BA (Hons) Graphic Design alumni Lauren McNichol has achieved Gold in the Typography category of The Creative Conscience Awards 2024! Lauren described the award as “a collection of awards which celebrate global work that aims to have a positive social or environmental impact, the awards are aimed at student work and are designed to inspire young creatives to use their design capabilities to benefit the world around them. I was introduced to the awards by my lecturer, Paul Clay, who suggested that my work met many of the objectives set out by Creative Conscience.”

Her work entitled WARP “is a learning and rehabilitation program accessible for prisoners in the UK which uses an introduction to music education to help people start their journey to rehabilitation. To practice music requires discipline, structure and dedication, attributes which are also required when engaging with ‘correctional behaviour programs’ where people can develop soft skills needed for the transition into life outside of prison or to take basic qualifications in Maths or English.”

Lauren said she designed this project because she is “passionate about the benefits that practicing music can have; mental health benefits, emotional articulation and regulation, teamwork, confidence, listening and leadership are all benefits of practicing music in some way”

Speaking on her research into the subject area she said she “found that the UK has a reoffending rate of 24.1% leading to 61% of prisons being overcrowded. The government budget at the time assigned £430 million to the expansion of the prison system to provide larger prisons to reduce overcrowding. I felt that there was a better way to tackle this issue; reduce the reoffending rate. The high reoffending rate in the UK shows that the current rehabilitation and support systems that are in place are not preparing people to live a crime-free life.”

She continued that “charitable music interventions with small groups have proved very successful in the past, but they are expensive to run and due to the small groups used the small amount of data means that it cannot be considered for government funding. As a result, only small groups of prisoners each year can be helped by musical intervention charities. I wanted to design a project which would allow widespread access to a self-directed, introductory music program which would not only help a large group of prisoners with their own development, but act as a large data group to provide tangible data for the validity of music rehabilitation programs.”

She said that “the project was an exciting challenge for me to undertake, it allowed me to address a real issue with my work and helped me develop my creative voice. Following workshops in second year I spent the summer exploring my own design manifesto and working out what I wanted to use my position as a designer for. I decided that I want to use my creative voice to bring attention to injustices and find creative solutions which use design to help view the issues in a new way. With this in mind I designed WARP to move away from traditional music education and present it in a more modern and accessible way for the target audience.”

Since graduating Lauren said she has continued  her studies enrolling onto a post-graduate degree, she said “I am completing my master’s degree in graphic design and intend to build on my work surrounding the improvement of music education and explore new ways that design can be used to address this issue. I also work as a freelance designer; over the summer I re-branded a successful recording studio, Carriage house Recording Studios, and enjoy completing self-directed projects to develop my skills further. My work on the Graphic Design BA course has prepared well for working both as a freelance designer and further study as I learned the skills needed to work independently and confidently explore a range of iterations to produce design work which effectively and creatively answers the brief.”

Speaking of her time at the school she said “I really enjoyed my time studying at NSOA and found it a creative and supportive environment where I was able to discover my creative voice and develop as a designer. The ongoing support from staff throughout the course made a real difference to my success and ensured that I always had the help needed for me to succeed in my studies. My advice to future students would be to be brave; trying new things can always be scary but embracing change is the only way to grow.”

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