IN THE STUDIO
BELOW LEFT
A design from
Underway’s New
York Art Deco
illustration projectBELOW Underway
Studio’s tools and
materialsThe Prince’s Trust has also paired
them with a business mentor for
the next two years and encouraged
them to formalise the company as a
partnership. “It just helped us to see
it in a totally different way,” adds
Caitlin. “When you’re creative, your
brain does work differently.”
For now, all four members have
creative jobs away from Underway.
Aiden works full time in commercial
graphic design. The other three have
part-time jobs: Anna as a secondary
school art technician, Melissa in
Studio 73 Gallery, and Caitlin teaching
art at a primary school. “It’s very
rewarding,” she says. “It makes you
look at this art in a totally different
way because kids just go for it.”
The collective ambition, Anna says,
is to get to the point where they can
survive off print sales, teaching
workshops and design commissions,
such as a recent collaboration with
Adidas trainers. “Hopefully people will
be able to recognise our style andsay, ‘We’ve got this brief, Underway
Studio will be able to answer that.’”
What is quite remarkable about the
work of Underway Studio is that it
never feels like a compromise.
Rather than dialling back their
ambition and settling upon something
that they all agree upon, it feels as
if they are each adding an extra layer
of lustre, like four craftspeople
burnishing a piece of antique
silverware. Theirs is an additive
process, not a reductive one.