Make work about things people do without thinking, and then think about them very hard.
Culture™ is a satirical brand stemming from research into the line between cultural appreciation and appropriation. It’s rooted in academic research, auto-ethnographic practice, and first-hand interviews, the project traces how elements of Black culture travel into mainstream usage, stripped of context and repackaged for profit. The outcome is a fully realised brand: a website, a product range, a manifesto, and an archive that gives audiences the cultural history behind each item. Using the aesthetics and language of commercial branding to expose the very system it mimics, Culture™ asks a simple but uncomfortable question, if everyone is doing it, does that make it acceptable, or just normalised?
Created in collaboration with internationally renowned advertising agency M&C Saatchi, and further developed with a range of industry partners, the BA Creative Advertising and Art Direction programme has a strong employment, inclusivity, sustainability and, crucially, creative focus. Students have spent time within agencies working with practitioners and practitioner academics here in the design and film studios. They could specialise in art direction, copywriting, moving image, experiential, digital content and a variety of other visual and written branded communications. There was a lot to learn but they had fun.
