News

The fourth annual Made in Brunel Show took place on the 9th and 10th of June at the Business Design Centre in London. Despite having to contend with the Tube strike the Show attracted a large number of visitors including business leaders, creative individuals and the press. The BBC featured a video of the Show on their website

Over 150 projects were on display at the Business Design Centre. Prizes were awarded to a number of projects including Alex Bygrave's 'Soltan Plus', Paul O'Hara's 'Hot Pursuit' and Tim Holley's 'Tio'. Each project displayed excellence in its key area of thinking, humanistic, four-dimensional and sustainable respectively.

Pecha Kucha, a series of talks held during the Show, featured speakers such as Rebecca Edge rom the Audi Foundation and Jeremy Lindley of Diageo. For those who missed the event, he presentations can be found in the Features section.

From the 3^rd to the 7^th of June a selection of ten Made in Brunel projects were on display at the DMY International Design Festival in Berlin. The DMY marked Made in Brunel's first exhibition outside of the UK.

The projects received a very warm welcome. Visitors commended the high quality of the work and the user-centred approach that many of the projects on display demonstrated.

The festival crowd was very diverse, ranging from design conscious individuals to high-profile industry leaders. This created an interesting mix of opinions, ideas and tastes.

Following the success of DMY Berlin in 2009 hopefully it will become an annual event on the Made in Brunel calendar.

Following months of hard work all project models are now finished and ready to have their 15 minutes of fame in front of the camera.

To capture each project's best side we enlisted the help of two professional photographers Patrick Quayle and Dave Branfield. Over 100 projects were photographed over a two-day period. These images will be featured in the Thinking Out Loud: Designing for a Positive Future book that will be released by Papadakis in June, 2009.

For more information about Patrick and Dave please go to www.patrickquayle.com and www.davebranfield.co.uk

A preview of this year's Made in Brunel book 'Thinking Out Loud: Designing for a Positive Future' was featured at The London Book Fair on the 20th - 22nd April at Earls Court, London. Papadakis Publishers introduced the new edition and promoted its innovative concept and unique market position during the show and in their catalogue.

The London Book Fair takes place every spring and is the global marketplace for the publishing world. London is seen as the publishing and cultural capital and a presence at The London Book Fair is significant for the promotion of the Made in Brunel book as the fair showcases the innovations shaping the publishing world of the future.

Well you might have noticed a few changes around here - that's right, we are proud to announce the official launch of the new Made in Brunel website for 2009.

This year is all about fun, functionality and usability so take a moment to look around at some of the new features. We're not stopping here, however. The coming weeks are set to see many additions, including the launch of the new Exhibitors module. We hope that this will finally showcase our students and their work at the level that they deserve.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire website team for their hard work in getting this done and the many individuals who have assisted along the way.

If you have any feedback that you would like to share with us about the new site, please feel free to contact us at webteam@madeinbrunel.com.

The inevitable has happened. Deadlines are upon us.

With less than a month until the submission of the final projects, the pressure is on. The workshops are packed, the electronics labs pulsating and the computer rooms over-clocking. Despite the pressure we will get there, but we might have a few more grey hairs for having done so.

When: Thursday, March 26th at 6.30pm
Where: DEC, Tower A, Brunel University

Jordan Chitty

Creative Director, Naked Creativity (left top)

Jordan started Naked Creativity after graduating from Brunel University. His interest in design stems from an early age, and perhaps a slight obsession with Lego.

He was a finalist in the Audi Young Designer of the Year competition in 2003, before starting his Industrial Design degree at Brunel. He was a major driving force in producing the University's end of year design show in 2007 - MADE IN BRUNEL. As a graduate, he recognises the importance of links between education and industry and supports current Brunel Design students with placement opportunities.

Jordan's interest include cycling, snowboarding, as well as all things shiny (but mostly those produced by Apple).

Naked Creativity has a no-nonsense approach to branding, graphic design and website development.

Bhav Chohan

User Experience Architect, LBi (left bottom)

Having graduated in 2003 with a BSc (Hons) in Product Design from Brunel University, Bhav was quick to hone his skills and passion for design-led innovation and strategy.

His desire to explore the applications of design in business drove Bhav to apply his skills as a design catalyst at Tubelines and 8works in roles fusing communications, change management and collaborative problem solving.

He continued to develop his experience working as a design professional for British Airways, Pentland Group, Coventry Design Institute and LDA. Returning to Brunel in 2006, Bhav completed his MA with distinction in Design, Branding and Innovation Strategy. He focused his research on innovation as a catalyst in organisations through designer mindsets, deconstructing the now popular subject of "Design Thinking". In 2008, he presented a paper on this subject at the DMI Education Conference in Paris, France.

Now, as a User Experience Architect at LBi's London office, Bhav advocates User Centred Design methods in the creation of multichannel brand experiences, innovation cultures and service designs. He works with global clients as diverse as Lloyds TSB, Universal Music, Waterstone's and HMV.

This year Made in Brunel will be travelling to Berlin to display a selection of our projects to an international audience. We will be featuring in the DMY Youngsters, a platform for up-and-coming designers to showcase their freshest and most innovative work.

We are excited to be able to share our thoughts and projects with a new audience and get a taste of the work of our international counterparts.

If you are in Berlin, come to see us!

DMY International Design Festival
3rd - 7th June 2009
Arena, Berlin

Every year the competition to be featured at Made in Brunel becomes more fierce. This year is no exception!

We have already received over 150 projects covering a wide range of issues and disciplines with more entries rolling in all the time. With a limited amount of space at the Business Design Centre, the competition is hotting up!

Be sure to come to the Made in Brunel exhibition on the 9th and 10th of June to see the best of this year's work.

Made in Brunel is delighted to welcome Autodesk as a new sponsor for the 2009 show.

Autodesk is a Fortune 1000 company with its headquarters in San Rafael, California and is a world leader in 2D and 3D design software. Since the introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982 they have developed a wide portfolio of state-of-the-art digital prototyping solutions to help customers visualise, simulate and analyse the real-world performance of their ideas early in the design process.

The theme for 2009 of "Thinking Out Loud" links well to Autodesk's own vision of "Experience Your Design Before it is Real." Autodesk is committed to supporting students and educators by providing access to powerful 2D and 3D design software, along with innovative programs and resources - helping the next generation of professionals to develop critical skills for career success.

About Autodesk Education

Autodesk supports schools and universities worldwide through substantial discounts, subscriptions, grant programs, training, curricula development and community resources. This support includes the Student Engineering and Design Community, an award-winning website which offers resources such as free access to Autodesk design software, e-learning tools, innovative curriculum, job postings and much more.

For more information about Autodesk education programs and solutions, visit www.autodesk.co.uk/education.

For more information about the Autodesk Student Engineering and Design Community, visit www.autodesk.co.uk/edcommunity.

Read more about Autodesk's Sponsorship of Made in Brunel

We are proud to announce the theme for this year's Made in Brunel show, Thinking Out Loud.

Thinking Out Loud showcases ideas, innovation and fun but ultimately represents our journey into the industries of design, engineering and multimedia.

At the launch evening our guest speaker Warren Hutchinson, former Experience Director at LBi, shared some of his memories of his time at Brunel and what "thinking out loud" means to him. Other speakers included Chris Jinks, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Brunel University and the directors of Made in Brunel 2009, Nital Patel and Tim Holley.

In all the evening was a great success. A big thank you to the team who made this event possible.

To find out more about how we are developing our ideas about Thinking Out Loud, please stop by our About Us page.