Wyke student Alicia Abbot has been busy working on her final portfolio for her Fine Art and Graphics courses, but has found the time to work with Hull based design company INIT Creative to design and develop a music video to raise awareness of county lines drug running. Working in conjunction with Hull charity, BeatsBus, the video is designed to highlight the issues and dangers surrounding county lines drugs running and how to the spot the signs of a young person becoming involved.Alicia was involved throughout the whole process, which has seen her create the characters in the style of Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz fame. Adam Storch and Brendan Storch of INIT Creative said: "All of us here really believe that she is already among Hull's most accomplished visual artists. We had known from talking to her previously that her real passion lies in character design; and this really shines through in this piece."When your work has already drawn compliments from Jamie Hewlett, you know you're doing something right! Her ability to interpret briefs and creative such fantastic, professional-level work at such a young age in a credit to both her and the teaching and support offered to students at Wyke College."It is not an exaggeration to say that we could not have produced what we did without her."Here Alicia has kindly given us an insight into the project and her involvement throughout.How did you get involved with the County Lines Awareness Project?I'm very close to INIT Creative, who often notify me of any storyboard or art jobs that I can do for them. I received a message back in January asking if I was interested in working on a music video for BeatsBus. I try to take on any opportunity I can no matter how busy I am, which I don't always recommend - but it works for me!What was your inspiration?For this project specifically, there wasn't any other media I used to help inspire me, which I really should have done! Although the positive to this is that it makes it a lot more authentic, I used no artistic references, it is completely my style. But an art style doesn't come from nowhere, and I'd say artists like Jamie Hewlett and Katsuhiro Otomo have inspired my art significantly.What do you hope the campaign will achieve?As shown by the County Lines music video, we are made aware that social media is very significant to the reason why young people find themselves delving into dark paths. I hope that the campaign will not only encourage safety, but also spread awareness about the internet is becoming and easy way for criminals to target troubled youth.What are your plans after Wyke?After a year in the Wyke Foundation Course for Art & Design, I will be looking into finding a Comic and Concept Art course at university, because I believe that it's a course that I can truly flourish in. I want to continue collaborating in projects like this, alongside discography design, game art and any other sort of art involved with media. I'm undecided about what job I want to focus my art on, so I'm hoping that I can work in a varied artistic field.Click here to see the County Lines Awareness video.Watch Alicia and INIT Creative's interview here.To see more of Alicia's work, watch out for our upcoming Virtual Art Exhibition 2021.#MakeItHappen
