Category: Alumni

Ben cleans up at Dyson

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Product Design graduate Ben Russi has been succesful in securing a graduate Design Engineering position working for British inventor, industrial designer and founder of the Dyson company, Sir James Dyson. Dyson is best known as the inventor of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner, which works on the principle of cyclonic separation.

On getting the role Ben said:

“Interviewing for a position at Dyson as a Graduate Design Engineer originally made me quite nervous as to be expected. On the day I quickly realised however that this interview was going to be quite different to others, both days where extremely enjoyable based around demonstrating my creativity as a designer and technical understanding and fundamentally my design process and thinking. The Dyson employees where very friendly, answering all of my questions about the role very openly. On getting the position I was understandably very excited, I have not stopped thinking about what I might be doing since and cannot wait to start my new role. The course at Teesside University prepared me greatly for the interview process, I used all of the skills and new ways of thinking I had learnt over the three year course. The product design course also gave me the confidence to apply and push for a role with such an innovative and exciting company. It is a course I would highly recommend to any aspiring Designer or Design Engineer.”

Tom’s Magic Tips

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Teesside ex-student, Tom Crisp, now Design Director at Design Partners in San Fransisco, came back to Teesside last week and wowed Product Design Students with a bundle of stories about life as a designer.

As well as showing his award winning portfolio of work he has done for Wacom ( Cintiq, Bamboo and Intuos), Heinz Ketchup (new squeezy bottle), Intel ( Mobile Metro), Villeroy and Boch, Logitech and Proctor and Gamble, he gave a talk entitled ‘Twenty Things I wish I could have told myself at University‘. Among his top tips for designers were ‘Make Things Constantly, Experiment and Have Fun‘, ‘Make Friends with Criticism’ and ‘Add Magic. Always’. Students were then treated to a master class in drawing and some feedback about an on-going sledge project.

Tom also invited students to submit their portfolios to him for the possibility of working for Design Partners as an intern. It was a truly inspirational day. Tom has promised to come back to share more of his wisdom next year. See more of Tom and teams work  at http://www.designpartners.com/.

‘Ketchup’ with Tom

Product Design Alumni , Tom Crisp, will be returning to Teesside on January 28th to give a talk about his career so far, working with some of the world’s best design consultancies, and to spend time in the studios with the product design students.

After graduating in 2004 Tom moved to Portland, Oregon to work for for international design consultancy ‘Ziba Design’ at their HQ and, for a short while, at their office in Germany. After 6 years he moved to San Francisco and spent a year and a half at ‘New Deal Design’ working alongside world renowned designer Gadi Amit. After that he was offered the opportunity to start a design studio in San Francisco for the Irish company ‘Design Partners’. They are now in their second full year of running the studio, getting it established and growing the team.

Tom has worked on: Many of the Wacom tablets and screens, the Fitbit products, the new Heinz Ketchup bottles, high-profile laptops, design strategy programs, in-depth research and conceptual projects. His clients have included: Heinz, Fitbit, Wacom, Citibank, Intel, Dell, Logitech, Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson and Samsung.Newly_Redesigned_HeinzKetchup_Bottles51Lbf6K3AkL notebook stacktc1 wacomintuos4medium

Class of 2013 – part 2

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Graduation was great last week and enabled us to catch up with our graduates and find out what they have been up to since leaving in the Summer.

‘Tees Made’ is happy to report that a many of our graduates had started in full-time work or education. In roles such as product design, packaging design, design engineering, self start-up, teaching in Asia and teacher training.

More news will follow so watch this space.

Tales from the Middle Kingdom

Teesside Graduate Conor Barnes’ ambition whilst a student was to teach in the far east. Since graduating in May Conor has realised that dream.The following is Conors 1st email since starting work.

‘I work at Changsha Foreign Language School as the head of junior two’s (12-14 yrs.) oral English lesson, where for the past few weeks I’ve been teaching them a range of topic’s; from Music genre’s to parts of the human body. Also teaching how to make comparisons, superlatives, spellings, pronunciation, etc.

I found that I’ve adjusted to life here very well and are already considering staying another few years.  I have made many friends here in Changsha and have a busy social life when I’m off duty, I’ve even started a band and we should be starting to play some shows around the pubs and club next month.’

Check back for further updates from Conor.

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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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Surely, this must be the best job in design!

 == STOP PRESS! ==

A date for your diaries!   We are delighted to be kicking off the new academic year in style with a very special lecture on 3rd October 2013.

Marek Reichman, Director of Design at Aston Martin and one of our prestigious Alumni will be talking about his career and designing for the “coolest car brand in the world”   Marek is a great friend to the course and it is always a pleasure to welcome him back to Teesside.

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This talk will be open to all current Teesside Product Design students and external invited guests.   We will have more details shortly but, in the meantime, keep this date clear!

If you are not currently a student at Teesside but would like to attend, please send a request to Peter Reid – p.reid@tees.ac.uk (non Teesside University attendees are limited and subject to availability)

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Greetings from London

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Just a few images of us preparing for New Designers and our stand at the exhibition in the Business Design Centre, Islington.

What can I say…, the set up went smoothly and we have had some great responses from visitors; professionals and public alike about our graduating students’ work.    New Designers, if you don’t already know is THE national showcase for graduating students from around the UK and is the place to be to get noticed and meet companies looking to employ new design talent.    As always we have been joined by old friends on the stand who work in the industry.    Marek Reichman, Aston Martin design director and great friend to the course dropped by yesterday.   I  also had a couple of really interesting meetings with other industry partners which I am confident will lead to a rolling programme of  one year internships starting next year (so watch this space) and some special guest speakers from the likes of Samsung.   Anyway, there is still time to come along and… and… we even have a few complimentary tickets so e-mail if you are in London and would like to visit us.   p.reid@tees.ac.uk  (the show is open today and tomorrow – 5th, 6th July)

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Teesside Graduates everywhere you look

David FoxI was flicking through a back copy of Blueprint magazine and spotted this advert for a product designed by Teesside graduate David Fox.    It is always nice to see professional work by our alumni.    I should not really be surprised.    Teesside product designers have been making their mark since 1972!   Coincidentally, I also saw this Chair on Newsnight recently.