Graduate Designers – 4th Level Show

As you might know, we recently ran an in-store exhibition featuring graduate work from NCAD, DIT and Maynooth. We called it our ‘4th Level Show’. It was pretty impressive.
The idea was simple; we had seen some amazing design projects at the final year shows and we wanted to show some of the work in the store, taking it out of an academic context and getting some real feedback from the buying public. In fairness, the response was incredible. The projects were varied, intelligent and ambitious.
We set up over 10 displays in the store, showing models and information about the projects, and ran with it for a week. The graduates themselves were all really helpful in setting up the show (thanks!) and should be really proud of their work.

As a tip of the hat to all involved, and in case you missed the show, we decided to detail the projects and individual designers here. It’ll make for good reading and give you a good insight into what design talent is being rolled out of our 3rd level institutions this year.

Now, on to the designers themselves….
We are going to introduce them one by one, tell you about their projects and give you a tiny insight into their personalities by revealing the answers they gave to some silly, and not so silly, questions.
Enjoy!

Designer Profile – Laoise Scully

Laoise has a 1st class honors degree in Product Design from DIT.
Her final project was based around learning aids for people with learning difficulties and autistic children.
Laoise’s Mum works in this field, so she was no doubt inspired by her Mammy’s good work.
She came up with the concept of a clock, that not only displays the time in a really clear manner, but also indicates what activity the person should be undertaking at that time. It’s called ‘Activity Clock’.
The activities are displayed, as images, on removable magnets, making the clock really versatile and adaptable to any persons needs. For example, at 4pm (home-time) there is a picture of the child’s own house, ensuring they understand the concept of returning to their house at that time. Visually, the clock looks fun and full of life. It’s practical and really well thought out.
Laoise won the DIT best prototype award for her clock this year. Good work!

designist asked Laoise Scully a few questions and this is how she responded.

d: Who is your design hero?
LS: Da Vinci and his many inventions

d: What’s the thing you’ll miss most about being in college?
LS: Guilt free chicken fillet rolls

d: Which product do you wish you had designed?
LS: Scissors

d: What one thing can you not leave the house without?
LS: Clothes!

d: Cats or Dogs?
LS: Dogs, puppiessss