Lost A-Level art folder leads to teenager's first paid commission

A desperate LinkedIn appeal to track down a missing A-Level art folder has led to an unexpected first commercial commission for 18-year-old artist Amelie Curry - after the search for her lost coursework caught the attention of a local business.

Earlier this year, Amelie (pictured) accidentally left a folder containing almost all of her A-Level Art coursework on a train.

Her mother, Kate Curry, founder of Sutton Coldfield creative agency CUDOS and vice-president of Royal Sutton Coldfield Chamber of Commerce, turned to LinkedIn to ask her network for help.

The post quickly gathered momentum, being shared widely and even attracting the attention of senior figures at West Midlands Railway, who joined the search for the missing artwork.

Despite the response, the folder was never recovered, leaving Amelie facing the daunting task of recreating a significant amount of her coursework ahead of her final assessment.

She did exactly that - going on to achieve an A in A-Level Art and securing a place on her dream university course.

But the story didn’t end there. Having seen Amelie's work through Kate's LinkedIn posts, Ian Lamb of property maintenance firm IL Solutions Limited approached the Curry family to commission Amelie for her first paid project.

The brief was to create a piece of artwork for the boardroom at IL Solutions' Lichfield headquarters, illustrating the different environments and sectors the business works across.

Working alongside CUDOS, Amelie developed a series of hand-drawn illustrations using watercolour, fineliner and pastel, which were scanned, digitally composed and prepared as a large-scale piece of wall artwork.

CUDOS then enlisted help from fellow Chamber member Printmonster to bring the finished piece to life, producing a large-format vinyl wallpaper which was installed across the boardroom wall at IL Solutions.

Kate said: “What started with probably one of the most stressful LinkedIn posts I’ve ever written has somehow turned into something really positive.

“We never did find the folder, but Amelie worked incredibly hard to recreate her coursework, got the A she deserved and secured her university place.

“Then, through the very same LinkedIn network that had rallied around trying to help us, Ian got in touch and offered her her first proper commission.

“It has been lovely watching her take a real client brief, develop the idea and create something that will actually become part of a workplace. At 18, having your artwork covering a boardroom wall isn’t a bad first job!”