Graphic Design Students Visit Industry-Leading London Studio
Information design students from the
University’s Digital Arts Centre have been visiting a leading
design studio while on a recent visit to London.
The ‘applied_’ studio is held in high regard
by the global design community and they have notably just designed
and produced the new ‘Legible London’ wayfinding signage system for
Transport for London - which can now be seen all over the
capital.
The students are presently working on a
semi-live brief for Malvern Hills District Council’s “Route to the
Hills” project. Their brief was set by Manda Graham, the project’s
manager and asks the students to use their newly-acquired skills,
knowledge and abilities in wayfinding information graphics to
design a set of working prototype directional signage and graphic
interpretation boards for the town’s centre. These designs will
then be assessed by Manda and her team and the hope is that some
may be used in any final system used in Malvern – this could be a
huge coup for any students involved and their portfolio of work
undertaken.
Cllr Barbara Williams, Portfolio
Holder for Community & Economic Development at Malvern Hills
District Council said: “It’s really exciting to
be working on this project with students from the University of
Worcester and fantastic to hear that they are getting ideas from
leading designers. The Route to the Hills project is very important
for Great Malvern and we hope that some of the student’s
final work will be displayed in Malvern for the public to feed back
on before any decisions are made regarding town centre
signage.”
Second year design student Stephen
Hall said of his visit to the applied_ studio: "Tim's
talk was inspiring and it’s made me think differently about my own
design ideas for the Malvern brief. The most intriguing part for me
was hearing about the lengthy design process for the Legible London
wayfinding system. This meant ‘applied_’ went through over 200 map
designs before reaching something that the public would see in the
street! It was fascinating to hear Tim’s theory about ‘People v1.0’
also and how they stick to a geographical ‘comfort zone’ when
travelling from one place to another in London."
Senior design lecturer Andy Stevenson
arranged and accompanied the students to the London studio. He
adds: “It’s so crucial for the students to not only
understand the theory but also the practice in this growing area of
the design industry. Showing them examples of successful designs in
situ and getting them in the door of studios to let them see first
hand how this all works is invaluable to them. The reason we
contacted Tim and the applied studio was their fantastic work with
the Legible London system which is now helping scores of visitors
to navigate easily around the capital.” (Tim I’m happy to
tweek this if you’d prefer too..).
For more information about the Route to the
Hills project log on to the MHDC website at www.malvernhills.gov.uk/routetothehills