WOW Presentations

First Year HND student Nick Cameron presents his teams' wow project.

Year 1 and 2 HND groups presented their WOW induction projects today. The NC classes were invited along and the event was also filmed.

Each group had taken the 'WOW' factor concept and developed a visual presentation. The ideas included giant toys (dominoes, playing cards and a remote control Dalek), a set of WOW toiletries, an ad agency promotion and a number of inventive outdoor interactive installations.

The videos and presentations are all available for students to view in the Archive drive. I'll post some of the videos to the blog soon.

Video: 'Daily Wow' by Kay, Kinga, Stacey and Tadas.




Video: 'Client meets Designer' by Terry, Jonny, Ross and Paul.

Getting the WOW factor

This year's College-wide induction theme is WOW - and the induction project for HND Visual Communication features a collaboration between Year 1 and Year 2.

Induction Brief : WOW
Design Studios are always trying to convince clients that their campaign idea or brief solution will have that ‘WOW’ factor.

Task
Your team is required to explore the WOW factor in any area of visual communication, and produce a finished piece which has the WOW effect

Guidelines
You can choose any medium for this work - print, web, video, installation, 3D, mixed media, packaging and so on – but the result has to be WOW.

This is a team project, but research, ideas and planning should be documented individually in your WOW Booklet.
HND 1 will lead the research and concept.
HND 2 will lead with planning, art direction and resources.

Suggested Workflow:
Tuesday - ice-breakers, inspiration, brief, brainstorm and teams.
Wed - action plan, resources, initial concepts, development
Thurs – development, locations (optional)
Friday – finalise and present.

Deliverables
The finished WOW piece.
Your WOW Induction booklet.

Deadline
Your team will present on Friday Sept 3rd

Designers of the Future@facebook

Year 2 HND Student Emma Hart has set up a facebook group for HND 1 and HND 2. She'll take on the responsibility of updating, monitoring and promoting the page, and of course everyone is free to write on the wall, upload photos and share information. This will hopefully turn into a great resource for both groups during their study and beyond.

WOW Induction Week

With the new term kicking off on 30th August, the Design Team has been busy planning the delivery to NC and both HN Groups.

As part of this, we are looking at ways that we can improve and develop the Mentoring programme. The format may change slightly this time around, and much of this will be based on the feedback we received from the Mentors towards the end of last session. Helena will be holding an informal review and planning meeting with the Mentors on Wednesday 25th August.

For student induction week, Year 1 and Year 2 will be teaming up on a project which was pitched by Emma, Rachel and Ross back in June. The guys presented their WOW concept to a panel of tutors as well as the new Principal, Miles Dibsdall OBE. The idea has been integrated into the college prospectus for 2010/2011, and the theme has been adopted college-wide for the start of the new session.

During next week I'll post up details of the WOW briefs, as well as some news on resources and materials.

FlipBoard

It hasn't taken long for the first really interesting buzzword to emerge from the world of iPad.

I've just been checking out an iPad app called 'Flipboard', which allows you to compile your own customised magazine by grabbing content from social networks and selected newsfeeds.

The brainchild of former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll and entrepreneur Mike McCue, Flipboard takes normal RSS feeds and configures them as a newspaper layout, showing headlines, runners and ultimately the full story. Additionally, Flipboard displays Tweets about each article and allows you to add your own comments. You can also import Twitter lists.

As the term infers, navigation between sections of content is done by 'flipping', just like browsing through a magazine.

Flipboard has a set of nine pre-built curated “boards” which serve as your magazine sections. These are basically templates, but they can be customised.
By all accounts it's addictive and makes brilliant use of both Twitter and Facebook - a surefire way to ensure its popular takeup. Flipboard is free to download on the Flipboard website.

Check out Flipboard in action:

Notworking at the D&AD Awards

Earlier this week, I attended the D&AD Student Awards Ceremony at Old Spitalfields Market, London, along with HND Graduate Artur Pasiek and Tutor David Wilson. Students and Tutors from as far away as Stockholm, San Francisco and Hong Kong attended the event.

It was a great way to end a hugely successful year for the Design Team. We had a place at the Body Shop table, accompanied by Body Shop's Design Director Scott Corbett, and the Brand Communciations winners - Maarten Nefkens, Menno Drontmann and their tutor Wim Michels - from Hallo Academy of Applied Creativity in Amsterdam.

For Artur, this was a chance to reap the benefits of his hard work. He already has a number of agency offers on the table, and now has the prospect of a two week placement with the Body Shop in London.

As well as awarding lots of well-deserved Yellow Pencils, the D&AD people provided some great hospitality. including a brilliant afterparty and BBQ which took place at The Vibe Bar and was organised by Notworking specialists, Glug.


David and Artur @ D&AD



We Love Design!


Artur and Chris celebrate @ D&AD Awards.


Artur does a bit of Notworking @ D&AD Awards.


Check out D&AD's official photos of the event on flickr.


More:
D&AD Nominations Gallery
Glug Notworking / D&AD Awards