Transatlantic Design- The Exhibition.

At this years Brighton University degree show- 'Hook, Line and Sinker.' We put together a little presentation to let people know about our 'Transatlantic Design' project.
With thanks to Matt Wingfield for the vinyl and our second year helpers: Karin and Monique for painting our display a lovely shade of yellow for us.

New Era

Yesterday saw the scramble to form a coalition government come to an end, and an end to Labour's 13 year run in power. I can't quite believe it all happened in one day, but there you go. 

This has been an interesting and unusual election, and we're effectively stepping into the unknown, from a political point of view. 

Surprisingly, the Conservatives have compromised on many of their policies in order to get Lib Dems on side, and this morning we woke up to the news that Clegg is deputy PM and there are 5 Lib Dems in the Cabinet. But what we're interested in here is education, and that is still an issue that is going to be a topic of debate. Both parties have admitted that there will have to be huge cuts in order to reduce the deficit and public debt, although we have been promised that these cuts will not come from 'frontline services', such as the NHS. It's unclear if higher education counts as a frontline service, but we feel that cuts in this area are inevitable, and will follow on from the trend in spending cuts that we've witnessed at our time in University.

Hopefully in the next few days we will find out who has been appointed in charge of education, and we're hoping that a more detailed version of the new government's main aims and intentions will be published shortly so we can know the fate of future students. All we do know for now is that in the run up to the election, the Conservatives were in favour of taking the cap off tuition fees, but the Lib Dems were in favour of scrapping them all together. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will find out if either party has had to compromise on this issue. 

UK Tuition Fees

We've all been interested in the financial side of education here and in the states, and it was one of the main themes of the project initially. In the UK, the whole higher education system is about to go through some serious overhauls in terms of funding. So far, we've all felt the effects of drastic budget cuts to universities and to the arts in particular. Whoever wins the general election this week will be looking to address university funding. An official review that's been going on for some time now is due to finish soon, and whoever our new Prime Minister and other relevant MPs are will take this report as the basis for their decision on funding. At the moment it looks like the cap on tuition fees (currently at £3325) will be gone, meaning that universities can charge what they like. It's the first step in privatising the university education system, making it something more akin to the American system now. 

I personally don't think that having an elitist system right, but I do acknowledge that funding has to change somehow, and if students are the only way to offset budget cuts then so be it. Either way, it's a time of considerable change right now, which means that our project could not have come at a better time. 

For a very informative article (and comments) on the issue from the Times, click here. 

Apfel

Yesterday we went to interview Apfel, a practice for everyday life. This is a really beautiful studio in East London which has even more beautiful work. Kirsty and Emma gave us a really great interview, it was very honest and really inspirational. They expressed how they felt design education was essential and that its the people you meet in education who are invaluable to you. Kirsty and Emma met while at the RCA and told us the lovely story of how they first planned to set up a studio in a kind of traveling studio/ library/ cafe, it sounded amazing but luckily for everyone they settled in London and created Apfel. They also talked about how common sense and independence/ determination were some of the greatest qualities to have. It was a really great interview, Thank you very much.

Sam Winston

On Friday 29th january Chloe and I went up to London again to conduct another interview with the great Sam Winston. He was a really incredible guy, very inspiring and he also gave us jam doughnuts so what more could we of asked for! Well the interview was great, he had to leave by 5.30 but by 6pm we were all still there getting to see first hand some of his beautiful work. I think Ian Wrights interruption was a big factor in the over running but it was his birthday and hes super cool too and we enjoyed the conversation immensely. Sam being both a designer and a lecturer gave a really interesting perspective on the topic of design education, he also just gave some great advice, like when a tutor criticises something you do and it really bothers you and you get upset or angry about it, well thats because it has an element of truth in it but then when you work on those faults and if someone criticses again and you feel nothing you know its untrue. Simple but such great advice. A down to earth guy with so much to give, he wants to see us again in a years time to see what we are up to so watch this space I think we will definitely keep him up on that offer.

Andreas at Six Creative.

This Thursday we went to the very trendy Six Creative Studio to meet the talented Andreas Neophytou.
Another great interview to get us all excited about our project and our own education. Andreas reminded us of the importance of ideas in a world that is saturated with design. He also gave us a tour of the studio and let us take a sneaky peak at some of the wonderful projects they have been doing.
We look forward to listening back to the interview very soon.