Central St. Martins' Applied Imagination show

MA Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries is a course which aims to question existing assumptions and boundaries in one or creative disciplines.

Students from the course at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design hold their degree show next month. We caught up with Raquel Pais, one of 48 students presenting their work, to discuss her project, CAPUCHA!.

Computer Arts (CA): Tell me about your project – the concept, background and how it came together?

Raquel Pais (RP):" CAPUCHA! is a collaborative project bringing together a multidisciplinary group of creative professionals, a catalyst of ideas promoting the traditional portuguese crafts. It aims to be a contemporary expression of the portuguese traditional crafts production that can reconnect the consumer with the history behind the craft product. It wants to illustrate its local and global, popular and sophisticated, traditional and innovative aspects."

CA: Have you always been artistic?

RP: "My BA is in communication design. I had an informal education in art as my family always pushed me into visiting museums, discussing and appreciating art. So it's something that has been around me my whole life."

CA: How would you describe your style?

RP: "I don't think I can say I have a style. But I am very keen on popular culture and on combining it with contemporary expressions. I am also interested in innovation based on integration of past and present styles, solutions, designs. I believe that modern is not always better."

CA: What is the creative process like for you?

RP: "I always need hard work. I take my time arriving at a solution, or to a good idea. Even when I feel that I am not getting anywhere, it eventually turns out well, in the end, because of all the research I did throughout the process."

CA: What is the difference between good design and great design?

RP: "Well ... First I think art and design communicate on different levels. A great art piece can communicate with us at a very particular level – it makes you feel, think or realise things you have never experienced before.

"Great design is the best answer to a specific problem. Design answers questions in a clever, simple and efficient way. For both, I think the difference between good and great is the level of empathy that it can attain with the audience.

CA: What projects are you working on next?

RP: "Well, for now, I am working on moving this project – CAPUCHA! – forward in collaboration with a Portuguese fashion and textile designer – a sustainable strategy to keep on working with these crafters and make their work valued worldwide."

Event details

The MA Applied Imagination Degree Show 2012 takes place at Exhibition Space KX K001, Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, The Granary, 1 Granary Square, King’s Cross, London N1C 4AA from Wednesday 5 to Friday 7 December with doors open from 10am-8:30pm each day.