Students Shine on National Stage in Royal Ballet & Opera Design Challenge 2025

East Sussex College students are celebrating national recognition following their success in the Royal Ballet & Opera Design Challenge 2025.

This year’s challenge, inspired by The Winter’s Tale, has seen five students from the College impress the judges with their creative thinking and technical design work, with two students crowned overall winners in their categories.

The Royal Ballet and Opera's Design Challenge is a national, skills-based design competition that gives students the chance to work to a brief inspired by a Royal Ballet and Opera production. Design Challenge aims to discover and nurture young talent, improve access to design jobs in the theatre and beyond, and enhance students' hands-on skills to help them meet their qualifications. Design Challenge is not only about helping students enhance their skills and finish their studies – it’s also about giving young people relevant experience and greater access and pathways into creative education and artistic industries. 

The judging panel praised the inventive and thoughtful responses to the three creative briefs set by Creative Associate David Pickering, each reflecting the themes and visual world of The Winter’s Tale.

Among the winners were Art & Design students Indigo-Pacha Reynolds, who took the top prize for Costume Design, and Jaina Chandler, who won the Marketing Design category – both representing East Sussex College.

“I didn’t believe it at first, it felt really surreal to find out I’d won!” Indigo told the College. “I’m very grateful! From the second I saw ‘A Moment in Time’ I knew I wanted to do that as I’ve always been fascinated by fashion history. That was really exciting. I started thinking about how I could represent the different settings through different moments in time, and that’s how I decided on my chosen era.

“A lot of the lace was hand stitched on, like most of the details. That was really enjoyable seeing it all come together and look how I envisaged it initially. James [Indigo’s tutor] gave me good advice on where to go with my concepts. I’m a very imaginative person and James helped me narrow my ideas down.”

Jaina spoke to the College about her reacting to claiming the top prize and her journey throughout the project. “When I found out I’d won, it didn’t feel real! I went in without any expectations, so it was really cool. I had to call my Mum straight after! She was in her office working and she said ‘Oh my gosh, Jaina that’s amazing!’. My initial idea was to make a stock motion with the figures but through certain challenges I decided to go into animation and it turned out really well!

“I’m a big fan of musicals so working on this project for the Royal Ballet & Opera House is amazing, doing this has been an honour, really cool! We’ve had a lot of client brief projects throughout the course and this prepared me well for this project. I received a lot of support from James throughout. I’d sit with him and look through all the fonts so there was a lot of communication!”

Also recognised for their outstanding work were:

• Viola Doncheva – Commended for Vision in Costume Design
• Maia Poole-Wilson – Commended for Clarity in Set Design
• Summer Baker – Commended in Wigs, Hair and Makeup Design

“When I found my work had been commended I felt surprised!” Viola told the College. “It took a while to realise what happened! I’ve always loved fashion and design, so when I saw this opportunity I loved it and I love illustration so it made sense. I’ve always loved fashion.”

Maia described her favourite part of the project and also emphasised the support from her tutor. “I was really pleased when I found out, I was hopeful but didn’t expect to get through! My favourite part of the project was experimenting with light. I wanted to keep it quite minimalistic. Most of my design is hidden and only gets discovered when it lights up. I chose the pathway of juxtaposition and had this idea beforehand about how I could incorporate this.”

“James [Maia’s tutor] has been an amazing tutor, he has always shown a lot of attention to detail. He makes you feel comfortable in your day to day and gives each student one-to-one attention. I’m dyslexic, he’s very supportive to neurodivergent people and those with learning difficulties. It’s helpful to have a tutor that understands you!”

“I was relieved that all of my hard work was recognised!” Summer told the College. “Being the only one on the hair and make-up design on the list was an honour really. My sister is my model and she’s everything to me, having her be a part of this makes this feel so much more worth it. I’d encourage other students to do this challenge in the future. It’s my favourite project in three years of art!”

The success of these students reflects East Sussex College’s continued excellence in nurturing creative talent and providing opportunities that connect learning with the wider creative industries.

All 15 Winning, Highly Commended and Commended students have been invited to the Royal Opera House on 16 June 2025. As part of this experience, they’ll gain insight into careers in theatre design through hands-on time with production professionals, backstage tours, and Q&A sessions with makers and designers.

Their award-winning work will also be featured in a public exhibition at the Linbury Foyer, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 11th June to 1st July 2025.