Hi - I'm waiting on hearing back from Sarah Harris for the Promote Me project and Marit for the Drawing Room project but here's the rest - if I don't get their stuff soon I can cobble something up from the briefs and their emails to me...
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Project: I'm a design student get me out of here!
WBL Partner: Zoë Stanton of Uscreates
Aims:
I'm design student get me out of here aimed to bridge the gap between being a design student and a professional working in the design industry.
Zoë Stanton, Director of the social design consultancy Uscreates, drew on her own experience and difficulties moving from graduate to professional to try and give a taster of what it is like in the design industry.
Four weeks of practical challenges, real life examples, tips and advice culminated in a mock interview at the Uscreates offices where students had the opportunity to present themselves and their project outcomes to a panel.
Graphic outcomes:
- Personal Profile
- Graphic method of showcasing work
- Teaser or memento – keepsake, gift or souvenir to leave with prospective employers as a reminder of you, your skills and your uniqueness.
Skills:
- Presentation
- Sales
- Professionalism
- Insight into potential employers
Zoë’s feedback:
It was really great to see students consider their work slightly differently and think about what value they would bring to an organisation and how to communicate that.
The mock interviews were fantastic fun and some students really excelled at selling themselves and their work. I have since been contacted by some students who have told me that they have gone on to complete internships with potential employers as a result of the project. To me that is the best possible outcome and far more important and valuable in the world of work than any grade.
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Project: Royal Society of Chemists
WBL Partner: Steve Lloyd of ico design
My general aims were to try to be as much use as an industry partner as possible, In my mind that's giving the students an insight into how we work, so I set them a brief that we had just worked on and I thought they might appreciate. It was to design a new identity for The Royal Society of Chemistry Centre, which would involve lots of research into the subject and as the general public are one of the end users they would also be the target market.
The specific aims were to produce a research book, a final mark and also to show their work as if pitching to the actual client. (We set up a meeting room in offices near Euston so they had present in an unfamiliar dragons den style setup)
I suppose the starting point for everyone was, "What is Chemistry? and how do we best communicate this? It led to some interesting discussions and areas of exploration, from trying to agree on how many types of matter (and types of chemistry) there are, to looking at plasma creation by microwaving grapes (don't try this at home) Most students really applied themselves to thinking both about what the subject was, and what would be a clear way to communicate it. Some students went further, thinking about ways to make this communication really memorable with ambitious plans to integrate animation, generative identities and information systems.
The standard of the final outcomes was pretty good. (as this piece of text is going to accompany these outcomes, you should be able to look them over and judge for yourselves rather than take my word for it) What you won't see will be the personal presentations, the way each student chose to present, from slick onscreen to handmade books, each one a reflection of a personal approach.
Once this harrowing experience was over and all the grades and assessments made, I came back into college to show the work that ico had done and to present this work to them, hopefully this takes us back to the aims at the start, to give the students some insight into the industry (or at least my part in it) and the confidence to apply their skills, speak their minds and make and learn from their mistakes. In fact the mistakes were generally small and the enthusiasm large, so once again I think the work that accompanies this waffle should speak for itself.
Hope you all had as much fun doing the work as I had in working with you on it
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Project: Making Data Fun/Beautiful/Clear
WBL Partner: Ben Terrett & Dopplr
This project had 3 very clear aims:
1. Measure some data about yourself and your actions.
2. Display this data in a fun, beautiful and clear way.
3. Present your piece back to us.
I was very keen for this project to be a close to working in the industry as possible. It's always nice to work with a real brand when you're a student and it was great to have Matt from Dopplr help with the assessments.
It was interesting to see how students approached this project. Some got the data really quickly and immediately started working on solutions. Some students got hooked into the data part and lost valuable weeks collecting the stuff. Some students seemed unsure about where to go with the project, but these were the people who often ended up with the most interesting solutions.
The really good ones got a basic idea pretty quickly and then used the extra time to create something special.
The presentations were great with most people happy to talk about their work.
The standard of work was very high. If I'm being honest it was higher than I was expecting, but that probably says more about me than the students.
There's a little bit more here: http://noisydecentgraphics.typepad.com/design/2009/02/lcc-final-assesments.html
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Project: Experience/Exhibition Design
WBL Partners: Joe Coppard & Jimmy Morris of Pat&Trevor
The collaborative nature of the exhibition project was partly to promote dialogue between groups of students working towards a common goal (with an emphasis on meetings outside of college), and partly because exhibitions require a lot of planning and delegation. Why exhibit? Where exhibit? We wanted students to consider ambitious but equally realistic approaches to exhibiting (within the given time-frame).
An initial discussion as to what an exhibition is and what it means to have one (at this stage in their lives) was extended to a series of trips to various exhibition spaces around London.
There was a lot of variation - very refreshing - and a movement away from the white cube scenario. For some, the project became a sort of summing up of their FdA experiences. For others it became the first of many (hopefully) collaborative projects together. On the whole, students responded very well to the brief and enjoyed working together. As anticipated, some groups found it more difficult than others - a short-term collaborative project as such demands compromise - and when the stakes are high and the chips are down there are often problems.
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