Open World: Jumpstart Your Creative Career with Makerversity

The Open World series of articles documents Liam Grace-Flood’s year of traveling all over the world exploring maker culture and spaces.

Makerversity is a “pioneering community of Maker businesses” growing out of London and Amsterdam. They offer space, tools, and community to promising people and projects, and run a pair of funded residency programs to make those resources more broadly accessible.

The first, called U25, is a free 3-month membership for makers under 25 years old focused specifically on helping young people jump start their creative careers and businesses. Among Makerversity’s many U25 alumni are up-and-coming designer Harry Grundy and artist Ikra Arshad.

The second, 6-month residency program, Makers with a Mission, is open to a broader range of applicants, but remains focused on emerging talent and ideas. In line with Makerversity’s social enterprise mindset, Makers with a Mission are value-driven people and projects working to make a better world.

You might have already seen some of their projects — Petit Pli, for example, makes clothing that grows with children:

Images via Petit Pli’s website

Chip[s] Board is making materials from recycled potato waste:

Sabina Weiss made tools for “evolving craft through human-machine interface” via lowering barriers for entry into digital embroidery:

And Yun-Pei Hsiung explored IoT tools for future protests:

If you’d like to participate in Makerversity’s community of cool people and projects, check out their website. They’re currently accepting applications for both residency programs.