Students create collaborative 'Future Trends' Report

First and second year Interior Design students and first year Photography students have completed an exciting inter-disciplinary project, collaborating with peers overseas at KASK Arts University in Belgium to create a sustainability focussed ‘Future Trends’ report.

Working on a brief from Hannah Malein, the Creative Director of agency Colour Hive who specialise in trend, colour and material forecasting, the students were tasked with creating a forecasting report on the future of sustainable design. The best articles have the chance to be featured in industry publication, MixMagazine.

Collaborating with first year photography students allowed Falmouth’s interior designers to be ambitious with their approach. Equipment and processes that would normally be out of reach became accessible and available to be incorporated into the projects.

Debating their ideas with peers from Belgium revealed interesting variations in approach. As Interior Design student, Ashley Powell explains, “the Belgian students were more mature; they’d done more varied work on their courses, whereas ours is more specialist. There was a language barrier, but our shared interest in the work allowed us to push through it. Having connections overseas when we graduate will be really valuable.”

The project was also a learning curve for Interior Design course lead Fay Freeman. “European teaching is very open – for us as academics we can see new approaches and how other universities deal with live briefs. For our students to be able to talk and brainstorm with students from different disciplines puts such a myriad of ideas into the melting pot. It leads to a far more creative outcome.”

For our students to be able to talk and brainstorm with students from different disciplines puts such a myriad of ideas into the melting pot. It leads to a far more creative outcome.

The completed project, which students recently gathered to unveil, speaks to the benefits of collaboration and Falmouth’s industry connections. And the project doesn’t end there. As lecturer Stuart Watt explains “this is just the first chapter of the story. Our colleagues in Belgium will add a second instalment of articles in the coming months, and there’s even talk of incorporating third year graphic design students into the project to add further gloss to the publication.”

With so much exciting work already completed, and plenty more in the offing, the future trends report on sustainable design is certainly one to watch as we head into 2021.

Read the Future Trends magazine