A year of Adobe
News
BSU celebrates another year as an Adobe Creative Campus
Monday, 2 December, 2024In 2022, Bath Spa University was pleased to become one of the UK’s first Adobe Creative Campuses, giving students and staff access to industry-leading graphic design, video editing, web development and photography software including Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Illustrator, together with access to Adobe Stock’s library with millions of royalty-free images.
Since then, the BSU community has taken advantage of the full Adobe Creative Suite to complete projects, help bring their creative ideas to life or simply make their day-to-day work a bit easier, and this year was no different.
BSU meets BSU
In March, there was a meeting of the BSU powerhouses at Newton Park, with students from Bowie State University making the trip from Maryland to pay a visit to Bath Spa University. Much like BSU’s Newton Park campus, Bowie State University is also an Adobe Creative Campus, meaning our similarities span the realm of both professionalism and creativity.
The trip saw students from Bowie State University tour the country, hopping from London to Bath to explore UK perspectives around social justice.
Summing up the visit, Director of Undergraduate Programmes Richard Stamp said:
“It was a joy to meet and work with Bowie State faculty and students on the day. I was very impressed by the work the students produced on 're-imagine Bath's heritage' from the images and video they captured as they walked around Newton Park in the morning, and Bath's 'World Heritage Trail' in the afternoon.
"I couldn't be prouder of our own students, too: Millie Watkins and Tyler Callaby, second year BA History, talked to our guests about how they made their 'Voices of Main House' digital project. Listening to the discussions between the UK and US students was inspiring – creative and curious minds in conversation!”
The ultimate prize
A competition, run last year, gave students the chance to create an advert that would feature in the Women’s FA Cup Final programme. Media Communications student, Elana McCabe, was announced as the winner, with her work being on show at the iconic Wembley Stadium.
Speaking about her experience, Elana said:
“I first had to work out what the FA Cup meant to me. Of course it’s a massive competition but the growth of women’s football was something I really wanted to showcase in my work. It was an amazing feeling to know that my work could have been viewed by anyone at Wembley that day. It was really exciting.
“I think it’s amazing that you can access all of the Adobe resources at Bath Spa, it’s massively helped me with my confidence and I know it will be good for my CV when looking for work after university.
“My main piece of advice for any new student is to put yourself out there, showcase your work and take advantage of all the opportunities available to you.”
A new mural at BSU London
In 2023, we unveiled a picture-perfect mural on our Commons building at Newton Park campus, designed by a BSU student using Adobe software. This year we unveiled a second mural at our site in London. Designed by BSUL student Vindya Athkoralalage, also using the Adobe suite, the mural sets out to answer the criteria/theme: ‘What does Adobe and Bath Spa London mean to you?’ and captures the creativity and confidence of our student community.
Vindya was encouraged to enter the competition by BSUL Senior Lecturer in Marketing and Management Jaganath Karki. Jaganath introduced the idea in a digital skills module where he was teaching students how to use Adobe Express.
Maria Stallman, designer of the Newton Park campus Adobe mural, discussed how learning new skills on Adobe Creative Cloud has given her a confidence boost:
“I would encourage any new student to take advantage of the many opportunities BSU has to offer, especially when it comes to Adobe. I hadn’t used Adobe before I came to BSU but the chance to use all the different apps – for free – was a chance I couldn’t miss. I spent many hours working on my craft and picking up a range of skills that helped me during my course and beyond.”
Launching a new hub for creativity in our Library
On 5 November, we officially opened our Adobe Creative Lab in the University Library at Newton Park.
Building on the BSU community's motivation to learn and use Adobe and aim to put Adobe right at the heart of our University — we have created a flexible vibrant space where creativity can start, continue to grow and be shared by experts, physically or digitally, in the space.
Staff and students can unleash their imaginations and bring their ideas to life, whether it’s designing custom stickers, printing intricate 3D objects, exploring immersive 360° VR experiences, or producing professional-quality podcasts. With advanced Adobe software and intuitive tablet interfaces, users can draw, design, and print on various media, from iron-on transfers to photo paper and even CDs.
Top of the Adobe A-List
This November, Bath Spa University students landed a spot on the Adobe A-List, ranking in the top three of all UK Creative Campuses for Adobe Express use for the quarter.
Student Adobe Ambassadors completed a 10-week challenge to promote use of Adobe and worked to inspire use of the software. The campuses with ambassadors tracked their campaign challenges in an A-List of who was exporting and using Adobe the most over the 10-week period. Our ambassadors worked hard during this time with stalls on campuses and offering sessions to use the software – gaining 3rd place overall.
Their collective effort has unlocked an A-list event – early bird access to tickets for Adobe’s exclusive festival. Taking place on Thursday 13 March 2025 in London, A-List Festival is an exciting opportunity to enjoy exclusive live performances from chart-topping artists (to be revealed), all hosted by TikTok superstar Maddie Grace Jepson.
We can’t wait to see what the next year of Adobe brings for the University and our community. Find out more about what it means to be an Adobe Creative Campus.