This year, The Glasgow School of Art’s Christmas card is a collaboration across generations of the School’s graduates, linking the past and present. Drawing on the rich legacy of the School while spotlighting its cutting-edge contemporary practice and technology, the 2025 card marks a continued dedication to the social and cultural importance of creative education and the enduring influence of the GSA’s community. The physical and digital versions of the cards were launched today, Wednesday, 10 December.
The specially printed silk panels in the Director’s cards were produced by the GSA’s Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT), forming part of a year-long series of events marking 25 years of the pioneering digital textile manufacturing centre. Both the physical and digital versions of the 2025 GSA Christmas card were drawn from a design by the Scottish designer, artist, and tutor, Robert Stewart (1924 – 1995). A graduate of the GSA, Stewart taught at the School for 35 years, and was one of the most influential modern British textile designers of the post-war period.
The design featured in this year’s card was originally created by Stewart in 1959. Part of a festive commission for the British clothing manufacturer Austin Reed, the design appeared in a poster campaign that ran across the London Underground. Stewart’s illustration – depicting Father Christmas travelling by helicopter – was considered quite a bold, non-traditional statement at the time – helicopters were still regarded a futuristic innovation, having seen only very limited commercial use in 1950s Britain.
The digital animation accompanying the Director’s card was created by d8, a Glasgow-based creative agency. The audio and Foley soundtrack for the animation was composed by MDes Sound for the Moving Image graduate Jack Lev Braun, who responded to Stewart’s original illustration, creating sound that enhances and reimagines the atmosphere of Stewart’s modern vision of Christmas.
“We are delighted to share this year’s GSA Christmas card –a celebration that honours both tradition and innovation, and reflects the past, present, and future of our School,” says Professor Penny Macbeth, Director and Principal of The Glasgow School of Art.
“This long-standing tradition is much more than a festive moment; it embodies the values that define us as a community. Collaboration and cross-disciplinary creativity remain at our core. This year’s digital and physical designs reflect the imagination of our graduates, the depth of our shared practice, and the vital legacy held in archives. They also highlight the innovation within our Centre for Advanced Textiles, whose pioneering digital textile manufacturing continues to support the work of our students and staff, but also artists, designers and industry partners across the UK and internationally. Together, the digital and physical cards capture the potential of collaboration across disciplines, uniting traditional craft knowledge with digital innovation and emerging creative technologies.”
“It is a pleasure to produce the work of such a significant GSA alumnus for this annual tradition.” says Alan Shaw, centre manager at the Centre for Advance Textiles.
“We began reproducing his work via our Classic Textiles collection following a major exhibition of Robert Stewart’s work at The Glasgow School of Art in 2003, running from July to November. The exhibition coincided with the publication of the book Robert Stewart Design 1946-95 by Liz Arthur. We continue to develop and produce fabrics from his own and the GSA archive with permission of the Stewart family.”
“It is such a pleasure to see our father’s work honoured in this annual tradition at The Glasgow School of Art,” said The Stewart Family.
“As a family, seeing his illustration reinterpreted and given movement in the Christmas card is such a moving tribute, and a reminder of the spirit of imagination he brought to his work. The Glasgow School of Art was such an important part of his life for many years, so it means a great deal to us to see his work still celebrated and displayed, and we are very grateful to the Centre for Advanced Textiles for continuing to reproduce his designs in such remarkable quality.”
View The Glasgow School of Art 2025 Christmas card HERE.
For further info please contact – press@gsa.ac.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About Robert Stewart
Robert Stewart (1924–1995) was a leading Scottish designer, celebrated for his exuberant mid‑century textiles and for his influential role as a tutor at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA), where he helped shape post‑war art and design education in Scotland. Alongside contemporaries such as Lucienne Day, Stewart became one of the foremost figures in the renewal of British design after the Second World War, contributing to a modern, optimistic visual language that reflected the social and cultural shifts of the 1950s and 1960s.
Born in Glasgow on 14 April 1924, Stewart grew up in a city marked both by heavy industry and by a strong artistic tradition, a combination that informed his ability to unite functional purpose with expressive, often playful patterns. He studied at The Glasgow School of Art during the 1940s, as Britain confronted wartime austerity and the subsequent need to redesign everyday life for a new, more egalitarian society. This context sharpened Stewart’s sense that textiles and surface design could contribute not only to visual pleasure, but play a role in the broader project of cultural reconstruction.
In 1949, Stewart was appointed to head printed textiles at the GSA, an unusually early and pivotal placement that gave him considerable influence over the direction of textile education for several decades. Alongside his teaching and mentorship of successive generations of designers, he maintained a prolific professional practice, producing printed textiles and related designs that established his reputation as one of the key British designers of the later twentieth century.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Stewart’s work contributed significantly to the emergence of a distinctive mid‑century British aesthetic. His textiles for Liberty, in particular, positioned him at the heart of a network of designers who helped the store function as a showcase for contemporary pattern, at a time when Britain sought to project a forward‑looking image in both domestic and export markets. Stewart’s abstract and graphic motifs, moving decisively away from conventional florals, aligned with the wider Festival of Britain generation and its interest in dynamic, often non‑figurative surface design.
Stewart’s legacy remains not only within the pedagogical culture he helped establish in Glasgow, but also in the enduring visibility of his work in collections, exhibitions, and design histories. The digital reproduction of his 1950s patterns by The Glasgow School of Art’s Centre for Advanced Textiles has supported a renewed appreciation of his unique visual style, linking historical scholarship with contemporary interiors and a renaissance of interest in post‑war Scottish modernism.
About The Centre for Advanced Textiles
The Centre provides a commercial digital fabric printing and textile design service, consulting large and small manufacturers as well as individuals. The speed of this technology enables businesses to respond rapidly to new, changing markets and creates cost-efficient opportunities for niche products.
CATdigital functions as the commercial aspect of the Centre for Advanced Textiles (CAT) at Glasgow School of Art. CAT was established in 2000 with a Research and Development Grant of £661,000 from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council. The remit of the centre is to: i) provide cutting-edge facilities for textile design education, ii) investigate the aesthetic, technical and commercial opportunities presented by digital textile printing, and iii) operate a commercial service bureau for industry and individuals.
The impact of this combination of technology, research and practice forms a key element in Glasgow School of Art’s developing research culture. The Centre also promotes the cultural and economic significance of design and its influence by disseminating research to a wider audience within the textile industry and Higher and Further Education.
About The Glasgow School of Art (GSA).
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is internationally recognised as one of Europe’s leading independent university-level institutions for education and research in the visual creative disciplines. Our studio-based, specialist, practice-led teaching, learning and research draw talented individuals with a shared passion for visual culture and creative production from all over the world.
Originally founded in 1845 as one of the first Government Schools of Design, the School’s history can be traced back to 1753 and the establishment of the Foulis Academy delivering a European-style art education. Today, the GSA is an international community of over 3500 students and staff across architecture, design, fine art, innovation and technology in our campuses in Glasgow and Altyre (in the Scottish Highlands) and a thriving Open Studio programme delivering non-degree provision to over 1500 students annually.
