Student connections with industry

Exchange with industry is an important aspect of the RCA learning experience. It helps students to broaden their understanding of the creative industries as well as build professional networks relevant to their practice.

As part of facilitating this exchange, the College provides a range of Studio Projects set by leading companies, charities and NGOs in a range of industries. Through these collaborative briefs students gain insights into working with real-world constraints, encounter the latest technologies and develop new ways of thinking.

Alongside studio projects, the RCA invites leading international industry figures to deliver guest-lecture programmes and masterclasses, or provide informal critiques of student’s projects. Individual MA programmes have close links with relevant industry partners who might be invited to shape student briefs or projects.

Our students have curated exhibitions with leading London galleries, collaborated with Art on the Underground, and worked on a live public arts project with partners including Cement Fields and Forster+Partners.

Sodexo

The studio project Eats and Algorithms, is a collaboration between the School of Design and Sodexo, the global leader in sustainable food services and valued experiences. The project brings together students in interdisciplinary teams from different programmes – Service Design MA, Textiles MA, Design Futures MDes, Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc and Design Products MA – to design new experiences and sustainable solutions for digitising food in an industry context. They receive mentorship and feedback from expert speakers and professionals in the fields of AI in design, sustainability by design, and consumer behaviour in food.

Outernet

In 2023, the RCA unveiled a major new multi-year partnership with Outernet London, the media and culture district in central London, to showcase students’ digital work on its immense wrap-around immersive screens. This ground-breaking educational partnership has seen RCA students use Outernet’s world-leading interactive platforms to showcase their innovative digital work and immersive experiences.

OPPO

Since 2019, smartphone and accessories company OPPO and the RCA have been collaborators. 2022 marked the fourth year of the partnership with a new project exploring the concept of “Beyond Smart” design. Through the project, students from the School of Design submitted over 70 innovative designs, 12 of which were showcased as part of the RCA’s graduate show during London Design Festival 2022.

LG

Information Experience Design MA students participated in a 12-week project competition Luminous with LG Displays, with the purpose of generating transformative experiences of information that challenges or disrupts perspective.

52 students participated, utilising various forms of the latest OLED technology to produce a total of 15 independent projects and 21 group projects. From these, five finalist projects were displayed at an exhibition at Old Street Gallery in September and October 2022.

Other significant global organisations who have partnered with the RCA include Telefonica, McKinsey and JP Morgan – with Service Design students; Burberry, with Fashion, Interior Design, Photography and Architecture students; and Airbus on ‘Lightweighting Aircraft’, with our Innovation Design Engineering students.

A central element of the taught MA programmes at the RCA is the opportunity to work in cross-disciplinary teams. The cross-College Grand Challenges have been among the College’s most popular extracurricular activities, and are now a formal part of the curriculum for the School of Design.

In recent years, Grand Challenges have involved partnerships with diverse and prestigious external organisations. Including:

• A 2018 partnership with CERN (Geneva), addressing key themes of energy, infrastructure and the environment.
• Working with Logitech, Extreme E and Sustainable Ventures in 2022 to address global topics including environmental sustainability, plastic pollution, loss of marine habitat and new ocean economies.
• In 2023/24, exploring London as a coastal city using co-design with local communities to address complex and urgent challenges, with input from UNESCO, the National Oceanography Centre, Wandsworth Council and the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Another opportunity supporting collaboration and enabling industry input is the extra-curricular Terra Carta Design Lab. Initiated in 2021 by His Majesty King Charles III – then HRH The Prince of Wales – and the RCA’s Chancellor, Sir Jony Ive, and led by the Sustainable Markets Initiative, the Terra Carta Design Lab calls upon teams of multi-disciplinary students and alumni to create products or services which will address the dual crises of climate and biodiversity. Finalists receive seed funding to take their idea through to proof of concept and market, with the support of mentorship from company members of the Sustainable Markets Initiative and InnovationRCA.

As students graduate from the RCA, various awards and opportunities provide pathways into professional practice.

Past opportunities have included:

Hyundai Awards for Excellence in Sustainability and Creative Practice

For the last two years, the Hyundai Awards have celebrated projects from across the RCA in any art or design discipline that respond to the sustainability challenges currently facing society as a whole. Applications are accepted from all graduating RCA students, and winners are selected in three categories: inspiration, innovation, and aesthetics & craft.

Artist residencies with Frameless

A collaboration with Frameless has offered Digital Direction MA graduates the opportunity to showcase digital artworks through an immersive multisensory gallery. To date, alumni from 2023 and 2024 have taken part in artist residencies at the digital exhibition space in London.

RCA BLK fellowship with Lisson Gallery

In December 2024, RCA BLK, the Association of Black Student Alumni and Friends, launched a research fellowship with Lisson Gallery. The first recipients of the John Akomfrah Research Fellowship are Contemporary Art Practice MA graduates Canaan J Brown and Emily Alice Mitchell. Both will receive an award for a three-month fixed-term research project, as well as expenses towards a trip to Venice to see the Biennale and the British Pavilion installation, Listening All Night to the Rain.

Spatial Value Residency with KOKO

In 2023, two graduates from the School of Arts & Humanities took part in a residency to create and exhibit artworks at KOKO, the music venue in north London. Over 10 weeks Danielle Reuther (Photography MA, 2023) and Leonie Cameron (Sculpture MA, 2023) created work in response to the iconic Victorian music theatre in Camden, which were exhibited there in September 2023. The Spatial Value Residency explored the intersection between art practice and the formation of spatial values, while providing a supportive environment for students taking their first steps after graduation.

Students interested in starting their own business can find support through InnovationRCA, the College’s centre for entrepreneurship and commercialisation. InnovationRCA provides incubation for new businesses, offers advice to students on Intellectual Property (IP) and patents, as well as business support through expert coaching and business mentoring.

Startups supported through InnovationRCA cross disciplines, from the world's first sustainable leather and a device for sketching in 3D through augmented reality, to luxury scarves and homeware brand Emma Shipley and gender-fluid jewellery brand Räthel & Wolf.