NEW DESIGNERS

is an annual event held in London. after an invite from a product designer i know from Salford, it seemed a great opportunity to network and gain a few ideas. the New Designers event brings all disciplines of design together; furniture, graphic, fashion, interactive, illustration, animation, product, and spacial. there is also free talks you can attend from established designers. each area of design has a section inside a massive hall, and within each section various universities showcase their under graduate students' best work.

it was brilliant to walk around each section taking in new products and ideas. i haven't ever given any thought towards product design, so exploring with a product designer was really interesting. the designer of each product was on hand to demonstrate and to answer questions.

the most impressive products i saw tended to be very simple and innovative, yet elegant. for example, one girl had designed a range of chop sticks (a common household product that we usually only see as functional) which had cut out designs on the end of them. one pair were shaped to look like hands. another designer had reinvented the chip fork, cutting one into the shape of a fish. it annoyed me how simple these products were, they were still functioning in the way they were intended, yet had an edge to them that i hadn't ever seen before.

the graphic design section was a bit disappointing to be honest. the universities seem to have similar briefs to what we have been set, and the work didn't seem to be anything special. there was very little evidence of strong concepts, which interests me most. there was little photography and it seemed to be confused with illustration most of the time, the more "arty" unis displaying book illustrations and sketches.

coming away from New Designers, it surprised me how fascinated i was by the product design discipline. i realise now how important the concept behind a design is to me, and i'd rather something be very understated and clever, rather than brash, obvious and unthoughtful.

still.. i met a few people, came away with ideas and confirmed that i was passionate about graphics, making me more determined to further myself as a designer.