**Warning product design bias!!**
The open-ended student project brief can lead to incredible innovations. The unconstrained mind can come up with quirky ideas like the screw-in coffin or the moneypad, but getting there can be the most stressful and time consuming process. Also, each project you take on is an investment in your own future, your portfolio has to stand out if you want to get your paws on an ever-more-elusive job, so you can’t mess it up! This is why many students use competitions as a source for ideas. Clued-up lecturers often use the briefs set by our mates at D&AD as part of their teaching. Mine did not, but a friend recommended it, and it made a really fresh, relevant, well-rounded final year project: you have to set some of your own boundaries, read up on the area, establish your target market and so on, and you can make it as technical as you like. It beats those tired ”pill dispenser for the elderly” briefs, and if you are a finalist then that looks great on the CV.
I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but for those who are not aware of this excellent source of creative briefs and inspiration (as well as prestige and prizes for the winners), here are some interesting links:
- Contest Watchers (those tie-wearing shapes above) is a blog that aggregates professional and student design, visual arts and music competitions from around the world, keeps an eye on entry deadlines, and bigs up the winners to a growing audience (via psfk)
- The Design Council‘s events and competitions directory is quite good, despite the baffling and hideous website.
- Dexigner is an awesome design industry news resource, and also has a feed of competitions with deadline info.
- Core77 is another design resource, good for news as well as job hunting and portfolio hosting. They often run 1-hour design challenges which are a great way to show off your skills to the design community in a short time period.
There’s a huge product design bias in these links, if you have a moment, please comment with other resources from your field.
Good luck in those competitions!
hey. I just now stumbled on fabulous wordpress blog and additionally I should certainly state that this specific is a cool piece of writing. Kudos to find this unique selective information.
Thanks so much for your downright page;this is the kind of thing that keeps me on track through my day. I have been searching around for this site after I heard about them from a buddy and was thrilled when I was able to find it after searching for awhile. Being a avid blogger, I’m cheerful to see others taking initivative and contributing to the community. Just wanted to comment to show my support for your page as it’s very encouraging, and many bloggers do not get acknowledgment they deserve. I am sure I’ll visit again and will spread the word to my friends.