One of two winning designs in the first Design Ventura competition

In my experience one of the most valuable motivators when working with children and young people is that of the ‘real world’ brief. The idea that they’re not just designing something for the sake of designing something, but that they are designing to combat a real problem. More than that, that they are designing something that actually stands a chance of being made (and in this case, sold!). Add to that the draw of working with a big name like the Design Museum and bringing ‘real world’ designers into the classroom, and for me the Design Ventura project ticks all the right boxes. It was a pleasure being one of the core team responsible for developing and delivering the schools workshop plans in the inaugural year of a project inviting Design Technology students to design a new product for the Design Museum shop: an initiative that has only gone from strength to strength since.