Industrial Design Graduates Reflect on LuminoCity 2013

The 2013 LuminoCity graduate exhibition has now come to an end and although it’s over, many great memories were made here in the galleries of the Built Environment.

The launch featured an announcement of the faculty’s new schools and a thought provoking panel discussion about the future of Sydney as a rapidly growing city. The fortnight after featured an array of attractions, from marvellous harbour and city architecture tours, to the stunning light show, the dynamic program featured entertainment, sparking inspiration in the industry and faculty communities.

Most importantly, the rolling graduate exhibition offered the faculty community two weeks of great insight into architecture, planning and industrial design, inviting us, and inspiring us to explore the world of the built environment.

LuminoCity was a time for students to reflect on their time at UNSW, the experience they gained, the relationships and industry ties they established, and how their all of this has transformed them into experienced and career-ready graduates, about to embark on a new and exciting adventure beyond undergraduate nd postgraduate study.

Three industrial Design graduates Rebecca Womersley, Anastasie Panagopolous and Dale Wakeham had work featured in the final year LuminoCity graduation exhibition and spoke to us about the experience.

“This major project gave us a chance to go wild and do whatever we want. You’re really not going to have the chance to do that in the real world so it gave us an opportunity to demonstrate our skills and potential,” said Dale.

 “It’s a long process to get these models done, whether it needs to be 3D printed or laser cut, you have to organise your time well."

Dane, Rebecca and Anastasie worked closely with one another on each of their projects, utilizing one another’s skills and expertise. Dane says it was ultimately a team effort, bouncing of each other for ideas, inspiration and problem solving.

 “We all have our own things we’re better at, so we help each other out. The three of us basically worked on each other’s projects,” he said.

Rebecca says having the opportunity to take on a project that is totally your own idea, was a great opportunity to work as a team and support, and encourage one another to produce great work.

“Over the last six months, there are so many other people that get involved with your project, that help out, it’s their input that really push it to the next step and push it further,” she said.

“Because we’ve chosen the project, we want to invest more into it, it comes back to us, there’s no design proposal, we’ve set up what we want to achieve from it, so we personally want to push that further and further to show our limits.”

All three of the graduates believe that the opportunity to design their own product in their final year leads to high quality products.

“If you have a passion for you topic area, you thrive to work harder. If we didn’t enjoy the areas it would have made this year a lot harder. The opportunity to research our own topics and focus on something we love, is really strong”, said Dane.

Beyond showcasing the finished products, LuminoCity is a reflection of what the students have achieved throughout their years of study, the skills they have acquired and mastered.

Anastasie says the projects coming out of UNSW are much more refined than other universities.

“The products that the students produce are final products. They have the chance to think about it right to the end until they see it on the shelf. They have a chance to see it through,” he said.

Rebecca says the broad range of experts marking and assessing work is what leads to high quality student work. In a way, the students develop a working model for a CV during their time at UNSW, establishing products based on briefs throughout their degree means they end up with a good range of products in their portfolio and already established industry connections once their graduate.

“UNSW has offered a lot of hands on experience and a lot more resources. We also have many different people with different expertise looking at our projects and assisting us to make it the best it possibly can be,” she said.

Congratulations to all the UNSW Built Environment graduates on a magnificent display of quality work and dedication not just during LuminoCity 2013, but their entire undergraduate and postgraduate study. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours.