Best UNI for Product Design

Jonathan Joanes, BSc Product Design student

What is it like studying Product Design at Middlesex?

"It has been really good so far. I have friends studying Product Design at other universities so I guess that is my only comparison, but the way our course is set up seems to put us in a really good position compared to where they are. I think this is to do with the structure of the course and the way we build our skills over the three years.

"The first year is about nurturing and developing the initial skills you have, so sketching, a little bit of CAD, graphic work, that kind of thing.

"Things really ramp up in second year, probably due to the amount of projects that are thrown at you. It's good because it helps you organise yourself really quickly, and you use the skills you developed in first year to be more independent when working on your projects.

"In the final year it is more about using those skills, being more independent and getting on with your final project."

You did a placement at redLoop after your second year. What was that like?

"Being on placement was brilliant and it really helps because it gives you a different approach to your final year. The people who have been on placements don't treat their final year projects like student projects, they treat them like professional projects which is a completely different angle that really pays off."

Is the course preparing you for a job when you graduate?

"One of the best things about the course is that we work on a lot of live briefs for real clients. These projects really help build up our portfolios, and at the end of the day this is probably one of the most valuable things we will have when we graduate – our portfolio and our skills.

"Being able to work on these live projects is a really good experience – working to real timescales, having proper deliverables, going to meetings and things like that. Then at the end of it we have an amazing portfolio and CV to help us launch our career."

What have you enjoyed about the course?

"We have something on the course called Guest Lectures, where every Tuesday a different expert is invited to come and give a one-hour lecture. A variety of people from across the industry come in, like Michael Margolis who wrote The Arduino Cookbook and we also had the chief designer from Aston Martin come in too.

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