Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Wilson School of Design Roundup; a compilation of updates, news and stories from across our design community. Have a story to share? Send us all the juicy details on our What’s The Scoop page. Subscribe to the Design Loop and you’ll always be in the know. Happy reading!
In This Issue
As Seen On Campus
Technical Apparel Students In The Wild
Alumni Kudos
Hannah Bernardez
Melissa Chen
Arfa Akhtar
Charlene Aquino
Geoff Ravenor
Sydney Tse
Gavin Grace
Upcoming Events & Happenings
Indigenous Design Student Experience
Design Research Info Session
KPU Open House
Faculty Perspectives
Sue Fairburn
Victor Martinez
As Seen On Campus
Technical Apparel Students “In The Wild”
There could be no better way to describe a “polytechnic” education than the semester start-up for the Technical Apparel Design program. Students and faculty “headed for the hills” for an immersive outdoor experience at Golden Ears Provincial Park. This annual event is a great opportunity for the new students to meet each other, as well as connect with existing students, to meet and bond whilst doing what they love…enjoying the outdoor life!
An annual tradition, both 1st and 2nd year students camped overnight in Golden Ears Provincial Park to begin the semester with their first outdoor design challenge. In teams, students were required to design and build a sleeping enclosure with provided materials to camp in overnight.
A fantastic design challenge, in a beautiful setting. Fortunately, the weather was perfect and a good omen for the year ahead!
View more photos of their trip here.
Fashion Marketing Kicks Off
In the first few weeks of the new academic year, Fashion Marketing students were immersed all-in and did a deep dive into personal journeys, while building their new community using visual biographies and other hands-on forms of expression. They explored e-Portfolios, tools such as Pebble Pad and other digital platforms to prepare for the semester ahead. Whether using chalk outside or group walks through the Garden City lands, students have embraced the new semester with positivity and focus.
Product Design Plans Great Escapes!
We recently had an exciting afternoon with our 3rd year Product Design students presenting their group projects, “Escape Pod”. Their design brief included creating a series of prototypes to envision an accessible pod-like space on campus for our students to study, destress and unplug. We’re very grateful to our industry partner, Wood Works BC for their support. Keep an eye around campus as the students move to scale up their prototypes.
Graphic Design for Marketing Hosts Branding Workshop
David Young, former faculty member of the Graphic Design for Marketing program, helped kick off the new academic year with an open workshop, attended by students across all our programs.
The focus of the workshop was branding, how branding helps to define an organization and how much influence the community can have on shaping the direction of a company.
David provided lots of engaging examples and sage words of advice on how students can approach their own design challenges.
Alumni Kudos
We get pretty giddy over here when we learn of our grads being recognized and forging new paths in their careers. Plus, we love LinkedIn, because it keeps us up to date with our alumni! See below for updates on new positions recently acquired by our go-getting-grads! Join us in a collective congratulations. And if you’re a WSD student, grad or faculty and have a LinkedIn account, be sure to choose Wilson School of Design as your place of work or study from your profile options.
Hannah Bernardez
2022 Interior Design Grad
New position as Interior Designer at Zeidler Architecture
Melissa Chen
2020 Fashion & Technology Grad
New position as Production Coordinator at C&O Apparel Inc.
Arfa Akhtar
2017 Interior Design Grad
New position as New Business Development at Heritage Office Furnishings
Charlene Aquino
2020 Fashion & Technology Grad
New position as Assistant Product Designer at Herschel Supply Company
Geoff Ravenor
2016 Graphic Design for Marketing Grad
Promotion to new position as Creative Director at Major Tom
Sydney Tse
2021 Fashion & Technology Grad
Promotion to Associate Technical Designer, Swimwear/ Intimates at Aritzia
Upcoming Events & Happenings
WSD Dialogue Series – Indigenous Student Experience
Wednesday September 28, 12pm-1pm
Grand Staircase, WSD Building
Calling all Wilson Design students! Join us on the Grand Staircase, bring your lunch, wear your Orange Shirt, and hear from some wonderful guests.
You’ll meet Lekeyten, our Elder in Residence, who will kick off our session with a welcome. Then, meet Jade, a graduate of the Interior Design program and Jennifer, a graduate of the Fashion & Technology program. Both grads will share some unique perspectives on their student journeys.. You’ll also find out more about the KPU Gathering Place and a range or resources available to students. Lastly, you could win some great prizes!
WSD Research – Student Opportunities
Drop In Info Session
Thursday September 29, Room 910
WSD Students Only: Join Stephanie Phillips, our newly appointed Sherman Jen Research Chair, and faculty-extraordinaire for an overview of research opportunities available, as well as funding sources for Design students.
Bring your lunch, and your questions.
KPU Open House
Saturday October 1st, 12pm to 2pm
Come visit us and design your own button!
At Kwantlen Polytechnic University, we’re home to many programs and courses you can’t find at other institutions. Like our 7 design programs.
Join us in person at the KPU Surrey campus or watch a live stream of the event from the comfort of your own home. Visit our Design Zone and make your own statement designing a custom button.
Whichever way you choose to attend, you’ll get to know the many programs at KPU, meet faculty, students, and staff, participate in hands-on demos, engaging stories, and tips for getting the most out of your time as a student at KPU.
Representatives from the Future Students’ Office and KPU International will be on hand to answer all your questions and to help with your application, and registered guests will be entered to win incredible prizes, including free tuition!
Virtual Career Panel: Oct 20
In-Person Design Career Expo: Oct 28
Faculty Perspectives
Global Presentations – Sue Fairburn
Our faculty are experts at staying up to date in their areas of expertise, and staying connected to their industry. Sue Fairburn, one of our researchers and Product Design faculty took no time diving in to the semester!
“First week of term is always exciting and this year, while teaching capstone research courses asynchronously, I was in London, England to attend the 24th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education Conference. This year’s theme was Disrupt, Innovate, Regenerate and Transform. I had the opportunity to contribute two co-authored papers, and present both (within the dreaded Friday afternoon session) on Innovation and Creativity in Design and Engineering Education. There was a nice crowd who engaged well in the session. Overall it was a fantastic conference with a welcoming group of amazing design educators, good food, beer and a central south London location to explore from.” Sue Fairburn
Upcycling – A Definition by Victor Martinez, PhD
Victor is an industrial designer with 20 years of experience in the transportation sector, and one of our esteemed faculty, teaching in our Product Design program. In 2009 he cofounded Ecopilia, a spin-off company from his research on biodegradable materials. He has 10 years of experience teaching industrial design, and as a researcher in the fields of biodegradable materials, alternative urban mobility and systems thinking for design. Read Victor’s views on the term “Upcycling”, below.
Upcycling? No, that is not upcycling! I am sorry if this sounds like a rant but please bear with me, it is truly important! It does not really matter who came up with the term first, I first read about it in the work of the architect William McDonough. He was very purposefully trying to make a difference between the materials that regardless of their capacity to be recycled, will eventually end up as waste, from the ones that can be recycled again and again.
What does it mean ” their capacity to be recycled”? It means transforming the material back into its raw form just before manufacturing and through manufacturing processes creating a completely new product. The classic example are plastics… most of them can be melted again and produce new stuff. Or metals, they can be melted again into new products, that is recycling.
Upcycling is very important, because regardless of the material’s recycling capacity, if the material loses even if juts a small percentage of its mechanical or chemical properties every time is recycled (manufacturing processed), once recycled enough times it will simply be rendered useless. This is the case with most plastics! It is classic practice to mix recycled and virgin material precisely to avoid compromising the end product’s mechanical properties, it is actually rare a 100% recycled material products made with plastics or even metals for some applications.
With metals is not the same, a bad thing to do is to mix different alloys, it becomes hard to know the mechanical and chemical properties of a metal whose composition you don’t know due to mixing during recycling, but… still this process can be done “ad infinitum” theoretically.
The materials that lose properties during recycling are call down-cycling, and the ones that do not up-cycling. What almost all people nowadays are calling upcycling is actually repurposing or refurbishing… I know, too many Rs.
Why is it important to get the term right? Because we lose track of what truly matters, if we think in long-term, really long-term, hundreds if not thousands of years into the future, we should avoid using down-cycling materials altogether. Unless we somehow make them upcyclable, yes, that means plastics, and mixed material fabrics, and tons of other materials we do not even think about! It sounds impossible? Yes, it kind of does, but that is why is so important, it will take time and lots of effort and ingenuity to get it right, to become a truly regenerative society in tune to the natural rhythms of the ecosystems.
We need to start decades ago… getting the term right is the starting point.
