IN THE STUDIO
ABOVE Barbican,
screen print,
59.4x42cmTOP LEFT Anna in
the studio with her
homemade inksbeing under the Westway, but then
also work getting under way and
progressing in the studio.”
Aiden joined later in that year,
along with two other members, Roz
Woodman and Toby Downham. The
first collective project arrived at the
beginning of 2016. Ecotopia was a
print installation commissioned for
the London Design Festival that
marked the 500th anniversary of
Thomas More’s classic book Utopia,
as Melissa explains: “Ecotopia was all
about sustainability and our role in
the project was illustrating the
answers of climate change experts
who’d given their opinion via a
questionnaire on how we could live
more sustainably in the future.”
Roz and Toby left shortly after the
project before a brief move to a
second premises. The current
Underway Studio is now part of the
larger ASC Studios complex, which
are former council offices in the heart
of London’s Brixton. “First we were
under the ‘Way, then we were next to
the ‘Way and now we’re no way near
the ‘Way,” jokes Anna, the last to join.
Underway’s second-floor space is
efficiently arranged. The old toilet at
the back is a wash room and opens
out onto drying racks and an
exposure unit. The dry area where
we are sat has a few recent prints
brightening the walls and many more
tucked away in plan chests. The
Underway quartet have begun to refer
to the last of their unsold works as
“assets” after a mentor on a Prince’s
Trust enterprise course encouragedthem to start thinking like a business.
“They teach you about tax and
marketing and website SEO, and all
this useful stuff about how to put
together a business plan,” explains
Anna. “It gives you a bit more focus.
When we went in, we did have an idea
of what our business plan was, but
this kind of formalised it all [so we
could say] this is the direction we
want to go in, this is what we want
to achieve in the next like few years.
To get it down on paper makes it a
lot more real in your head.”