Product Design – Page 8

‘Ketchup’ with Tom

Product Design Alumni , Tom Crisp, will be returning to Teesside on January 28^th 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.

Class of 2013 – part 2

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.

Class of 2013

Last week we were proud to see the return of our graduates from the summer and watch them walk across the Midlesbrough Town Hall stage to recieve their awards.

This year they were joined by Film and TV star Mark Benton, who recieved an Honorary Doctorate.

Congratulations to everyone.

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.

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!

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.

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)

New Designers Showreel 2013

The above showreel showcases the student work that was on display at this year’s New Designers Exhibition in London. The exhibiton was a great opportunity for our students to get their work in front of 100’s of professionals from the design and manufacturing industries. A record breaking 18,265 visitors came along to see the exhibition – the highest footfall in it’s 28 year history.

Teesside Graduates everywhere you look

I 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.

A Launch Pad to the World of Work!

Creative Arts Week is the culmination of 3 years of study for our students in the School of Arts and Media. This year we were honoured to have Alan Davey, Chief Executive of the Arts Council launching the event and we were pleased to see so many friends at the opening night, joining the proud families of our graduating students in celebrating their hard work and achievements.

Product Design students, as ever, put on a great show with projects ranging from hydroponics to furniture and from vehicles to supermarket trolleys. I think that the individualism of Teesside graduates makes Design at Teesside stand out from the crowd. On the night we were joined by many of our business partners and I was pleased to receive so many compliments on the high quality of the work and the refreshing variety of projects on offer. It is always good to hear such comments from employers particularly when compared favourably against courses with a “predictable” house style.

If you did not catch the show then all is not lost. We will be exhibiting in London between 3^rd – 6^th July at the New Designers Exhibition, The Business Design Centre, Islington, London. New Designers is a fantastic national platform for us and our students. It’s a venue where leading companies “shop” for their new design talent and they will certainly find that on the Teesside stand. If you are in London, come and say hello. You’ll be in good company!