Falmouth graduate leads communications campaign for Redruth Town of Culture bid
02 February 2026
MA Communication Design graduate Bethia Naughton-Rumbo has spent fifteen years as a marketing consultant working with an exciting variety of clients, from book publishing houses and charities to digital agencies and creative businesses.
Her latest project however marks a career highlight: following her work with The Ladder, a theatre and community space in Cornish town Redruth, Bethia – who grew up in Cornwall – was asked to develop a campaign to showcase Redruth’s creative culture and why it should win the UK Town of Culture 2028.
The Government announced the new national competition at the end of 2025, which will award one town across the UK £3 million in funding, along with the opportunity to deliver an ambitious year-long programme of cultural events. The Ladder is now partnering with Redruth Town Council and the Redruth Cultural Consortium to put together the bid for Redruth.
“The project has reminded me of my time on Falmouth’s MA Communication Design in many ways”, Bethia explains. “I spent several weeks walking the streets of Redruth, chatting to people, collecting stories and filming and editing interviews. I also worked alongside brilliant former Falmouth University students – photographer Jonathan Cherry, filmmaker Sam Glazebrook, as well as recent BA(Hons) Graphic Design graduate Gemma Stevens, to bring the journey to life.”
The campaign is still underway, and the response so far has been significant. “We’ve gained almost 900 followers in just three weeks, and the groundswell of support for Redruth has been so encouraging”, she says.
About Bethia
A natural-born storyteller, Bethia always loved communicating. “Whether through writing songs, taking photos or having conversations, there’s something special about noticing what matters most to people, and finding ways to reflect that back through creativity”, she tells us.
With an English Literature degree under her belt, she worked in various publishing roles across the world before discovering a flair for content creation. Combined with a desire to return home to Cornwall, and the ambition to establish her own business, Bethia enrolled on Falmouth’s MA Communication Design course in 2016 to upskill and refocus creatively after seven years in the workplace.
“I can’t quite express how brilliant the course was”, Bethia says. “I’m not from a traditional graphic design background, so I initially worried I might struggle with some of the content. But the briefs were always incredibly thoughtful: they guided your thinking while still allowing space for diverse and creative responses.”
Encouraged to push beyond her usual ways of working, Bethia experimented with new forms of communication. “One of the most meaningful projects involved working with young people in The Foyer Federation network who had experienced homelessness”, she tells us. “I wrote a spoken word poem in response to time spent with them and then collaborated with one of the young adults to co-create a film together.”
It will always stand out as one of the happiest and most formative years of my life - Bethia on her time on the course
With boosted confidence levels, the course gave Bethia a completely new sense of what communication design could be: expansive, experimental, and deeply human. “It showed me that creativity isn’t about fitting into a specific discipline, but about asking thoughtful questions and finding unexpected ways to connect with people”, she explains.
Shortly after graduating, Bethia set up her own business, which she’s now been running for eight and a half years. “I can honestly say I don’t think I would have had the confidence to take that step without the support of the tutors, the freedom to explore and everything I learned during the MA”, she says. “What I love most about being a marketing consultant is the variety and the freedom to work across such a wide range of creative projects.”
For Bethia, taking the time to step back and focus on her own practice was invaluable, as she explains: “The course gave me the space, support and confidence to grow creatively, and it played a huge role in enabling me to set up my business here in Cornwall. It will always stand out as one of the happiest and most formative years of my life.”
External links:
Follow the journey via @townofculture
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