Creating the future of business

26/04/2005

"The business climate needs a shake up, we need creative individuals to take on creativity AND business, by setting up their own types of innovative companies..."

The awards were made through NESTA's Creative Pioneer Programme, which aims to invest over £3 million in supporting individuals to build new types of companies and business markets in the creative industries.

The announcement comes on the same day that research commissioned by NESTA is published showing that creative businesses need to be identified and supported early on to grow into world-beating businesses.

Hugo Manassei, Director of the Creative Pioneer Programme, said:
"In the UK, we have a reputation for producing great creators who go on to make their name overseas. Jonathan Ive and much of the design team at Apple and over 80% of Donna Karen's New York design studio are British. But do we have these kinds of companies where these types of people can work in the UK? No. The business climate needs a shake up, we need creative individuals to take on creativity AND business, by setting up their own types of innovative companies, that don't just offer new types of creative services, with new types of business models. Forget business schools, creative talent needs to take the lead in developing the new economy. This is one of the things that the Creative Pioneer Programme is looking to do, through supporting creative individuals up to five years after they have graduated."

Twenty five individuals were invited onto the programme and attended a paid three-week course at the Academy. Here they came face-to-face with creative entrepreneurs such as film-maker Lord Puttnam, fashion designer Katherine Hamnett and Big Issue founder John Bird, who have experienced what it's like to set up a business. At the Academy, they were taught business principles; studied entrepreneurship, and received coaching for personal and professional development.

Fourteen of those who attended the Academy have now been awarded Pioneer Awards of up to £35,000 to start their own business, and will receive the ongoing support of a NESTA mentor. With this expertise we hope to see them become the role models of the future, showing how the creative industries can produce entrepreneurs who significantly contribute to the UK's economic wealth.

Applications can now be made to the 2006 Academy, before the deadline of 6 September. NESTA is looking for applicants who are not afraid to put themselves on the line and who will demonstrate an ambition to further the role that the creative industries can play in the UK economy.

For a full list of criteria and to download an application pack, go to:
www.nesta.org.uk/theacademy

The Academy 2005

Kelly Atkins
Derby
Awarded £35,000
Carpet Burns is a new material company that turns carpet waste into flat panelled material similar to MDF, which can be used in the construction industry.

Keith Burgess
Dorset
Keith Burgess has developed a new kind of VJ software, designed for use with the MIDI interface. It allows the user to create their own visuals, as well as upload bespoke and off the shelf visuals developed by Keith. The software is unique in having unlimited outputs to multiple projectors.

Matthew Dearlove
London
This architectural consultancy, dearlove Urban Studio, acts as a go-between between communities and property developers. It has a unique research method that helps to develop design briefs generated by the community themselves. This enables community members to be part of the design process for their environment, and in turn creates more relevant property developments.

Gopal Dutta
Huddersfield
Awarded £35,000
Gopal Dutta is a documentary film maker whose recent work on the Sikh community in Huddersfield has already been shown on Channel 4. Gopal's next step is to develop a broadband TV channel, Brown TV, with his business partner Nav Kandola. This will be aimed towards the young Asian market, developing intelligent and youth orientated programming that is in contrast to the existing market of satellite programming targeted at an older displaced South Asian Audience.

Francesca Granato
London
Dora's Box is a communications agency concerned with developing work that promotes awareness of sexual health education, providing a service that uses innovative and fresh communication ideas to reach difficult audiences such as teenagers.

Catherine Greig
London
Awarded £35,000
make_good is an architectural initiative that nourishes communities to help themselves regenerate their own environment. A company operating within the social housing arena, make_good uses a hands on approach to encourage communities to maintain their communal areas. By increasing a sense of ownership of public and private spaces an enhanced feeling of community and a better living environment is created.

Alex Griffin
London
Soukana.com is an online retail environment for exclusive lifestyle products and personalisation, soon to be also available via interactive TV and 3G mobile devices.

Diana Irani
London
Awarded £35,000
Diana Irani already has an established clothing brand that sells internationally. Diana's new brand, Re_Medi, will create clothing made from a specific material, developed whilst studying her MPhil at the RCA. This material releases complementary medicine into the skin through the wearing of the fabric.

Hannes Koch
Germany
Awarded £35,000
Hannes Koch and business partner Flo Ortkrass have developed a process that they use to screen print fully functional, over-size displays onto ordinary paper at a competitive price.
This is done by first printing a pattern of heating elements onto paper and then connecting them to a small controller chip. That pattern is covered with another printed, heat reactive layer. Their business operation: Schoener Ltd is going to continue looking for dormant technologies with the aim of recognizing the potential for significant innovation.

Lisa Larsson
Beckenham, Kent
Awarded £35,000
L is a fashion brand which recognises that women come in shapes, not numbers. Through a new system of gathering and draping, women will now be able to adjust the size of their clothing to suit the fluctuations of their body shape.

Matthias Megyeri
London
Awarded £35,000
Sweet Dream Security creates security products (such as fences, barbed wire, locks) which are designed to include a humorous, wry "cute" element. (Matthias attended the Academy in 2004 and re-submitted his business plan to the Committee this year).

Emily Mantell
London
Awarded £35,000
P.Rude helps women acquire information about sexual development and health. It will develop a series of products and communication campaigns that aim to help young women develop an educated and responsible understanding of their bodies. The first project will re-design the vibrator, to be used as an exploratory and fun approach to understanding the world of sex.

Zoe Miller
Fleet, Hampshire
A 'textile solution' company that researches and develops tailor made fabrics for a given use. Focusing on the design and technology industries as a starting point. The company creates fabrics that have a variety of properties, such as integral form or flexibility.The results lending themselves to a range of applications.

Thomas Modeen
London
Thomas Modeen has developed, with business partner Paul Brady, a new plastic architectural material using a solid freeform fabrication technique. This new material, which creates a tight interlocking shell like pattern on its service, will be developed as a new pavement material that, through variations in the patterns of the surface, will denote new uses to the visually impaired as well as direct the flow of pedestrians.

Gavin Morris
Bristol
Awarded £35,000
Gavin Morris has developed a series of physical digital interaction interfaces that will be developed into a new Digital Fairground. The fairground will travel, like existing fairgrounds, as well as being installed in specific locations for events. One of the attractions, The "Beat Jigsaw", allows participants to create their own music and visuals by sliding wooden blocks around a flat surface. Each specific location represents an audio and visual loop, allowing simultaneous DJ and VJing for the rhythmically challenged.

Barry Murphy
London
Barry Murphy's business idea was to make short films that dealt with educational subjects, particularly science, in a new and interesting way. Using innovative styles and approaches these films will be as entertaining as they are educational, reaching a wider range of audience.

Emma Neuberg
London
LovePlastic is a new materials design consultancy that specializes in turning recycled plastics into desirable textiles. Combining her textile background with plastics innovation, director Emma Neuberg has discovered a way of transforming dull plastic sheet into beautiful, multi-layered fabric ideal for fashion and interiors. LovePlastic plans to put this knowledge into production with the help of licensees. The bigger picture is to pioneer a new, more feminine plastic aesthetic, to elevate the kudos of recycled materials, to challenge disposability and ultimately, to deter landfill.

Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh
London
Awarded £35,000
Formerol is a new kind of tactile material that will be used for a large variety of consumer applications. It is moulded by hand to the shape required and quickly dries retaining the shape it was given. Already creating a lot of interest amongst established manufacturers, the applications for this new material are seemingly limitless, but Jane's particular passion is to encourage a culture of casual production where people customise and improve their household products for themselves. The business will start by developing a series of packs that suggest and encourage creativity around its use.

Juliane Otterbach
London
Juliane will be establishing a publishing company that specialises in children¹s reference books. Her publications will aim to inform readers about issues of contemporary society and an educational content will be excitingly packaged with cutting edge illustrations.

Priya Prakash
London
Awarded £35,000
Digital Well being is a company that can provide IT solutions to the layman. Concentrating on lifestyle sections it will help people integrate the multitude of digital devices into a seamless and bespoke system that helps rather than frustrates.

Heather Sloane
Belfast
Awarded £35,000
Heather Sloane will develop a digital consultancy that specialises in working with traditional children's book publishing companies to create interactive story books that place equal emphasis on illustration and narrative as it does on interactivity. The first product will be a new kind of interactive book to address literacy in children. It will make the learning experience fun and engaging for parents, teachers and children.

Jason Steel
York
Jason Steel will launch a menswear collection which is a cross between fine-art craft and superb fashion. It will provide not just clothing but draw upon the emotional themes which are prevalent in the everyday, love, loss, fear and hope.

Annabel Waterman
London
Annabel Waterman's textile designs are amazing in their own right, but it is the application that has created a new potential. Annabel has developed a new technique for digitally printing designs straight on to wood, thus creating new markets and new products that vary in scale from household objects to architectural features.

Paul West
London
Paul West is frustrated with the current state of holiday homes in the UK, characterised by the twee cottage for rental. Paul West has a new plan called 'Our House', which will develop new modern, design focused, semi-portable unit homes that are flexible in their structure to allow different renting options, so that a number of families can rent connecting spaces, with common shared space, or a series of private spaces that can be rented separately. He will also focus on developing an online service element that brings likeminded people together to inhabit these temporary accommodation units encouraging new types of communal gathering.

Laura Williams
Newcastle
Awarded £21,000
Laura Williams' Zest Design is a service design consultancy which will concentrate on the public sector. Working with Regional Development Agencies and Local Councils she will start to examine and develop new and improved services.

Richard Woods
London
Awarded £35,000
Richard Woods, Greta Corke and Jon Sawdon Smith have created the 'DIY Kyoto' concept. DIY Kyoto creates products and services that inspire and enable people to meet the Kyoto Protocol at a personal level. DIY Kyoto want people to feel good about taking positive action instead of feeling guilty about not doing enough. Their launch product 'Wattson' will change the way people understand home energy use and the products they live with. 'Wattson' shows how easily big energy and cost savings can be made with no affect on our lifestyles.