time pieces and more – a lot of which were new areas for me.

What was your biggest challenge from the show? How did studying MA Theatre Design help prepare you?

We all had moments of self-doubt and felt a big pressure to do well on the big screen – but I learned not to take it too seriously, and just focused on enjoying the process and making something I could be proud of.

For our final brief on the show, we were asked to create a design for techno duo Orbital – and I finally got to showcase my stage design skills. Studying MA Theatre Design really helped in my favour, as I had previous experience on the course working with speculative design for large-scale concerts.

I was able to apply everything I had learned in practice, which allowed me to showcase my ability and progress to the final stage of the competition. It was a proud moment having the guest judges recognise and appreciate your work!