Costa del Salford

We have developed a model of student & industry engagement. This is through the creation of a catalytic platform, which allows a symbiotic exchange of knowledge between industry, educators and students. The outcome enables the creation of new jobs. The idea was developed from an initial earlier event created by ourselves called Designers Northern Alliance in 2010. DNA was formed to create a collaboration of partners who would meet to discuss the subject of design and how academia may best be tailored to meet the needs of the local creative industries, and ultimately provide students with high quality, ‘real world’ experience, which is likely to become an even more important commodity as the ripple effect of the recession is experienced. The continued development of the model of student & industry engagement also builds on current thinking, to inform design curriculum & practice. It is also engaging and fun. As lecturers and practicing designers, there is an appreciation that the design industry is changing rapidly into a ‘post’ graphic design era and also a concern regarding the huge gap that spans the worlds of education and industry. Over the past 5 years we have responded to the current industry climate and developed a model of student and industry engagement, with the intention of improving design knowledge, developing innovative projects and more importantly, bridging the gap between education and industry. The formula developed for the model of student & industry engagement can be shown to work with many design projects, but our research has shown that the key to the success of this model relies on the brief being driven and led by proactive students of varying disciplines. Other major factors that are crucial to the project working are that the concept must be creative, thought provoking, and there should be an element of creative risk taking in order to be innovative. The case study, ‘Costa Del Salford’s Beach Party’, concentrates on a high profile industry networking event that resulted in students showcasing their strengths and gaining work placements and jobs. Costa Del Salford’s ‘Beach Party’ March 2014, is the most recent engagement project which follows our model. We intend to demonstrate, using ‘Beach Party’, as a case study the impact it’s had on job creation. Costa Del Salford’s ‘Beach Party’ project was collaborative, deliberately broken into mini projects, allowing the introduction of a number of skills to be delivered across a number of projects allowing the students to bring them together at the end as a fully integrated campaign. Using a variety of methods and creative teaching techniques in this model, ideas can be identified and developed in an exciting and innovative way that engages students and enables them to recognize their strengths and allow creative freedom. Team working, collaboration, professionalism plus the sharing and development of ideas is central to this. On the night 70+ industry professionals directly engaged with 80+ 3rd year students through a number of activities ranging from portfolio critiques to sand castle design & build competitions. This resulted in multiple work placements of which some turned into full time permanent employment within the design industry