We’ve just delivered what was hopefully an interesting lecture at Bradford College. The major topics covered included collaboration, tools of the trade and embracing failure.
Throughout our design education we’ve been left bewildered by many a guest lecturers speech, in most cases this is because the person talking was completely out of touch with the audience. An hour of hearing about the unbridled success of an individual can be inspiring, if delivered with a good dose of humour. But on most occasions we’ve been unable to fill in the gaps between the good times and the more good times. So Grant Midwinter took the opportunity to reverse years of pent up heckling and took the stage to talk about the not so good times.
Failure is always more interesting than success (this is how newspapers survive!) so the lecture allowed Grant Midwinter to dig out those college projects that didn’t quite make it into a portfolio, highlight the wrong turns in our decision making and warn tomorrows creative workforce about the perils of recruitment consultants. As designers, should we be more open about the projects that helped define us for better or worse?
Well the art world is not so shy and if you’re wondering where do all those unloved projects go? One of our favourite artist Michael Landy’s ‘art bin’ installation at the South London Gallery is the place to see those polished turds shine.
There may well be a need for a digital art bin and it would be an interesting experiment to see if designers would be brave enough to put their name next to their failures. Would you?
Lecture
Tags: collaboration, Pitch, technology