New Designers asserts the future’s still bright

In response to the correspondence in Design Week regarding New Designers, we felt it necessary to clarify a few points about this important graduate design event.

New Designers has been running for the past 16 years and annually launches the careers of over 4000 graduate designers. It attracts an audience of over 25 000 design trade visitors who can browse roughly 190 stands presented by over 80 colleges, all in one central London venue.

These visitors are drawn to New Designers to recruit, purchase and commission these designers and their designs. They all come with their own selection criteria and are all looking for something unique to match their company profile.

New Designers can’t implement a selection process, it would place huge pressure on all course leaders and students by requiring them to submit images of final-year work before September for selection into the following year’s event.

Logistically this is simply unrealistic within the educational calendar. Our criteria for inclusion therefore remains at degree-level only. It is better to place the onus on colleges, and allow them the freedom to rise to the challenge and stand up and be noticed.

New Designers is at an exciting time in its development. We are working with M&K on a new creative campaign to refresh the look of the fair. We have refocused our zoned areas of design discipline and included an area that supports designers who have been in business for less than three years.

The future is bright for New Designers, I only hope the ‘boycotters’, and other talented individuals like them, do not miss out.

Lucy Field

Event Director

Lucyf@businessdesigncentre.co.uk