Thanet’s A+C animation studio has teamed up with East Kent Colleges Group (EKC Group) to co-create a new course that will run at the Margate Digital campus.
Margate Digital gained a £6.3million allocation from the government’s Levelling Up fund in 2021 to create a digital and education campus with studios, gallery, café and workshops at the former M&S building in the High Street.
The Margate Digital project will include 2,000 sq m of industry-relevant training space.
Completion of the project, which included EKC Group ‘match-funding’ of £720,000, is expected by November this year with students and adult learners migrating to Margate Digital from November 11. Full occupation is expected from January 2026.
Amongst the courses on offer is the new animation syllabus thanks to collaboration with A+C Studios.
The award-winning stop-motion business was founded in 2007 by director Dan Richards in modest premises in his dad’s shed.
From there, Dan quickly grew the business and today, A+C is a leader in providing highly crafted, unique animated solutions to worldwide brands.
The studio has been based in the historic laundry building in St John’s Road, Margate, since the latter half of 2014 and is the birth place of an array of talking, moving characters from glasses of juice with faces and emotions, paper-crafted hens and a giant egg box and Lego characters.
Most recently the team has worked on projects for BBC’s Wimbledon coverage, brought the Peperami Animal back to life and created a mash up with Bluey and The Simpsons.
One former Broadstairs College student is now a Digital Animator at A+C.
Jay Smith finished his IT computing/media course at the college in 2020. He reached out to A+C Studios and submitted a portfolio of 2D animations he’d created in his spare time.
He said: “They were busy with a few LEGO projects at the time and asked me to help with some cleanup work, I was familiar with the Adobe Suite, so I jumped right in.”
Originally brought in as a freelancer, Jay quickly demonstrated his value.
Within a month, he was offered a full-time role as a Junior Artist. Just over a year later, he was promoted to Digital Artist – a title that reflects his broad skill set, spanning 2D animation, 3D modelling, and digital post- production.
He said: ““Everyone plays a part, and you never know what we’ll come up with next. Everyone has a different role depending on their talent, and that diversity of input really shapes our projects.
“If you’re passionate about animation, just get your work out there.
“You don’t need a degree – just show what you can do. There’s so much hidden talent out there – you just need to put yourself forward.”
Jay says he thinks the Margate Digital campus will be a great place to encourage creativity.
He said: “I think the Margate Digital Campus is going to change everything, There’s so much creative talent in Margate and Thanet, and people just need the encouragement to share it.
“If you’re struggling, there are always people here to help. This is a great place to grow.”
To find out more about the courses at EKC Broadstairs College Margate Digital Campus, visit broadstairscollege.ac.uk.
Wondering where all the usual ‘this is nonsense… doesn’t mean anything in terms of real jobs’ commenters are on this piece? Anyone? No? 😂
I think it’s amazing. And you?