Careers in Packaging Design

You may remember reading an earlier post about Abigail Holden.   Abi secured a Silver Award in this year’s Student Starpack Awards.   Well…, to update you on her progress…, Abi went on to develop a retail trolley packing system for her major project.   She exhibited this at the New Designers Exhibition in London during July and caught the eye of Tescos.   Subsequently she was invited to Tescos head office to present her concept.

These projects undoubtedly helped Abi secure her first job in the design profession.   Abi has joined international packaging company Chesapeake as a packaging designer, initially being based in Bradford.

Abi is joining another Teesside Alumni, Richard Turnock, a structural packaging designer who will be helping her to settle into her new role.   We, in Product Design have worked with Chesapeake for many years including through live student projects and Carol Hammond, Head of New Product Design (Pharmaceuticals) gave an inspirational talk at the university last year.   The packaging industry offers some great opportunities for design graduates.   It is sometimes an overlooked area when graduates are seeking employment but Design at Teesside has a long history of success in this area

We are so pleased that Chesapeake selected a “Teessider” for this new post and send Abi our very best wishes.    Don’t forget to keep in touch Abi! 

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Students enjoy Joint Chinese ‘Design for Ageing’ Project

Second year Product Design students kicked off a joint project with their Chinese counterparts at the  Suzhou Art and Design Technology Institute with a group Skype call where all the students and staff met each other and discussed the details of an exciting new  project. Paul Denison, Principal Lecturer (International) has been working towards getting the project off the ground for 3 years. The project is called ‘Design for our Future Selves’ and the idea is that students from each institution help each other to research issues around ageing in both China and the UK. They then design products in small groups that are ‘cross cultural’ and suitable to be sold in both markets.

The project is being facilitated by two Chinese students who are studying in the 2nd year and who are acting as translators as well as being team members. It is hoped that all sudents will develop a strong sense of working internationally and that this will help them to develop skill sets which set them apart from graduates in other universities.WP_000226 WP_000228