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A bold, thought-provoking animation to make us rethink ageism

It's hard to believe that Eleanor Russell-Jones is still a student, thanks to the skill and thoughtfulness this animation exemplifies.

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Russell-Jones, a student at Arts University Bournemouth, created this piece as a response to the Moving Pictures brief set by the RSA Student Design Awards.

Her piece is a gorgeously graphic and superbly elegant work with a retro New Yorker-esque vibe that fits perfectly with the poignant audio, which implores us to rethink how we view older people and challenge inherited ideas that old = "ugly" or "useless." It emphasises the message that age really is just a number and is not what defines us.

It was one of the winners of this year's RSA Student Design Awards (you can see the other winners here, an annual competition for students and recent graduates run by the RSA, a charity that’s "committed to finding innovative, practical solutions to social problems."

Stylised illustration of a woman in profile with a question mark for hair, set against a deep blue background, with two shadowy figures beside her
Woman in red dress walking through doorway beneath looming black "Care Home" buildings against purple background in Eleanor Russell-Jones's animation
Geometric grid of triangular frames containing stylised faces of people of varying ages in cream, navy and red tones from Eleanor Russell-Jones's RSA award-winning animation challenging ageism
Red and white triangular grid pattern with negative stereotypes about older people, including "ugly", "useless", "helpless", "vulnerable" and "forgetful" printed across the tiles
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