How RCA graduates are turning creative practice into successful businesses

Every year, the Creative Brands Accelerator provides graduates with a creative product or service with business mentoring, commercial training and advice. They have a rich line-up of brand and retail experts to support Accelerator participants establish a strong commercial foundation for their business.

This year the accelerator celebrates the milestone of supporting 50 RCA graduate brands since it started six years ago. So we spoke to some RCA graduates with creative brands across a range of disciplines to find out what they got out of the programme.

Eleanor Nadimi runs her business One Nine Eight Five from an old Victorian textile factory that's been converted into a studio space with her rescue dog, Lulu. When she set up her homeware brand in 2016, the aim was to create home products that work to close the loop on waste without compromising on design.

Eleanor had been running her brand for three years before she joined the Creative Brands Accelerator. She had the creative practice but wanted to gain the entrepreneurial skills to take her business further. “What the Creative Brands Accelerator did for me was to highlight the next best steps, most notably invaluable input from industry experts and how to get the business ready for investment funding.”

Eleanor has worked extensively with the iconic British retailer Heal’s, designing exclusive homeware collections for their stores for the past seven seasons. Her planet conscious brand has also been featured in publications including Vogue, Elle Decoration and the Financial Times. Five years on from the Creative Brands Accelerator, her business has expanded to include an artist studio, consultancy work and the imminent launch of vintage furniture alongside her homeware collections.

If you want to hear more about Eleanor’s entrepreneurial journey, listen to our special episode of the RCA podcast for International Women’s Day on which she is a guest.

With materiality and experimentation at the centre of his practice, Manos Kalemenios creates unique ceramic pieces that bring out the hidden properties of clay. He founded his South-East London based brand, Made by Manos, in 2016 and has exhibited internationally including at the London Design Festival and the British Ceramics Biennial.

“The Creative Brands Accelerator provided me with a structured framework and mentorship to refine my business model and develop a clear strategy for growth.” By accessing workshops, seminars and one-on-one coaching sessions, Manos gained insight into aspects of running a successful business across marketing, finance and operations.

He also found the networking opportunities offered by InnovationRCA’s Creative Brand Accelerator to be invaluable for expanding his network and entrepreneurial skills. “Overall, it played a crucial role in transforming my creative practice into a successful business.”

Joseph Aina is an artist with a broad skill set that includes music, fashion and business. He has been working on his online art sharing platform JMArt’space since 2016 when he won the Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the University of Kent where he studied law.

“I’m looking at ways I can implement the key philosophical intent of my paintings through other projects.” As a painter, Joseph is concerned with opening up a space for thinking around culture and the politics of race. JMArt’space is a continuation of this opening up an online space for artists to share, critique and create conversation around their work.

“The Creative Brands Accelerator allowed me to understand how to execute my creative ideas through products more accessible to the market.” With a better understanding of how to market his brand to his target audience Joseph has recently expanded the vision for his brand to include JMApparel, which expands the ethos of his creative and business practice into fashion.

Since founding his business after graduation in 2016, Per Götesson has steadily grown his brand and his designs are now a regular fixture on runways around the world, His work has become synonymous with a changing perception of masculinity in fashion with diversity and inclusivity at its centre.

When he started at the RCA though, Per was very new to building a business. "I was a very fresh entrepreneur. I wasn’t quite sure on how to build the brand." This is where the Creative Brands Accelerator was transformative for him. Especially in providing access to industry experts who knew how to boost investment in his business. “What was particularly helpful at the time was building a pitch deck and presenting to investors.”

Now in its eighth year, his brand’s highlights have included a capsule collection for high-street retailer Weekday, a partnership with Absolut Vodka and most recently his designs being worn by rapper, Travis Scott. Thinking back to his time on the Creative Brands Accelerator programme, Per reflects that he was “not a seller but a teller. I think I needed these years to focus on firming up the story. When I do actually ‘sell’ I think back on the knowledge I gathered at InnovationRCA often.”