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Sorrell Foundation: The Young Design Program
The Young Design Programme has reached its fourth year of bringing together young people in schools, Further Education Colleges and community groups, design students from Higher Education Institutions and industry professionals to work on design projects for young people.
Developed from the Sorrell Foundations joinedupdesignforschools programme, the Young Design Programme has the same core principle: that young people act as clients. This time, however, their designers are students from Colleges and Universities, who in turn are mentored by professional designers. As well as giving the students a professional perspective, the mentors advise them on how to work with clients.
Higher Education Institutions work with a local cluster of between 3 and 7 schools, Further Education Colleges or community centres, and students from their own design courses. Each school, Further Education College or community centre creates a client team of between 15-20 young people. A design team of around six design students works with this team. During a series of meetings, workshops and presentations spanning seven months, design students work in multidisciplinary teams, directed by the pupils. The design students develop an in-depth analysis of design issues that affect their clients’, followed by innovative concepts that address real problems within schools, colleges and community spaces.
To celebrate their completion of the programme, the design teams and client teams make presentations at a special event locally and work is displayed as an exhibition at the Sorrell Foundation Young Design Centre at Somerset House, London. A Young Design Programme publication also showcases the final design concepts to a wider audience.
Young people from Schools, Further Education Colleges and Community groups gain invaluable experience from being given the responsibility of being clients and develop important life skills, such as communication, teamwork, negotiation and problem solving, leading to improved self-esteem and confidence:
NFER 2008
For the higher education students who provide the design solutions, the experience of working on live briefs with a client team of dynamic young people and under the guidance of industry professionals helps them to develop a range of professional skills that will be invaluable when they embark on careers in the creative industries.
The Young Design Programme was evaluated externally by the National Federation of Educational Research, (NFER), and by Catherine Smith from the University of the Arts London Enterprise Centre for the Creative Arts (ECCA). The results, published in autumn 2008, are an indication of the benefits of cross-educational programmes, concluding that:
‘The central aims of the Young Design Programme have been achieved in ways that have been inspirational and motivational for the programme participants. In addition a client-centred model, encouraging “real life” experience of the cycle of a design project, has been extremely effective in bringing instutions and individuals together and in giving “real” meaning to the Young Design Programme process for its participants.’
NFER 2008
The government’s £43bn investment initiative, Building Schools for the Future, aims to refurbish or rebuild every secondary school and 50 per cent of primary schools in England. The Young Design Programme, as well as a new pilot programme supported by Partnerships For Schools, joinedupdesignforAcademies, aims to enable pupils from schools, further education colleges and community groups to make a vital contribution that will shape new Schools.
The Sorrell Foundation opened the Young Design Centre in 2007 to resource and support its programmes. Currently displaying the entries for the 2008 RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award alongside the What’s Next for Schools? exhibition, the centre draws attention to what young people expect from the designers of their schools. Based around 15 common issues that affect schools, such as toilets, dinner halls and communication, it provides a practical resource for teachers and local authorities, as well as a comprehensive workshop programme to engage pupils in identifying the issues that affect their schools.
The Young Design Programme was developed and continues to be led nationally through a partnership between The Sorrell Foundation and The University of Arts London. The programme has grown from a pilot with the University of the Arts London in 2005-6, to three HEIs in 2007-8 to six in 2008. 11 HEIs will run the programme this year in 2008-9:
‘For the most part the teams worked very well together and have learnt not only about themselves as individual artists and designers, but also as part of an inter-disciplinary team - discovering new ways of working and exploring different approaches to art and design.’
- University of the Arts tutor
‘Working on a live brief seemed to make the students more focused and realise why they embarked on a course with creative art and design and re-focus their energy on this.’
- Professional Mentor
‘It makes us want to aspire more, see the flaws in the environment and how to improve it.’
- Pupil Client
Quotations from: The Sorrell Foundation Young Design Programme: Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration, Creative Challenge & Unconventional Haircuts, An Enterprise & Professional Development in the Curriculum Case Study (Catherine Smith, September 2008)
I feel it has been incredibly useful to design something functional and also experience communication and negotiating with a client team. I feel that design practice is now a strong possibility for me and that I do possess the skills. As a team we complemented each other and solved different areas of the brief.
- Student designer
Quotation from: Pilot Evaluation of the Young Design Programme 2005-2008 National Foundation for Educational Research
(Peter Rudd, Helen Marshall and Helen Marson-Smith, October 2008)
‘The Young Design Programme has inspired us to see the pupils’ voice as part of the consultation process when making changes and improvements in school’
- Lead teacher
‘I was amazed at how involved and dedicated the primary school we worked with were; they were so articulate, communicated with us well and were incredibly creative’
- Student designer
‘It was very good to have a live experience of sorting out meetings and working to deadlines’
- Student designer
Developed from the Sorrell Foundations joinedupdesignforschools programme, the Young Design Programme has the same core principle: that young people act as clients. This time, however, their designers are students from Colleges and Universities, who in turn are mentored by professional designers. As well as giving the students a professional perspective, the mentors advise them on how to work with clients.
Higher Education Institutions work with a local cluster of between 3 and 7 schools, Further Education Colleges or community centres, and students from their own design courses. Each school, Further Education College or community centre creates a client team of between 15-20 young people. A design team of around six design students works with this team. During a series of meetings, workshops and presentations spanning seven months, design students work in multidisciplinary teams, directed by the pupils. The design students develop an in-depth analysis of design issues that affect their clients’, followed by innovative concepts that address real problems within schools, colleges and community spaces.
To celebrate their completion of the programme, the design teams and client teams make presentations at a special event locally and work is displayed as an exhibition at the Sorrell Foundation Young Design Centre at Somerset House, London. A Young Design Programme publication also showcases the final design concepts to a wider audience.
Young people from Schools, Further Education Colleges and Community groups gain invaluable experience from being given the responsibility of being clients and develop important life skills, such as communication, teamwork, negotiation and problem solving, leading to improved self-esteem and confidence:
‘Pupils (and their parents and teachers) identified a range of skills which they had developed as a result of taking part in the YDP. The skills most commonly cited were teamwork, communication and creative thinking.’ NFER 2008
As well as this, the experience of working with design students in higher education gives the young people an insight into higher education:
‘A high proportion of the pupils who took part in the YDP considered design to be a possible career path that they may consider in the future. 84 per cent of the pupils responding to this question stated that they would consider the possibility of a career in a design-related field’ As well as this, the experience of working with design students in higher education gives the young people an insight into higher education:
NFER 2008
For the higher education students who provide the design solutions, the experience of working on live briefs with a client team of dynamic young people and under the guidance of industry professionals helps them to develop a range of professional skills that will be invaluable when they embark on careers in the creative industries.
The Young Design Programme was evaluated externally by the National Federation of Educational Research, (NFER), and by Catherine Smith from the University of the Arts London Enterprise Centre for the Creative Arts (ECCA). The results, published in autumn 2008, are an indication of the benefits of cross-educational programmes, concluding that:
‘The central aims of the Young Design Programme have been achieved in ways that have been inspirational and motivational for the programme participants. In addition a client-centred model, encouraging “real life” experience of the cycle of a design project, has been extremely effective in bringing instutions and individuals together and in giving “real” meaning to the Young Design Programme process for its participants.’
NFER 2008
The government’s £43bn investment initiative, Building Schools for the Future, aims to refurbish or rebuild every secondary school and 50 per cent of primary schools in England. The Young Design Programme, as well as a new pilot programme supported by Partnerships For Schools, joinedupdesignforAcademies, aims to enable pupils from schools, further education colleges and community groups to make a vital contribution that will shape new Schools.
The Sorrell Foundation opened the Young Design Centre in 2007 to resource and support its programmes. Currently displaying the entries for the 2008 RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award alongside the What’s Next for Schools? exhibition, the centre draws attention to what young people expect from the designers of their schools. Based around 15 common issues that affect schools, such as toilets, dinner halls and communication, it provides a practical resource for teachers and local authorities, as well as a comprehensive workshop programme to engage pupils in identifying the issues that affect their schools.
The Young Design Programme was developed and continues to be led nationally through a partnership between The Sorrell Foundation and The University of Arts London. The programme has grown from a pilot with the University of the Arts London in 2005-6, to three HEIs in 2007-8 to six in 2008. 11 HEIs will run the programme this year in 2008-9:
- University of the Arts London
- Buckinghamshire New University
- University College Falmouth
- The University of Greenwich
- The University of Kent
- Kingston University
- Leeds College of Art & Design
- University of Northampton; New College Nottingham
- University of Derby
- Plymouth College of Art and Design
Quotes from the Young Design Programme
‘For the most part the teams worked very well together and have learnt not only about themselves as individual artists and designers, but also as part of an inter-disciplinary team - discovering new ways of working and exploring different approaches to art and design.’
- University of the Arts tutor
‘Working on a live brief seemed to make the students more focused and realise why they embarked on a course with creative art and design and re-focus their energy on this.’
- Professional Mentor
‘It makes us want to aspire more, see the flaws in the environment and how to improve it.’
- Pupil Client
Quotations from: The Sorrell Foundation Young Design Programme: Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration, Creative Challenge & Unconventional Haircuts, An Enterprise & Professional Development in the Curriculum Case Study (Catherine Smith, September 2008)
I feel it has been incredibly useful to design something functional and also experience communication and negotiating with a client team. I feel that design practice is now a strong possibility for me and that I do possess the skills. As a team we complemented each other and solved different areas of the brief.
- Student designer
Quotation from: Pilot Evaluation of the Young Design Programme 2005-2008 National Foundation for Educational Research
(Peter Rudd, Helen Marshall and Helen Marson-Smith, October 2008)
‘The Young Design Programme has inspired us to see the pupils’ voice as part of the consultation process when making changes and improvements in school’
- Lead teacher
‘I was amazed at how involved and dedicated the primary school we worked with were; they were so articulate, communicated with us well and were incredibly creative’
- Student designer
‘It was very good to have a live experience of sorting out meetings and working to deadlines’
- Student designer
