Yesterday, Ian Drysdale and myself ran a future planning session with a group of MA students from Central St Martins College of Art & Design. The students are part of the new Immersion Programme, set up by the Innovation Centre at Southampton Row aiming to bridge the creative gap from graduation into employment or self-employment.
The morning session included advice and stories on job seeking, pitching and presenting work. It soon emerged that one of the greatest challenges for these students seemed to be linking future aspirations with short term goals. It was good to speak about everyone’s vision, but the degree show seemed to be a major block with the students so focused on the event in June.
During the session, I shared my personal experiences of degree shows and the need to do something different in order to stand out. Ian made some interesting points about his own degree show where the whole week was seen as an opportunity to engage with people, run events, create debate and discussion. This topic does question what the real purpose of degree shows actually are? What do you think?
(a) A real opportunity for students to network with potential employers?
(b) A means of promoting the university course to prospective students?
One of the students, Melissa French followed up with an invite this morning and included a sample of her work (pictured), I look forward to seeing how these discussions have been implemented at her show.
May 14th, eilidh said:
Thats a really intersting question paul…..I definitly think it should be a combination of the two, but i think both reflect each other…..if students result in making good contacts from the show it will make the course in turn look good and more appealing to prospective students. When i had my degree show our course directors wanted our work to reflect the ethos of the course as a body of work, however it also did have a good overall affect i think. I’m off to see the year below me’s show on friday, so il be interested to see how it differs!
Jun 2nd, Paul Thurston said:
I went to see Goldsmiths Degree show last week, that was a masterclass of what to do…very exciting and professional.
They also had very friendly students who wanted to talk to you!
Jun 26th, Kate said:
Hi Paul,
The value of graduate design shows is always an interesting discussion. Rick Poynor made an apt critique in CreativeReview a few months back, Design Conferences, Isn’t it time we demanded more?”
I went to the D&AD New Blood exhibition this week, and found it increasingly amazing when speaking to the fresh graduate minds about their dreams of doing “something positive”, “something social”, “something influential” with their skills.
What consistently shocked me when walking around the showcase was the sheer number of ‘creative minds’ standing around …waiting to be spotted. What would happen, if rather than standing around for 3days, these minds were given a brief, participated in a collaborative workshop or dialogue (rather than competing against one another) …and spent the time collectively exploring new innovations for social and public improvement. I cannot help but feel it is a missed opportunity.