Creative Social Sciences student designs logo to represent university research group 

A Social Sciences student has had her creative talents recognised after designing a logo for a university seminar series.

Final year Social Sciences student Rachel Jardine, who runs her own Instagram blog, was approached by lecturer Dr Katy Proctor to design a logo for GCU’s Gender Research and Equalities Network.

The network, run by Dr Katy Proctor and Professor Nancy Lombard, is a multi-disciplinary research group which aims to facilitate cross-disciplinary discussion of gender and other inequalities in academic research.

Thanks to the close relationship between Rachel and her lecturers, Katy became aware of Rachel’s passion for illustration during their regular study retreats which she created to help students during the pandemic.

Rachel began an Instagram blog in 2020, which aimed to raise awareness about sexual health, relationships and feminism. A few months after launching the blog, Rachel discovered a new way of sharing information – which meant tapping into her creative side. Rachel began incorporating colourful illustrations to her blog, which allowed her to convey different pieces of information in an artistic way.

Since then, Rachel has been growing her blog and has had a number of charities, groups and organisations reach out to her to commission some illustration work. Now at the end of her degree, Rachel has reflected on the success of her blog and how she never expected to have such a positive response to her work.

Developing her creative side

“I’ve been creative since I was younger, drawing in sketch pads etc, but not in a way that I would ever consider pursuing it as a serious hobby. I didn’t do a lot of art during my time in secondary school until the last two years where I decided to choose art as a subject, but it was very much traditional art as opposed to the art I liked doing. It was very much still life, realistic drawings etc and it wasn’t really my thing but it allowed me to still use that creative side.

After I left school, I didn’t really do any art; I went straight to university and focused on essays, coursework etc. My head wasn’t in ‘creative drawing mode’ and I stopped doing it actively at that point. At the start of 2020, I decided to start my Instagram page to speak about sexual health, relationships and feminism. I really felt that the University helped encourage me to pursue my interests and feel supported in having that kind of passion, so that allowed me to think ‘I want to talk about this’.  I knew that I was talking about things on my page that people didn’t really want to talk about, so it became a discussion space for people to discuss these kinds of things.

After a few months, I realised that I wanted to find another medium to get all of that across. We were having the conversations, but I wanted to involve imagery. I downloaded ProCreate on my phone and started doing illustrations using the app, literally just with my finger! I did this from about March until June and it was mainly so I could use something to create discussion on my Instagram page. After a while, I realised that this was something I could really get into doing. I decided to get an iPad, an Apple pencil and really commit to it. I realised that when I was doing the illustrations, it wasn’t about getting praise for how good my art was or anything like that; it was just a way for me to get my message across and this is how I know how to do it. People really enjoyed that and it made me want to practice it more.

As I said before, I was always creative but never knew what my abilities were until I got the iPad and started sharing my illustrations online for a real purpose. It was that drive that made me want to pursue it more.”

Turning a hobby into freelance work

“I knew that I needed a medium to communicate what I wanted to say which is what I found, but it’s not something I actively aimed for. I never predicted half the things I’ve been able to do since starting it! I’m not the kind of person that pursues or applies towards anything; for example, a lot of the opportunities I have had come from people contacting me. It’s a strange position to be in.

I’m at the stage in university where we are told to apply to as much as we can and then to apply for jobs once we graduated, but I’m doing everything the wrong way round. Rather than contact people to sell myself, I’ve had people contact me to ask me to do some work for them – it feels very strange! I don’t expect it to happen as a result of me sharing more content, but people are seeing it and then reaching out to commission me for some work.

When I’m creating content to post, I don’t do it with the intention of impressing different people and hoping that they love it. I do it with the thought of ‘if seeing this helped me, then I want to post it’. I do see the positive reaction it has on different brands and organisations that see my posts, but I also see the individual impact of it as well; whether it’s someone I used to go to school with or a student in my class.”

Life after university

“I don’t have any plans at the moment, just hoping to see where life takes me! I don’t know what kind of area I want to go into yet and, much like how I do my illustrations, I’m not actively pursuing anything in terms of finding a job. I could sit here and come up with a plan for the next week or the next year but a big brand could approach me to work on a project – anything could happen!

These are things that I can’t plan but that’s been my vision throughout this process and I want to keep to that. I have an idea of the type of areas that I’d like to work in and the academic interests that I have; for example like working with charities like LGBTQ Youth Scotland, We Really Care, etc. It’s about finding something that lets me have a purpose, for example creating content to help spread a particular message about something. I don’t know what I’d do exactly, but I know now that I have the creative skills to do some illustration work or could do some work in a fundraising role. The honest answer is that I have no idea yet!

There’s no position that I want, but I know how I want to feel whilst doing it. I want to feel valued and I want to feel like I’m doing something for a greater good.”

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here