Make a Life, Not Just a Living

Independent creative agency The Midnight Club has developed the first global brand advertising campaign for University of the Arts London (UAL), creating a campaign that challenges perceptions of creative education and demonstrates its value in shaping industries, culture, and people’s lives.
The campaign, "Make a Life, Not Just a Living", was created following The Midnight Club's appointment by UAL. It has been designed to strengthen UAL's global reputation and support student recruitment, positioning the university as a global leader connecting creative talent with opportunity, inspiring creative development and helping students turn creativity into a creative life.
At a time when the value of higher education - particularly creative education - is increasingly questioned, the campaign addresses the gap between perception and reality. While creative degrees are often viewed as uncertain pathways, UAL graduates go on to launch businesses, shape culture, drive innovation and contribute to some of the world's fastest-growing industries. UAL has ranked first for student start-ups for the last four years in a row; as of last year nearly 1,000 active firms began as start-ups founded by UAL students.
At the heart of the campaign is a simple proposition: creative education is not just about building a career, but about building a fulfilling life. Reflecting UAL's distinctive approach, the campaign demonstrates how creative education enables individuals to pursue meaningful futures while developing the skills, networks and experience needed to succeed professionally.
The campaign features artwork exclusively created by UAL graduates – which can be found on UAL Showcase – an always-on global platform for recent graduates to share their work, make connections and help shape the creative industries.
The campaign identity combines this diverse range of recent UAL student work with an "infinite job list" - a creative device that showcases the hundreds of careers creative education can unlock. Designed to expand endlessly across channels, formats and markets, the premise reinforces the breadth of opportunities available within the creative industries and UAL's role as a pipeline from creativity to industry.
Supporting messaging highlights both the cultural and economic significance of creative education. The UK's creative industries contribute £145.8 billion annually to the economy and continue to outperform many other sectors for growth, in a sector in which the majority of the workforce are classified as “highly skilled” and 75% are educated to degree level.
Kitty Pemberton-Platt, Partner at The Midnight Club, said:
“UAL set us the challenge of creating a bold and impactful campaign that would resonate globally while staying true to the university's distinctive identity.

"Working closely with the UAL team, we developed a creative campaign rooted in authenticity, drawing on the stories, ambition and imagery of UAL students themselves. The result is a campaign that celebrates the creativity of the community while making a powerful statement about its impact.

"'Make a Life, Not Just a Living' is a simple and compelling idea we're proud to have partnered with UAL to bring it to life.”
Leigh Rengger, Chief Marketing and Student Recruitment Officer, University of the Arts London, said:
"We set out to create a campaign that could confidently articulate the value of creative education at a pivotal moment for both the university and the wider sector.
"The reality is that UAL graduates are launching businesses, shaping industries and influencing culture around the world, but perceptions of creative education don't always reflect that. This campaign closes the gap between perception and reality.
"'Make a Life, Not Just a Living' is a confident statement of the value of creative education and the role UAL plays in helping students turn their creativity into a creative life. It demonstrates that creativity can lead to meaningful careers while also enabling people to build lives defined by purpose, ambition and impact."
The campaign launched in The Guardian's dedicated Creative Economy supplement last week before rolling out globally from 13 July across search, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, connected TV, programmatic channels and out-of-home media in London, the United States, South Korea, India and Spain.