Innovation Fellowship in Materials

InnovationRCA worked closely with the London Design Festival to offer an Innovation Fellowship in Materials to a new Royal College of Art graduate for the academic year 2008/9. 

The aim was to fund pioneering materials research by a creative practitioner in design. The successful candidate, Yemi Awosile of RCA Mixed Media Textiles, was chosen from across the art and design disciplines taught by the College.

Yemi Awosile will use the Fellowship to develop a creative collection of cork-based wall-coverings, breathing new life and identity into a traditional material.

The Fellowship provides a bursary for a new graduate to work at the RCA for two days per week for nine months, plus additional support. The Innovation Fellow in Materials is employed by InnovationRCA. At the end of the Fellowship period, the designer will aim to have created a body of new work that can be exhibited at the London Design Festival 2009. 

Funding for this new Fellowship comes from the proceeds of a sale at auction of two sculptures by Zaha Hadid and Amanda Levete of Future Systems. These were exhibited outside the Royal Festival Hall at the 2007 London Design Festival as part of the Size & Matter project, which teamed leading architects with specific materials.