Future Makers Challenge

Industry-led live briefs set by the National Festival of Making asked students to consider exciting new work for our festival programme.

We have worked with students in post-16 education across the UK, inviting imaginative ideas to engage our multi-generational audiences. Originally created in collaboration with Creative and Cultural Skills, we released our first ‘Future Makers Challenge’ in 2021.

The challenge was designed to support skills development across the combination of creative and business skills needed to thrive as a professional, whether freelance or employed. Since then, we have gone on to deliver the challenge independently or offered it as a framework for colleges to use within their own curriculum. 

Previous national challenges have seen applications from across the country, with the winning ideas chosen by the festival team awarded a budget of £1000 to bring their idea to reality. 

Caitlin Wyatt, Level 4 Graphic Design (BA) at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA Epsom), was mentored by artists and facilitators Let’s Make Art to develop an online resource and tutorial version of her idea ‘Aniplants’, recycling plastic bottles into planters. You can watch Caitlin’s tutorial on our downloads page.

Hana Salih, Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at Manchester Metropolitan University worked with our festival producers and artist Ian Halawi to bring her well-considered paper-making workshop to hundreds of festival visitors in 2024.

Go to Downloads

Live Briefs are essential for students in the creative sector as they provide an opportunity to experience the commissioning and development process. These briefs enable students to expand their knowledge, acquire new skills, and support talent development in the creative industries.

Lauren Zawadzki, Festival of Making CIC

Developing my workshop for the festival has provided me with the opportunity to explore different aspects of my studies that previously I had not considered. As generally our projects are aimed towards the creation of designs that fit our own preferences it was extremely intriguing to look at the festival from not just one but multiple points of views.

Caitlin Wyatt, Student

Photography by Let’s Make Art and Robin Zahler.