New Designers, London

Each summer, New Designers, showcases design graduate work from a long list of design schools around the UK. I have actually never been to a New Designers show, but this year, I was asked by the Design Council if I could do a presentation that would give design graduates insight into what it's like working as a designer today.


A friend once said to me, at Uni we are taught just one way to use our design skills and creativity. The aim for my presentation was to show design grads other ways designers can, and have been, using their skills and creativity. I briefly profiled a dozen designers and their work, to show where design could go. The list extended from being social entrepreneurs to bringing design thinking to policy.

I think the presentation went down well. For design grads who have spent the last 3 to 4 years focused solely on product, graphics, fashion etc. it might seem a stretch to take their design skills and creativity into areas as unfamiliar as policy. But on Wednesday night's Awards Night, architect Amanda Levete, opened the night by saying:

‘There is a financial crisis, but there is not a creative crisis. It is an incredibly exciting moment, the moment to be bold, to think big and to think diagonally because hand in hand with creativity goes entrepreneurship...Your trump card is your creativity.’

After going through some inspiring work of designers, I talked about some skills to think about beyond design. Two days before the presentation, Ken Musgrave, Leader of Design Competencies at Dell, wrote on FastCompany's blog, Beyond Design, 10 Skills Designers Need to Succeed Now. In my bookmarks I also have marked, Design Observer's blog post on the Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School, and designer Rory Hamilton's website, Everything I Know, which Rory says is about getting years of design experience out of his head and into the world.

My presentation was the last of 4 presentations by the Design Council. The other presentations, delivered by Antonia and Tess, brought insights into graphic design and furniture design, and looked at aspects of setting up a design business.


After the presentations, I did a short tour of New Designers with my friend, and Class of 2009 design grad, Rachel. I first visited Northumbria University's Design For Industry stand. My friend Emma said it looked like an Apple store (nice).


We checked out the work of two award-winning Northumbria Uni grads (go UNN!). The first was New Designers Designer of the Year award winner, Nicola Morgan's amazing inter-locking garments.


And Robin Grasby's desk, which was awarded the 100% Design Award and looks like every designer's dream desk, kitted with a ruler running along the bottom, white board, drafting table and cutting mat (I was very tempted to ask where I could buy one myself).


I was also impressed by Goldsmith's exhibit, which didn't focus on design student work, rather on other important aspects of design, such as the design process (and it's vibrant creativity and messiness).



And also asking questions and engaging people in a conversation. One such, was this brilliant poster asking whether design should be political. Or not.


Looks pretty even to me... and looks like a good debate, if there were to be one. Here are some further comments.


They read:

• Now more than ever! We must take responsibility
• Design cannot be ignorant of the world it exists in
• Design can change the world for the better = good politics
• No... politics should be designed (good point RD, I know you wrote it!)
• Yes, Gordon Brown is funny looking
• Design anarchy

New Designers provided lots of inspiration and great vibes from design grads (even in this economic climate). When I got home from the show, I tweeted:

"Back from big day at New Designers. Best wishes to the class of 2009 design grads. The world needs your creativity!"

For other blogging on New Designers see:

Odd Things Does a nice critique of presentation spaces at New Designers this year. Next year design grads should definitely check out the post and discussions.

Challenges for design education

As I have been investigating new and different areas designers have been taking design, the issue of design education often comes up in conversation. Are design schools educating designers to meet tomorrow's challenges? This question has come up in both literature and in conversations.

I found an interesting article in 2007 by Adobe's Design Centre's Think Tank titled, Graduate Education: Preparing designers for jobs that don't exist (yet). Author, Anne Burdick is Chair of the graduate Media Design Program (MDP) at Art Center College of Design (in the USA) and she documents her observations of where designers have been taking design, from being researchers to entrepreneurs, to strategic thinkers, to knowledge producers. Burdick questions current models of teaching, "that rely exclusively on apprenticeship and/or technical mastery." Burdick says, "To prepare for a future in flux, students must learn to be adaptable, agile and strategic. Clearly this calls for a new kind of pedagogy."

But the real reason for this post is to provide a link to a pamphlet released by the RSA on Monday called, Social animals: tomorow's designers in today's world (thanks Mike for letting me know).


The pamphlet, authored by Sophia Parker, profiles the nature of design graduates today, reflecting on the world they have grown up in which has channeled their interests toward the environment, the public and the social sectors. But the pamphlets suggest these interests are a bit at odds with current models of design education. To illustrate, the pamphlet flags up six challenges for design educators in educating students in public service design. In short (ie. paraphrased here) it says education that needs to encourage students to learn more about:

1. Turning insights into action;
   
2. Co-design and the participation of people (also considering ethical codes of conduct);
   
3. Prototyping services;
4. Seeing the ‘bigger picture’ meaning taking into account the wider context projects operate in;
5. Communicating well both visually and verbally, including the ability to pitch ideas for investment;
   
6. Being not just problem solvers, but also ‘problem finders.'

I agree with all of the above. Many, if not all of them, I identified in my own research as important and also as a strength of the designers I interviewed and know. In the above six points, turning insights into action, prototyping and communication visually are strengths of design practice over many other disciplines. I discussed these points in an earlier post on design in the social sector.

As we continue our journey of watching design enter new frontiers, it's wonderful to see design practice applied in new contexts, develop and shape with a bit more clarity.