Westminster’s annual degree shows are a celebration and showcase of our creative students’ talents and hard work. The student work is a culmination of the skills and creative practices developed during their studies. The degree shows are highly anticipated amongst students, staff and industry guests every year.

We caught up with Mely Itzae Montemayor Ayala, a final year Illustration BA student, as she prepares for her end-of-year degree show.

What are you most excited about in respect of your degree show?

What excites me the most about our upcoming degree show is the chance to see the realisation of our work over the last 3 years. I am looking forward to see how we have all grown as artists, designers, and people.

It will also be a proud moment to finally see the product of all the organisation and hard work that went into planning this exhibition and our final projects.

How has your course prepared you for your final project?

Throughout my course, we have continuously been preparing for our final projects. At the start of each semester we were increasingly given more responsibility and encouraged to work independently. This really helped us to organise and manage our time effectively, which is very important when we decided on our projects and schedules. Likewise, throughout our modules, we kept building our research skills which helped to inform both our practice and our projects.

Tell us more about the activities you are involved in, to help organise and prepare for your degree show.

I’ve had the opportunity to work on a few roles and activities to help with the organisation of the show. Alongside my classmates, I helped create and finalise the visual identity for the show. Recently we have started to produce the degree show catalogue, which will feature everyone’s work. We gathered all the content we needed and designed the first draft, while keeping in line with our brand guidelines. I am looking forward to continuing to work on this and producing the final degree show catalogue for all to see.

What has inspired your creative thinking and work in producing your final project?

One of the key things that’s helped my creative thinking so far is the experimentation approach that I have taken for my final project. I am exploring a range of techniques, mark making, and a combination of digital and traditional mediums.

Keeping an experimental and playful approach helps me to find different directions that otherwise I would have never thought about.

Also, my work is inspired by my research. I am constantly researching different designers and artists to learn more about how they work and the outcomes the produce. Lately, David Carson has been a great inspiration for me, and he also inspired the experimental approach that I decided to take for my final project.

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What do you hope to achieve from your final project?

I am hoping to explore my creative practice and keep intertwining my drawing skills with my graphic design skills.

Also, I am looking forward to including my final project as one of my key projects in my professional portfolio.

_{Header image: Mely Itzae Montemayor Ayala (Illustration BA, 20223)}