‘Inspiration takes you further than you think, for longer than you thought!’
The Design Museum is the epicentre of design consideration and therefore the best place to take young designers, as they embark on their Product Design and Engineering GCSE courses. On the bank of the River Thames, a stone’s throw from Tower Bridge, the Design Museum epitomises all that is uber cool, and is a haven for the London designer-types as they come for their fix of high-brow architecture and design.
saltash.net’s Year 10 Design and Technology students mingled effortlessly as they arrived for a high quality workshop led by a specialist design professional, in collaboration with Deutsche Bank. The input enabled the development of existing design work as well as showing them innovative ways of generating new ideas. The message was consistent with their lessons back at the design studios in school (which was a relief!).
The museum collections and exhibition showed students how work should be displayed, explained and presented. They engaged with high quality examples of 2D, 3D and interactive communication that challenged their perception of how to think about design problems.
The students are currently working on a live brief set by the Design Museum and were able to carry out the necessary primary research to move their project forward. A look around the Design Museum shop surprised the students, challenging their perceptions about price, the quality of ideas, and they were confident enough to realise that they could make some products themselves, with the 21st Century technology that saltash.net is fortunate to have.
Students were able to lunch whilst absorbing the juxtaposition of Tower Bridge set against the backdrop of modern architectural media classics, such as the Gherkin and the ‘Walkie-Talkie’ building.
Head of Design and Technology, David Jolly, said, ‘Yes, it was a designers’ dream day out of the studio
until…the coach took two and a half hours to travel two miles to meet us, because of political protests
outside Downing St and Parliament! Our students came face to face with the realities of global conflict and confusion, which only strengthens our need for good design solutions that better connect people, places
and products.
We were further exposed to protests and farming relationships with supermarkets, as we found the motorway closed due to farmers blocking the entrance to Morrisons depot on the M5.
The students have intentionally had a day that has brought them into contact with the pulse of 21st
century design thinking and unintentionally with the pulse of the nation. A very long day was had by all!
As a faculty, we would like to recognise the support of the Design Museum, but mainly the parents of our
very well behaved design students who represented saltash.net in the big smoke admirably.’
“I thoroughly enjoyed the trip as it filled my brain with knowledge and ideas” – Finley
“I liked looking at the designs made by other people and how I can develop my product” – Josh B
“The thing I liked most was the shop: Simple ideas made cool” – Isaac
“The best part was the Creation Lab” – Jodie
“I liked the connecty-cardboard things. They showed that the best ideas are simple but effective” – Daisy
The Design Technology faculty & students