A great Art and Design & Technology day out to London for the whole 3^rd Form...

Flickr album: Art & DT Trip to London - 21st February 2023 | Height: auto | Theme: Default | Skin: Default Skin

On Tuesday 21^st February, the Design & Technology and Art Departments ran a combined trip to London to visit The Design Museum and The Victoria & Albert Museum.

This trip was enjoyed by all our 3^rd Form pupils. After a safe journey, we arrived in West London and started the day of creativity at The Design Museum. In Design & Technology, the 3^rd Form have been working in small teams where they have been enjoying the challenge of designing and making a product for sale in The Design Museum shop. This product must work within a specific design context. This is part of a national competition which has run annually for over a decade. During this process, the pupils have been exploring the range of products available at the shop, including evaluating their branding, graphic design styles and the sales environment there. As their designs have progressed, from initial ideas to prototypes, they’ve also been investigating several topics, including sustainable materials and designers who have influenced the products on sale. One of these designers was exhibiting at the time of our visit. The vibrant colours and creativity of Yinka Ilori was one of the exhibitions available. A memorable experience for everyone was the World of ASMR exhibition. ASMR refers to Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, a physical sensation triggered by external sources. It is an emerging field of creativity and design, and the work of several ASMRTISTS was there for us to touch, listen to and see. The other educational exhibition we were able to appreciate was Designer, Maker, User. This features almost 1000 items of twentieth and twenty-first century design viewed through the eyes of designer, manufacturer, and user. The crowdsourced wall provides an impressive entrance, and the start of the tour which features classic work; from British Road Signs to Chairs, the Vespa and modern modes of transport, remind us of how design impacts every element of our life. With so many icons of design on display it was a feast for our young designers. Who knows, the next Dieter Rams or Jony Ive could well have been on this visit.

For the second half of the day, we all headed off to the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington for an art experience to remember. For a lot of the group, it was their first time there, and they were not disappointed. We rendezvoused in the great Renaissance Hall which provided the perfect backdrop from which to launch the activities. Pupils recorded the work, their thoughts and the artists’ intentions on their worksheets which allowed them to fully engage in the experience. Highlights ranged from the Sculpture Hall to the Africa Fashion exhibit to Harry Style’s Jumper, there was something for everyone. It is impossible to see everything on display in such a short space of time, so hopefully, the pupils will feel inspired enough to make a future visit. Once again the V&A did not disappoint and fitted in well to the pupils’ current themes.

Nick Hart - Head of Design & Technology and Seamus Harkness - Head of Art