Isolation is “sometimes as hard to bear as exile” - but is necessary “if we want to work” - Vincent van Gogh.
The pandemic has force-fed change into almost every aspect of our lives. The affinity of space, thought and learning which previously was being viewed as a fundamental part across design disciplines, and acted like incubators for free thinking and idea growth, now seems like a distant idea. For design learning, the studio has now become one’s neighborhood, one’s home, and one’s own body where computer technology has become an extension of one’s central nervous systems and limbs.
Constraints often prod creativity and incite action. To flex and evolve, both in real-time and in the long-term, one has to have the confidence to embrace the change, and for those who do, design works as magic.
Going virtual has been a reality for many institutions this year. The challenges for this graduating batch of designers, therefore, is to anticipate and act for design to overcome problems as simply and seamlessly as possible. By designing a diverse mix of ideas, students worked to deconstruct the social and economic implications of design. In many ways, these projects represent the continuing evolution of design’s digital presence to better serve the needs of the global design community.
Design isn’t a thing, it is a mindset and these 26 design students of SP17 are equipped to adopt and innovate to create and communicate meaningful order through design.
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