Young Pines is an agency formed by the participants in the Mercy internship programme. We are a collective of illustrators, designers and creative writers who can make work for the web or print, curate events or craft copy. In our first four months we’ve worked for clients ranging from local arts organizations to massive corporations, providing all kinds of creative work from drawing and writing t
o video and web branding. Mercy Internship Programme
Young Pines is an opportunity for us to experiment with the parameters of a creative internship – and for young designers, writers and artists to grow their experience of Being Creative into a professional framework. We wanted to identify a different approach to internships, one that enables us to build a longer term relationship with young creatives - and let them lead on original work. The original plan was to provide them with a small budget and the space to develop their own projects, in a similar way to how Mercy formed. Now the world is a very different place, and this team of gradates have already outstripped our expectations of them. Since the summer, we’ve felt confident to give Young Pines the responsibility to pitch to and manage their own clients, under our supervision, along with the responsibility for their own self initiated projects. Hopefully by providing a small budget, an audience, a timeline, a place to work, and the occasional paying client, we’re able to lift some of the pressure to survive in the creative industries. Maybe this breathing space will give them the opportunity to experiment with their own agency structure as we did. Maybe they will destroy Mercy and replace it with a younger, prettier version.
