Brewing creativity
A group of schoolchildren has been working with Seymour Powell and the Victoria & Albert Museum to redesign the way we make a cup of tea – the results of which are going on show at the V&A.
Seymour Powell has been working with the V&A since last year to develop the Design Lab series of workshops and events for students. The first workshop to run – called Design Pro – encouraged students to tackle a design brief looking at the kettle.
As well as classes and events from the V&A Schools team, Seymour Powell associate directors Paula Zuccotti and Matt Tidman and designer Laurence Willmot popped in for sessions to teach the children directly.
Seymour Powell spokesman Tim Duncan says, ‘We chose the kettle as it’s such a universal device. The workshops look around the entire design process from start to finish – looking at elements including research, ethnography and idea generation.’
He adds, ‘What was really useful for the children and teachers was that it allowed them to see the different career opportunities in design and how their skills might fit into them.’
The exhibition, Design Lab, Designing the Future, which runs in the Sackler Centre until September, will showcase the work produced by the children in response to the kettle brief.
As well as sketches and models created by the children, it will also show work produced by Seymour Powell staff in response to the same brief and prints from the V&A collection showing kettles throughout history.
Read this next
i hate how school children are given the chance to work with successful design companies and have their work in the V&A, while recent graduates are scrabbling around trying to get placements and experience. Also; we don’t need more people interested in design, it’s a totally overly saturated industry as it is!
I am always amazed to see such wonderful work by fashion students,amazed by their creativity and how they use the talent they have been blessed with.. http://www.raffles-iao.com/colleges/malaysia-kuala-lumpur.html
I agree with Mr Hall. There are over 173,825 design students and 232,000 professional designers in the UK. As Hall stated the industry is well and truly over saturated. What needs to be encouraged in schools when it comes to design and the arts, is more of a practical element behind them such as a business point of view. The problem that students face is not really knowing what the industry actually holds until graduating and discovering the lack of jobs. Getting a break is the biggest problem. I think only 20% of Graphic Design students from my degree at University College Falmouth obtained jobs in the first year. This was not addressed when I first joined the course. Just stating a university has a good reputation is not enough, there needs to be solid and more relevant evidence.