Food for Thought … New Designers Exhibition 2024

Year 10 and 12 Product Design students took part in an amazing opportunity to visit the New Designers Exhibition. New Designers is an annual London showcase of the UK’s most innovative emerging design talent. Since its inception 40 years ago, New Designers has provided a platform for over 3,000 graduates every year to present their visionary ideas to industry professionals and the public.

Product design students were given the chance to explore design related careers, speak to graduates from different universities across the country, explore all sorts of different design problems and concepts, and were provided with ideas for their own upcoming projects.

Some students could identify similar techniques to what they have used, such as different types of wood joinery in the furniture section of the showcase. This was great for our students to recognise their own skills and techniques on larger scales.

Students were able to see how real life problems were being solved by graduates from different universities across the country.  The products on show ranged from women’s health, to anxiety and eating disorders, to arthritis and portable bone scanning devices. A graduate from Loughborough University, Josh, was able to explain to students the practical differences between taking a Product Design BA degree compared to a Product Design BSc degree and how the application of this knowledge would differ over the course of each degree. He also spoke passionately about how working a placement in industry changed his design practice and enabled him to learn so much more about the world of design and problem solving. It certainly gave a number of students some food for thought about future career paths. 

Jody N, Design Technology Subject Prefect