Tag: Alumni

‘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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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.

Michelle’s career continues to accelerate

Please excuse the obvious puns!

Michelle graduated in 2010 and, through a knowledge Transfer Partnership, was employed by Multi National automotive component and precision injection moulding manufacturer, Nifco UK.    Michelle was mentored by Senior Lecturer, Peter Reid (that’s me!) to develop new products for the company and to investigate how New Product Development could be more fully utilised within the company.   At the end of the project Michelle was offered a full time position, now manages accounts with Jaguar Land Rover and Ford and travels internationally… but why not let Michelle tell you the rest…

Special Guest

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This week we had a very special guest delivering a Wednesday Lecture

Helen Hughes graduated in 1997 from Teesside University with a BA(hons) Design Marketing degree and we have kept in touch with Helen and her career ever since.

 

She has worked for

  • Field Packaging as a designer
  • Wrap (Waste & Resources Action Programme) which is an independent not-for-profit company as a Project Manager and Packaging Design Advisor in the retail innovation team where she helped brands and FMCG owners deliver against sustainability targets
  • She is currently the Sustainability Strategist at Design Bridge, London

Helen’s talk was both inspiring and eyeopening around the subject of sustainability within design – a subject important to all of us.

http://www.designbridge.com/