RCA Ethos
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As we work towards the aims of the new Strategic Plan, it will be important to ensure that the RCA's ethos remains at its heart.
Portals of transformation
Conceived as a portal, this work embodies the RCA’s ethos of transformation and progression.
Seven colours represent the College’s four strategic pillars and four values, anchored in its institutional blue. Through the psychology and weight of colour, the composition generates an optical illusion of motion, reflecting both innovation and continuity. Referencing the RCA’s position as home to the UK’s largest colour library, the work frames colour as both language and ethos: emotional and intellectual, stable and dynamic.
As the eye moves, the work itself seems to shift, echoing the RCA’s ethos as a place where change is constant and creativity always in motion. It is a rhythmic vision to be felt and embodied, inviting viewers not simply to look, but to step through – into the ethos of the RCA.
Developed by RCA alumna and Associate Lecturer Julia Mahrer (MA Visual Communication, 2019), supported by a cross-College group of staff and the RCA Students' Union.
“The RCA is not a place you enter, it is a portal you move through.”
