Meet the graduates: University of the West of England’s Sophie Pitt
As part of our coverage of 2021’s graduate season, we’re spending five minutes with a selection of graduates from around the UK to talk about their work, practice and future plans.
Sophie Pitt is a 23-year-old MA Design graduate from University of the West of England. Her final project is The Bubl Project.
Design Week: Can you explain briefly what your final project was about?
Sophie Pitt: For my final project, the aim was to resolve a current real-world issue. In terms of pollution, plastic packaging is one of the worst culprits and is one of many big obstacles to a sustainable future.
My solution is to reform recycled bubble wrap into a material that can be used in multiple, innovative and creative ways, drastically reducing the need for bubble wrap production in the future and to stop filling our oceans with dangerous plastic. Using a range of methods and testing materials, I have created a new sheet material, which I’m calling “bubl”, unleashing the potential to help clean up the planet by substituting this new material for various purposes.
This operation will be known as The Bubl Project. Bubl can then ultimately sell as sheet material or formed products, where a proportion of the proceeds will be donated to charities fighting against climate change.
DW: More generally, what would you say your biggest inspirations are in your design practice?
SP: One of my many inspirations in my design practice come from the aesthetics of creative design and the influence this has in emotional and sentimental value. Additionally, as a designer, there’s so much power to help tackle global, social and environmental issues, so I enjoy keeping track of current (and past) trends to adapt my creative thinking.
My passion and enthusiasm for nature also inspires me to apply many forms to my work, highlighting the beauty within the natural world, and my love for painting, drawing and listening to music allows me to increase my artistic concepts and create designs that reflect my individuality.
DW: What would be the ideal job for you, and why?
SP: My ideal job would be eventually building brand identity for myself and my design pieces independently. Due to design being such a broad industry, there’s so many routes I could go down – I’m in love with product design whether that’s purely aesthetic or functional.
But on the other hand I’m keen to pursue design consultancy in the future where I can help many people with their design choices and ideas, as well as visualising and creating the final outcome.
Other career options for myself include sustainability, user-experience design and visual communications, which I find incredibly important in design, as it can be easily interpreted by all and increases the understanding to a greater, more global audience.
You can view Sophie’s work, as well as her UWE peers’ as part of the UWE Graduate Showcase.
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