We Love Firestarters

Teviot, one of our partner design agencies, has launched 'Firestarter' – a year long paid internship for a creative student from our Visual Communication HND course. The successful student will join the company after they've finished the course in July, and then spend a year under the watchful eye of the creative team at Teviot, working on all sorts of projects and gaining valuable industry experience.

The initiative was started by senior designer at Teviot, Kirsten Murray, a former graduate of the course, who has been involved in the mentoring programme since 2010. As well as the internship, some our HND students will also get the opportunity to develop the brand identity for the Firestarter programme ahead of its launch in the Spring.




Kirsten (centre)  and her colleagues Kat Summers (right) and Ed Vickers, came into the college just before Christmas and surprised the class with the announcement about Firestarter.

Kirsten says: “Mentoring is a powerful tool in career development – whether you’re a student or the creative director. So we’ve launched Firestarter to build on our close ties with Edinburgh College - the opportunity is being exclusively to their students - helping to assist the next generation of talented designers to stay in Scotland and boost the industry here.”

You can follow progress on the Firestarter initiative on Teviot's website. and read the official press release as published in the Glasgow Herald.

Talking Shop

We had a very busy few days of guest speakers in the studio last week.  With the final year class finishing of their D&AD projects and getting their portfolios ready for their placements, its a very busy time but there is always room for employer engagement, and hearing it from the horses mouth on life outside college in the Creative Industries.

First up, on Wednesday, we had Gemma Rundell, who graduated from the HND course in 2009 and is now a designer at Teviot.  Gemma is a former YCN winner, and she talked to the final year students about placements. This is perfect timing because the students go out on work experience from the first week in February. This year we've managed to secure every student at least one placement at a broad range of studios and agencies across Edinburgh.  Gemma provided some awesome inspiration and plenty of words of wisdom.

On Thursday the HNC class got treated to a talk by Ian Greenhill and Jordan Laird - the very talented guys at Something Something.  Both used to work at the Leith Agency and have a reputation for being ideas machines - you can check out their work on their website at somethingsomething.tv

At the end of the week, former student Craigh Robertson came in and delivered a talk to both HND Graphics and HND Interactive Design on his experiences since graduating in 2015.

Craigh worked at Stuff and then at Hookson, before setting up his own business, Hawk, towards the end of 2016. Amongst other things, Craigh discussed how he devised a business plan, sources of support and funding, the development of his brand identity, and pricing work for clients.

Our final year graphics students start placements on Jan 30th, and we'll post up a list of the agencies involved soon.

Highland Park Retrospective

A short film featuring feedback interviews with some of our HNC and HND students reflecting on their experiences working on the Highland Park One Week project in Nov 2016.

#thecreativetakeover

Holly (l) and Niamh pick up the big cheque for their Schools Project win.

We hosted the presentations earlier this week for our Schools Project - a project about engaging more closely with Art & Design teachers in Secondary Schools across Scotland. The project was sponsored by Threebrand - an Edinburgh-based Design Agency who are involved in our mentoring programme and are strong supporters of design education and employer engagement.

The project hopes to improve information about FE and studying in the Creative Industries in particular, and also to encourage schools to look at the way they prepare school leavers for interviews, portfolios and Higher Education courses.  This collaboration between the College and Secondary Schools aims to develop a new strategy for increasing access to FE for school leavers.

Prior to the presentations we held a short reception in the Hub, where sample HND Graded Unit and HNC design projects were exhibited, and the presentations then took place in studio R310.

We had five shortlisted projects 
Liam Philp (HND)
Laurence Barber and Hazel Pike (HNC)
Chelsea Foley and Natasha Ryan (NC)
Christina Giannakou (HND)
Niamh Curran & Holly McNie (HNC)

The students pitched to a panel of High School Art & Design teachers -

Scott Hunter (SQA Graphics Principal Verifier), Stuart Longair (Stewarts Melville), Shonagh Primrose (Tynecastle High), Philippa Drummond (Drummond High) and Robert Ward (Craigroyston High)

 - who kindly came along to the Granton Campus for the evening.  They watched each presentation and then provided feedback and selected a winning project.  The top prize included becoming a College Ambassador for Edinburgh College, and receiving a funding cheque to further develop the idea into a real campaign or product.



Helena presents College Ambassador badges to Holly and Niamh.

Massive well done to Niamh Curran and Holly McNie who won the top prize with their 'creative takeover' concept.  Niamh and Holly will now look at fully developing their concept into a new promotional educational tool to be rolled out to high schools in 2017.

DMA Awards 2016

HND Graphic Design students Jennifer Grieve and Sam Haynes were in London last week, with tutor Helena Good, to attend the annual DMA Awards.

Jennifer and Sam were shortlisted in the DMA Breakthrough Award - which recognises emerging creative talent from the UK's Universities and Colleges. The pair picked up the runners' up spot and did some valuable networking, raising the profile of the course and doing Edinburgh College proud.

This is the second year in a row that we've had student work shortlisted at this national-recognised industry competition.  As well as attending the awards event, Sam and Jennifer presented their design solution at the Proximity Agency for the client (The Economist).

More about the Breakthrough award here, and a full list of DMA Award winners here.

Another Breakthrough

Earlier this week the shortlist for this year’s DMA Breakthrough Award, sponsored by The Economist, were announced.

Entries came from 11 different Universities and Colleges around the UK, with students studying anything from advertising and marketing to graphic design and psychology. The shortlist included two of our current HND students, Sam Haynes and Jennifer Grieve, who submitted a standout solution for the Economist's direct mail brief. The winner(s) will take home a paid internship at a top agency and a £1,000 cash prize, with second place pocketing £500 and third place receiving £250.

Last year our HND student Ayesha Islam's submission for the East of England Co-Op brief took the Breakthrough Award, and she won a month-long placement in London at Proximity.

Sam and Jennifer will be travelling to London on Dec 6th to the DMA Awards - good luck guys!