London’s self-made creatives take on the industry

Raised by a fashion designer mother and a father who told stories of his younger days spent as a DJ, Amira Renée always knew she wanted to do something creative with her life. Today, at age 26, having just returned to London (where she was born) via Nairobi (where she grew up), she dreams of collaborating on purpose-led creative projects with global reach, saying, “I’m very inspired by Kendrick Lamar's impactful work and his recent partnership with Global Citizen Africa to improve the creative events landscape in Africa.” The only problem? Having dropped out of university, Renée needs to find an alternative way to expand her network, and navigate her own way into the creative industry. 

The story is similar for many of Renée’s classmates from D&AD Shift with Google — a free industry-led night school where creatives on non-traditional paths can develop their skills and networks by attending workshops with professional creatives and answering briefs from brands like adidas and Airbnb. The group, which includes a BAFTA-qualifying filmmaker, a self-taught 3D artist, a former-model turned photographer and a graffiti artist turned graphic designer, has spent the last five months in London (and even travelling from as far as Nottingham) learning the ins and outs of the industry to figure out where they fit. 

Now, on the brink of launching into their creative careers, the soon-to-be graduating class is asking themselves big life questions — how will their unique backgrounds and personalities play into their projects? How will they balance their passion projects with jobs that pay the bills? And how will they pay it forward and open up a still closed-off industry to more diverse talent? 

We caught up with the group to learn about their early creative starts, the challenges they’ve faced entering the industry, and their hopes for what lies ahead.

Many of the class tell similar stories of having found a love for the arts at a young age and enlisted their friends to help them create. Marcus Austin (20), a filmmaker who recently produced a BAFTA-qualifying short starring the British actor David Harewood, got his start after enlisting friends to help bring the script he wrote at age 18 to life. “My friends and I wanted to try and just do something creative,” says Austin. “And making that first film has allowed me to keep making films and going to film sets.” 

Similarly, part-time carpenter Alexander Charman (34), also started his creative journey doing something fun with friends. “My friends and I ran a blog about street culture in London which was a resource for people to know about what was going on in town,” says Charman. “People don't really read blogs anymore, it's all about social media, but that's how I started my network.” 

And Ailis Martisius (27), who grew up in Lithuania and didn’t know anything about the industry (“so how could I be a part of it?”), says his creative spark ignited after his partner asked him to design a logo for her brand. “I made it for her, on my shitty MacBook Air that would stop working all the time, but I finished the project, and I delivered it and got paid for something I had created for the very first time.” Since then, he’s always been designing, “I was just chasing that high, and I’m still in discovery.” 

For many of this graduating class, University didn’t seem like a viable option for a multitude of reasons, one being how expensive education has gotten in the UK in recent years. Self-taught photographer Koto Shimada (21) says, “I took a gap year and all my friends had gone to Uni and it just looked horrendous. I didn't want to pay 27K to do something that doesn't excite me.” 

Such challenges haven’t deterred the class from developing their skills independently though, and many are self-taught in their fields. Martisius notes,  “there are a lot of barriers for those wanting to become 3D artists because the software is so expensive, but I’m teaching myself and it’s been rewarding”, and Razik Darji (21), who left school at 16 to work at tech startups and now dreams of working in AR says, “It’s very expensive to buy a headset. I saved up for a year to get a really powerful laptop just so I can build AR and VR. It seems like it’s finally paying off though.” Darji, along with three others graduating in 2023 has been accepted into the advertising agency WPP’s Creative Apprenticeship programme after finishing the Shift programme. 

Similarly, self-taught 3D artist and motion designer Jakub Molis (26), says of his path, “I remember making my first creative piece at the age of eleven, which was a little stop motion animation using Windows Movie Maker. And then from that point onwards, I’ve taught myself with the help of YouTube tutorials, online courses, and just practice, trial and error.”

While Universities require students to already have a good idea about what they want to study, most of this D&AD Shift with Google class want to try their hand at different crafts. This is especially true for the ones who weren’t surrounded by creatives at home. “My family are all doctors and engineers and politicians,” says illustrator and graphic designer Mercy Mapaba (33). “So I had no idea about how to become a creative because I had no one to look to for inspiration. I did a few courses and I dabbled in animation, acting and directing, just trying to feel my way out.”

Meanwhile, creative and social media strategist Tomi Afolabi (20) says that his “traditional African parents” wanted him to go to uni and get a job, and warned that he would never get a girlfriend if he didn’t. “I wanted to be an actor though,” says Afolabi, “Or I wanted to edit, or maybe try photography.”

Not knowing enough about the creative industry and the jobs that are available is a blocker for creatives wanting to enter the industry, and D&AD Shift bridges the gap between having talent and making a career out of it. Darji says of his tech background, “I wasn't really in the creative industry, but I felt like I wanted to be. There was a talk during the Shift programme and someone from WPP told me that I could be a creative technologist. I hadn’t even thought about that, because I didn’t know you could combine those things.”

For some, exploring different creative disciplines through the Shift programme has also led them to understand what they really want to be doing. This was the case with Tolu Elusade (22) who came into the programme thinking she wanted to be a strategist and says, “Within two weeks of starting at Shift I got offered a research position at (the agency) Amplify, but after doing Shift and actually meeting strategists, I realised that I wanted a more creative role.” 

Experimenting has led these creatives to understand what they love most, like in the case of Temitayo Ince (28) who was interested in strategy and art direction before “waking up one day and deciding” that she wanted to try ceramics. “I didn’t have much money when I started,” says Ince. “So instead of going to an expensive studio, I just bought some clay and taught myself.” Since then, Ince has built her community around her artistic practice, reaching out to other Black female ceramicists online, going to classes and going to workshops.

Despite the barriers many face to enter the creative industry, the class agrees that where they came from, and their community is what gives them a unique skillset, perspective and voice that is rare in some parts of the creative industry. Sergio Lopez (21), who started taking photographs after being influenced by Brixton, the London borough in which he grew up says, “At the time it was a very ‘bad’ area, but in my block someone would be making a new music video every week. Everyone was trying to have a fashion brand, or be a trap star.” Lopez’s work now focuses on the UK’s Latin community, and he says, “That’s really helped me connect with my roots and connect with the people around me.” 

Klavel Millanaise (27), who goes by the preferred name Ask Kleeves, also chimes in to say that his “underprivileged background” is what has made him “particularly privileged in creativity.” He says, “I grew up with a wooden TV, so I was allowed to use my imagination. Today, so many kids are given an iPad and they're just taking in things that were made for a consumer, they’re not creating. I feel like where I came from, creating was my skill.” 

The London Shifters want to hold on to who they are and where they have come from, as they emerge into the creative industry many of the class say passion projects are a way to do this and take precedence over ‘a real job’. Elusade for example wants you to know that her passion projects including writing poetry and making images will continue as a reflection of her personality, saying, “I might work in the corporate world, in this ad world, but I still want to be known for the art I make that isn't necessarily backed by a brand.” And Shimada dreams of travelling to East Asia for a personal photography project on what it feels like to be mixed-race (she’s both Japanese and British).

The group are staunch believers that they want to pay it forward. Austin says he wants to open up positions for people “from disadvantaged backgrounds” the next time he’s on set for a film (“hopefully I’ll get commissioned to do more short films soon”), Lopez wants to start his own agency in order to hire talent from “more than one demographic”, and photographer Lourice Ramos (22), who gave up modelling after she saw a lack of representation, wants to continue photographing her friends from all walks of life. 

Ramos says, “A lot of Art Directors do look like us now, we're getting there. And because they know the struggle, they’re more willing to help. Back when I was modelling, it was all about the connections you already had, but now it’s like — okay, we see you, and we’ll help you.”

D&AD Shift with Google is a free, industry-led night school programme for new creatives. If you are over 18 and don't have a degree-level qualification, Shift is for you.