Dating for designers

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 | By Angus Montgomery

A trio of design students from Kingston University have created a networking app for designers that allows you to share portfolio ideas, connect with others and use GPS to find design-related events around you.

Thomas Valente and Andrew Gill, who have both just finished postgraduate degrees in motion graphics, worked with MA graphic design student Michael Azzopardi to develop concepts for the Momentum app - which they describe as like ‘dating for designers’.

The app features a way to keep track of portfolios and ideas, opportunities to link up with other designers and information on surrounding events, agencies, jobs and design resources.

Valente says, ‘Our app is about building real connections and collaborations between designers. It’s a portable source of creatuvity and random inspiration that keeps you in touch with the design community around you - digital dating for designers if you will.’

And thanks to a victory in the Connecting Contemporary Design scheme in April - instigated by Kingston design professor Catherine McDermott with an aim of connecting universities around the world - the three got to work with Malcolm Garrett to develop the app.

Garrett acted as a mentor for the designers and also worked with them in two sessions to develop the app. Valente says, ‘Malcolm Garrett is a hero of ours so the chance to work with him was completely amazing and his advice has been invaluable - I think his guidance has really helped us to push our ideas further.’

The three are now seeking a developer to work with them to help take the project live.