Brixton Finishing School Graduates Launch Black History Month Building Takeover

Four graduates from Brixton Finishing School, a digital programme providing skills and real-world advertising experiences to young people from under-represented groups, have created a building takeover of the London headquarters of the UK’s largest independent marketing services organisation ENGINE. The takeover coincides with Black History Month and celebrates the black UK talent of the future. 

The brief was provided by ENGINE Creative and aims to accelerate the pace of change and showcase the potential talent that will shape the industry’s future by turning Black History Month into Black Future Month. The line ‘The Future’s Bright, The Future’s Black’ was conceived and developed by the students and spans across the second to fourth floors of ENGINE’s Great Portland Street Offices. The ground floor windows also feature images of the Brixton Finishing School graduates, helping to raise their own profiles as well as the profile of black creative talent across the UK. 

As part of the campaign, a microsite has also been developed to act as a platform for the students and wider young black talent to showcase their work, ambitions and their inspirational black role models. The four graduates have also been offered internships with ENGINE to start in 2021 as part of their ongoing commitment to achieve better representation in the creative industry and within their own organisation. Further, ENGINE will be supporting the charity’s mentoring scheme and providing speakers for its course. 

Launched in 2018, the Brixton Finishing School is the brainchild of Ally Owen, former exec at Unruly, MailOnline and Yahoo. Ally saw the urgent need to diversify talent in advertising and encourage untapped talent from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds - whether BAME, neuro-diverse, or female – into the industry through training and work experience. This is the beginning of a partnership between the programme and ENGINE, and the first project the two organisations have worked together on. As part of the partnership, ENGINE has pledged to offer creative internships to Brixton Finishing School students, support the charity’s mentoring scheme and provide speakers for its course. 

Leila George, art director and graduate from Brixton Finishing School, said: “'I wanted to be involved in this project because it was an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of black talent and drive change that will help make the advertising industry a more diverse place. Growing up, I didn't know of anyone in the industry and was unaware of the many roles that existed. Through Brixton Finishing School and becoming immersed in the ad world, many of us have gained a better awareness of what roles we would be suited to and a greater understanding in general of the opportunities that are available.”

She continued:  “I am excited for Engine's ongoing association with BFS and commitment to encouraging and inspiring diverse talent, as it will go towards creating better representation within agencies throughout the industry. I hope that other agencies will also follow suit with long-term initiatives such as mentoring, talks and experience which can inspire the next generation of diverse talent to explore a career in advertising. Working with Engine has been great because they helped bring our ideas to life and really supported us in making the project as impactful as possible. Moving forward, I'd like to see the thefutureisblack.co.uk grow to be a go-to place for discovering young black talent.”