Meet the mentees of Future Academy 2.0

Listen up, lock in, update your LinkedIn! We’ve chosen the first four mentees who will be part of the second year of Future Academy, our initiative with Moncler teaching skills to nascent, on-the-ascent creatives and providing them with paid opportunities. We opened up applications earlier this year and hundreds of you entered; with a vat of coffee and the help of employment experts A New Direction, we whittled it down and confirmed our in-house team.

Here’s a recap: last year, THE FACE worked with Moncler to found Future Academy, inviting creatives from underrepresented backgrounds and non-academic pathways to enrol in a hands-on course. Fifty-two students were invited to participate in over a dozen classes spanning art direction, writing, photography and music, granting them a solid foundation for carving out a creative career.

Now it’s time for the sequel – Future Academy 2.0: Genius Generation – backed by the Moncler Genius philosophy of collaboration and cultivation of cutting-edge talent and ideas. Taking things up a level, we’ve enrolled twice as many mentees to work in-person with THE FACE and Moncler, while another 50 from Paris, Berlin, Milan and the UK will join us for online seminars over the six-week course.

As ever, grades and connections went in the shredder; we were interested in pure, raw talent and finding energetic candidates.

So, let’s meet the mentees, shall we?

Name Marcus Austin Practice Director, producer and writer HQ East London What do you want to achieve? I joined the course because I want to learn from experts; Moncler and THE FACE have got experts who have been in the industry for many years. They’ve got a heritage of success and I want to learn from that. What are you hyped for? Being part of a campaign. I feel like the fashion side of the creative industry, something that’s so wonderful, will give me a chance to learn from people. Being part of a campaign from top to end is something I’m really looking forward to being a part of. What’s going to be the biggest challenge? I haven’t been in this field before! I haven’t been in the fashion sector before, so it’s a chance to learn from people who have done it before me and make mistakes so I can continue to progress as an individual. Why’s it important to make mistakes? Everything I’ve learnt has come from making mistakes and taking losses. You can’t become a winner if you haven’t had a thousand losses! It’s made me a better creative and helps me give better advice to other creatives as well. What do you want to leave with? The chance to put something out to the culture, something that impacts the culture. Moncler has one of the biggest, biggest supports – same way with THE FACE – so it’s a chance to put my creativity out there in the world so the culture can see it.

Name Lourice J. Ramos Practice Portrait photographer and spray-painter HQ Walthamstow What do you want to achieve? I wanted to join the course because I wanted to experience what it was like to see a fashion campaign go from the starting sketches, to being with the consumers and learning with other people. Spray-painting on the side sounds mad – how does that tie in with your photography? I was a real goody-goody at college – spray painting was a way to come out of the expectations that people had about me. Then when I started doing photography I used that mentality. I still use them together for mixed media – I love layering things. Who are your three dream portrait subjects? My Grandma – I haven’t taken a portrait of her in her traditional wear. Maybe Tupac. And the first photographer I followed, Lou Escobar. Her work is really lovely, very textured and sharp. What are you hyped for? I think I’m most looking forward to meeting the team and the other three candidates. Also working with Moncler and THE FACE magazine because I love it so much. It’s literally a magazine I’ve always looked up to. What’s going to be the biggest challenge? I think the biggest challenge is learning what part of the magazine I love as I’m one of those people who likes to dip into everything and learn everything. So I need to single out what I love the most and concentrate on that to develop my skills. What’s your go-to studio outfit? Something black and comfy as I’d be running around and wouldn’t want to get it dirty! What do you want to leave with? Really good contacts, connections and being able to have a clearer view of what the industry is like. I’ve only been doing it for a year and so I’ve only dipped my little toe in the pool of it. So learning more about how it works in a magazine and fashion and from people who have experienced it.

Name Tia Tierney Practice Fashion, design and production HQ South London What do you want to get out of the programme? I was looking for an entry point into the editorial sector as I didn’t feel satisfied working solely on designing and I enjoy fashion and cultural journalism. I like THE FACE’s uncensored approach to the documentation of style culture and, naturally, I jumped at the chance to be mentored by cultural vanguards! What are you most looking forward to? Building relationships with my cohort as well as THE FACE’s creative team… and going to Milano of course! What are you excited for in Milan? Seeing the showroom for the Moncler collection coming up that we’re working on for SS23. That’s going to be incredible. What’s going to be the biggest challenge? Probably the time span, two months is not a lot of time! What’s your work fuel? Definitely something to give me a buzz, plus either a lychee ice or guava ice Geek Bar – and one of those Huel nutritional shakes. I want them to sponsor me because I drink so many! What do you want to leave with? Basically, knowledge of how to go about executing a visual editorial project, start to finish. Understanding those project dynamics will equip me with skills that can help me approach other collaborative projects after this. What music keeps you motivated while creating? I’m pretty versatile so I don’t listen to one genre of music – but I love a lot of jungle artists. I like Sully and Coco Bryce and some old-school people like the Delfonics and some jazz and East Coast rap!

Name Quinn Lovero Practice Director and filmmaker HQ London What do you want to achieve over the next six weeks? I wanted to deepen my understanding of the creative process in and around magazines, specifically the ideation stage. I’m interested in how ideas come to life, how they are pitched, and how they get commissioned. What are you hyped for? I can’t wait to be in a film shoot or a deck presentation. I believe that seeing how the pros work and how they communicate is going to teach me loads for the future. What’s going to be the biggest challenge? Adapting to the environment. Having never worked in a magazine, I think at the beginning I might struggle to understand how things work, who is who and what means what. But I’m super keen to learn, so I expect to jump over this hurdle quite quickly. What other mags do you like? I’m a big fan of GUAP Magazine – I like how they advocate for the up-and-coming and they’re constantly pushing cultural barriers and boundaries – most recently with their GUAP Gala. What do you want to leave with? I want to take three things: industry knowledge, friendships and a strong body of work. Who’s your dream collaborator? If I had to pick it would probably be a Spanish creative because I’m one myself. I’d love to live with Nono Ayuso; he’s a film director who’s able to tell stories through pure visual metaphors. It’s a quality I’d love to possess. His work transports me and takes me away from reality. When do your ideas come? They happen anywhere! They usually appear in the most inopportune moments when I’m doing something completely different. The shower is a great place.