Meet industry creatives, collaborate, and make friends with students from across University of the Arts, London (UAL.)
Connect To: Creative Network is a programme led by students and is funded and facilitated by Creative Shift. Together we shape the network, and support students to 'make things happen' and 'try things out' by collaborating on industry focused projects and by fostering a sense of community. We aim to bridge the gap between education and industry.
How to get involved:
Monthly Meet Ups
Any UAL student or graduate is welcome to our monthly meet ups and it’s a good opportunity to find out what we do, and meet others who are involved with Connect To. You don’t need to have come before and you can come with a friend or on your own – just sign up below.
We, usually meet on the first Thursday of the month at London College of Communication (Elephant & Castle). In each meeting you’ll hear from a guest industry speaker, meet and hang out with other Connect To members (from across UAL colleges), have your say and plan for upcoming Connect projects, find out about exclusive opportunities, events and paid roles as well as enjoy free food and drinks on us!
Collaborative Projects
In addition to our Monthly Meet Ups we also run collaborative, industry focused projects throughout the year. These projects are designed to give you the space to try things out, learn by doing, and develop your interests and skills. These projects are shaped by what you are interested in, what you’d like to learn, and how you want to develop the Connect To programme.
To find out what upcoming Connect To projects you can get involved with, pop along to a Connect To meet up or sign up to the Creative Shift newsletter.
Check out below some of the projects we did last year!
Branding Sessions with Pop Up Agency
We worked with branding consultants Pop Up Agency to nail how we talk about ourselves to different audiences, define our mission statement and develop our collective Connect To values.
Visual Identity Project
After the branding sessions, our next stop was to visually communicate this. During this project Connect To created a new logo and avatar, flyers, GIF’s for social media and decided and debated on ‘Connect To colours,’putting all of this into the Connect To Brand Guidelines booklet!
Connect To showcase at the Creative Catch Up Event
Connect To were tasked with leading on and programming an icebreaker at a Creative Shift’s Catch Up event and decided how to best tell the story of Connect To, encouraging other students to sign up and get involved!
Connect To Photography Headshots project with Kingsley Davis
After hearing about how important a good headshot photo is for getting work (and how expensive they can be) we decided we’d bring in Kingsley Davis Industry photographer to work with students and gain skills in portraiture. They then took professional headshots of each other and wider Connect To network!
Connect To: Learning about Intellectual Property
Most of the things we enjoy, are inspired by and share are likely to be protected by intellectual property (IP). We had a session with IP Educator: Roxanne Peters to find out more about permissions, copyright and IP resources and how we can put what we learn into practice through Connect To.
Connect To Instagram sessions
With input from Niran Vinod (Product Strategist at Instagram and Facebook) this summer we created a brand new Instagram account! We’ll be having more sessions this year to develop our social media presence so get involved! Follow us at @connect2network
Connect To Summer Social
Connect To students took the lead and organized a social event celebrating Connect To’s achievements over the year and encouraged new and current members to connect and socialize! There was amazing food, a live DJ: ShegotSoul, a photobooth, candyfloss galore and of course, connect To brought the vibes!
Creative Shift – who are we?
Creative Shift is part of UAL’s Careers and Employability team. We believe in supporting UAL students underrepresented in the creative industries and helping them to make a living doing what they love.