News

With the june showcase just a few weeks away, the media is already touting just a few of the show's success stories. An 'unbreakable brolli' and an 'interactive plant pot' are just two designs doing the rounds in this weeks media.

Designers Simon Warne and Natalie King have been seeing their work promoted in the Daily Mail and Eureka online. You can see the coverage by clicking on the following links:

Daily Mail Coverage
Eureka Coverage

With the show just over a week away, this should be enough to be getting you excited. Dont forget to register your place at the show: Register Here

The annual Mobile User Experience awards took place this week, with two Brunel students making up the three nominated in the student category. Adrian Briss took the top prize with his 'Freedom Interactive Map' design, allowing people to explore undiscovered environments. The judges chose the winnig concept because "it was an inspiring example from a student designer, showing what the future of mapping might look like." Making the runner up slot was 'Pulse', designed by Simon Smith for children to help them cope with hearing loss.

Make sure you register your place and look out for the award winning entries at the Made in Brunel Show: Register

Click here to view the MEX Awards entries: MEX Awards

Thursday saw the return of the now annual design competition, "Design Factor" in which the entirety of Brunel's first year design students team up with final year mentors to answer a creative, yet challenging, design brief.

Promoting the Made in Brunel brand across campus was the brief set to this year's eagerly awaiting students. The day started early than many first years might of hoped, with a 9am briefing session in DEC. Once the filtering into teams and assigning of final year mentors had been completed, the time started ticking, and the 15 groups set off to find creative ways to bring a university student brand well and truly to the attention of the wider campus.

10 hours was the time scale given to the students to come up with not only a viable design solution, but also to develop, model and present the final idea to the awaiting panel of judges.

As the 6pm deadline drew close, the crowds began to gather outside the Newton Rooms, with scores of blue foam models and what can only be described as some very snappy dressers. The competing designers were ushered into a hall and greeted with the awaiting stage. Would it be a platform for some unrivaled creative innovation, or a place providing nowhere to hide for the lesser creative thinkers?

This years judges consisted of one of Made in Brunel Directors, Devraj Joshi, a former Brunel Graduate, Petra, Brunel's Student Union VP of student activities, Joel Brasher-Jones, and of course the father figure to many, PT. With our very own Ross Dudley warming up the crowd with some gentle comedy, we were ready to get the main event of the night under way. One by one each group took to the stage for their 3 minute all or nothing presentation to the judges. And one by one there was the occasional vote of confidence from the judges mixed in amongst some stinging comments. Upon the final group's completion it was time for some the judges to head back stage and decide upon the winners of this years competition. Eternal glory awaited the winners along with a bottle of Champaign and £30 worth of locos vouchers.

Some special mentions were the first items to be dished out, with Ross "Dermot O"Leary" Dudley receiving an individual award for his entertainment efforts, and Team 4 receiving a best dressed award. But the as the tension became almost unbearable, the winners were announced. It was Team "Box or Fame" who took all the applauds with their interchangeable display cases concept which were intelligently networked from different schools on campus. It must be said that the winning team took on board all of the values being encompassed in this years Made in Brunel brand of networking and teamwork to come up with a truly innovative and creative way to bring the brand into view for the wider campus audience. Special mention must also go to the runners up, Team "Fab Slabs".

When measuring the success of the day it is worth considering the incredibly short time span the students were given, which makes the quality of the work presented at the show all the more impressive, and bodes considerably well for the future years of Brunel's design, but maybe more importantly, the Made in Brunel brand.

10 highly talented Made in Brunel students have been hand picked to take part in the MEX Conference 2010, a prestigious event in central London for 100 leading figures from the mobile communications industry. During the two days of the conference the students will work in creative breakout sessions with innovation facilitators and conference delegates to develop future mobile experience concepts. The students have been specially selected for their skills and experience in visualising concept ideas - bringing ideas to life.

Marek Pawlowski, MEX Conference Director had originally visited MADE IN BRUNEL in 2008 and was so impressed with the relevance of the work on display to the interests of the mobile industry that he wrote about a number of the projects on the Mobile Experience blog which has a membership of over 12,000 industry professionals. So when he was looking to enhance the success of the breakout sessions at the annual MEX Conference, Brunel University was his first choice for collaboration.

Speakers and delegates at the conference include representatives of organisations including Sony, Vodaphone, Sagem, Haymarket Publishing and many more. For the 10 students this is a great opportunity, not just to interact with leading figures from the industry, but also to raise the profile of MADE IN BRUNEL. One of the team is Ross Dudley, Head of Communications for MADE IN BRUNEL comments "this is another example of INNOVATION THAT WORKS, we are very pleased that Marek and his team at MEX have recognised we have ability to make a practical contribution at a very high level."

For more information about any aspect of the collaboration, MADE IN BRUNEL or MEX contact: stephen.green@brunel.ac.uk, ross.dudley@madeinbrunel.com, marekpawlowski@pmn.co.uk

Stephen Green and Designplus at Brunel facilitated the collaboration between MADE IN BRUNEL and MEX

Made in Brunel is back with the official Launch Show

The annual Made in Brunel brand launch show kicked off on December 1st 2009. With speeches from the Vice Chancellor and Principle Professor, Chris Jenks, Senior Product Engineer at Dyson, Stuart Genn, and Devraj Joshi and Joseph Snowdon, this years Made in Brunel Directors.

The all internal affair gave the team the chance to let the university campus, along with its staff and students, know that Made in Brunel is back with Innovation That Works. Judging by the success of the event, it promises to be something you should keep your eye on over the coming months.

The show began by giving the gathering attendees the chance to mingle and network amongst each other, whilst taking in samples of work from some of Made in Brunel's most successful graduates of past years. With the large gathering crowd enjoying the complementary wine and food, it was time for the formalities of the night to get under way.

A succession of speeches were kicked off by one of this years Directors, Joeseph Snowdon, with Vice Chancellor Chris Jenks addressing the crowd as to the importance of the emerging Made in Brunel brand, and the incredible work that the team puts in to carry the brand through to the June showcase.

One of the directors of Made in Brunel, Devraj Joshi then took to the stage with Emilia Mason, a Masters student of Branding and Strategy, to highlight the importance of this years theme Innovation That Works. Bringing attention to the idea of networking and teamwork showed how this year there is such a strong focus on how Brunel students can help each other with established industry links in coming years. Continuing on the success of Thinking Out Loud, last years brand values, was another point well made by the new Made in Brunel Director, and by encompassing this years values of working together, Devraj Joshi believes that the brand can be pushed to scale new heights by the time the show comes around in June. It was also highlighted that foundations must be built and networked into the future upcoming leaders of the Made in Brunel brand, so that there is a sufficient platform to spring forward from in coming years.

Dyson's Senior Product Engineer, Stuart Genn, was the events guest speaker with a speech fitting well with this years Innovation That Works slogan. Speaking about the design process and innovative thinking at Dyson, Stuart highlighted the importance of developing well-rounded designers with the ability to communicate to all disciplines and roles within the creative process. A fitting speech that complemented the very values that Made in Brunel students pride themselves on.

As Mr Snowdon rounded off the speeches by thanking all for attending, there was a sense of accomplishment filling the room. The Made in Brunel brand was back, and this year promises to be every much as good as, if not better than ever.

Please visit our Launch Microsite to see more from the night

This week Made in Brunel spread its networking wings for the first time this year at the West London Innovation Launch. Hosted at Porsche the evening provided us with an excellent opportunity to get to know other people and organisations with similar core values; promoting innovation, forging interdisciplinary bonds across industry sectors and exploring opportunities for companies and individuals.

The event was a chance for Made in Brunel to meet the people that have mastered the art of innovation, and the methods they use to exploit their considerable expertise. It was an excellent evening with keynote speeches from Chris Proctor of in2it education about Lego Serious Play as well as Leslie Maruziva from ANGLE about connecting designers with industry and raising venture capital.

The West London Innovation event had been the perfect place for this years Made in Brunel to begin its networking, and with more events planned for the coming months, the future looks to be in safe hands.