Rose Davies, Curriculum Manager for Graphic Design -

“We were approached in April by a tile company called Strata Tiles. They work for a number of recognisable brands and companies such as Topshop, Next, Gatwick Airport and the London Underground. They wanted our students to take part in an event at Clerkenwell Design Week called ‘Tile Me Pretty’.

Visitors were given a 10x10cm tile and our students James Harvey and Emma Butler drew portraits of the visitors with black permanent pens. The event was a fantastic opportunity for Emma and James to network with the design community and create work in a busy environment.

The tiles and drawings proved to be very popular, as you can see from some of the pictures. They produced fantastic work in limited time – the tiles were a really great memento for people to take home.“

Rhiannon Jones, Digital Marketing Assistant for Strata Tiles -

“For this year’s Clerkenwell Design Week, Strata Tiles collaborated with the students of The Sixth Form College, Farnborough to organise and run Tuesday’s main event; ‘Tile Me Pretty’.

A simple concept of drawing fun portraits on a 10x10cm tile was brought to life by the abilities and skills of Emma Butler and James Harvey, whose talent had many of the showrooms visitors queuing to have their portrait drawn.

The event grabbed the attention of many of the Clerkenwell Design Week visitors on social media, as well as receiving wide publicity from the Clerkenwell Design Week organisers, leading to many new faces entering our London Showroom!

We’d like to extend a massive thank you to Emma and James for their professionalism and support.”

Emma Butler, Graphic Design and Fine Art student -

“Overall, I would say it was an exciting, though nerve-wracking, experience and a great opportunity to try working under pressure in an environment other than the norm. It was really wonderful to see happy people walking away with their tiles. I think this experience has inspired me to stretch myself and take advantage of more of the artistic opportunities offered to me. Strata Tiles were really welcoming and lovely to work with, and I hope to be involved in plenty more projects like this in the future!

The official Clerkenwell Design Week Twitter page had tweeted about Strata Tiles' event and so everyone seemed to know about it and wanted a tile with their face on.“

James Harvey, Graphic Design student –

“The Clerkenwell Design Week experience was really interesting and exciting. I got to meet lots of people who gave me feedback on my work and the exhibitions were very inspiring. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in art and design.”