Bundaberg State High School is one of just six Queensland schools to be chosen to participate in a Design Workshop run by QUT Built Environment and Engineering faculty. The goDesign Workshop Program is a three-day supportive and interactive experience simulating a design studio environment.
Twenty senior students are given the opportunity to explore, analyse and reimagine their local town through a series of problem solving activities around the theme of ‘place’. This is aimed at facilitating an understanding of the relevance and value of design in everyday life.
Natalie Wright, QUT School of Design Lecturer and Program Director, has witnessed the success of this program in encouraging students to visualise positive opportunities using design as alternative way of exploring and understanding their world. “Young people in regional Queensland have great potential as designers because, living outside cities, they are forced to think innovatively and solve immediate problems as they emerge. This emulates a designer’s way of thinking”, Natalie said.
The program is run in conjunction with the Design Institute of Australia unleashed – queensland design on tour 2010 Exhibition which is on show at Hinkler Hall of Aviation from 3 September – 28th September 2010. The exhibition showcases the best work of professional Queensland product, interior and visual communication designers from the 2008 and 2009 DIA qdos Awards Program.Student work produced at the workshop will be displayed alongside the professional work. This is an excellent opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience designing graphics, products, interior spaces and architecture to assist their local community, with the support of QUT workshop facilitators and four visiting design professionals, including the Qld Government Smart State Design Fellow 2010,
Principal of Bundaberg State High School, Raelene Fysh, said she welcomed this innovative program to further enhance student design skills that will benefit the local community. “Partnering with QUT also gives students an understanding of post school options available to them” Ms Fysh said.
Students will work individually and in groups on real design problems, learning sketching, making, communication, presentation and collaboration skills to improve their design process. Social, cultural, aesthetic and environmental opportunities will be considered.
Ms Wright said that the program to date has been successful in promoting the value of design thinking in regional communities and providing valuable research data which might encourage the inclusion of design in the high school curricula across the state, in alignment with the Queensland Government’s Design Strategy 2020.
Skills learnt from the design process, such as problem solving, creative thinking, communication and teamwork, can help our future generation to meet the complex and challenging environmental, social and economic pressures we face globally. “It is important that we help our creative youth optimistically shape the way that they look at the world around them in order to positively affect their future endeavours.”
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