Studying Product Design at Middlesex University.
Why study at Middlesex?
So you hit up this page.. properly from Product Design Forums, OR Google is my SEO has worked ok. I am a student at Middlesex and I would like to break it down to these Good, Ok and Poor Aspects of Studying at Middlesex.
- The Good
- The best prototyping and manufacturing faculties in London. (according to some study, see www.mdx.ac.uk for more)
- Great Links with Industry
- 'Live' Projects with real people, and the chance for the stuff to really be made
- A Good mix of Lectures, the BA program leader Andy Bardill is a great guy. (if you work hard)
- Its in London (just, 30 min tube to Convent Garden) yet the Product Design Dept. is in the middle of a country park.
- Classes of 30-40 in 1st year, 10-15 2nd, and 8-12 in Last Year. Its pretty personal
- Take the Year Placement, I'm have finished my placement in Seattle working for www.resoluteusa.com. I have a full write up of my Middlesex placement on my blog.
- All work is on a Crit basis you get very use to talking and presenting you ideas.
- The Bad
- Its seems to attack people who think Product Design is a 'doss' Degree
- Some lectures are a little 'slow' and behind the times.
- You will not learn anything if you don't spend a lot of your own time working on it. e.g. I have never had a web design or graphic design course in my life!
- You will not learn how to draw like people form UMEA of Arizona University. Get this book, and learn.
- The university is split up over 4 campuses, so there is no central union or student body. Its nothing like the partying at a University town like Canterbury or Swansea. Yet there is the 'Forum' a legendary school disco, which has over 100 dance students... and not many straight men.
- You will need to do a lot your self.. I see this as a good thing, there are very few hours of lectures, and you are expected to read and work on your own stuff.
Design Studio
Bellow is a picture of our design studio, there are classes in here and its also free for students to work on there own stuff. I wish I worked here more. Most of the Crit work is done here. Where you will be expected to post the work that you have done in the week then other students will comment on it. A fun experience and its really means that you can't get away with doing nothing.
Its all about chilling out at Middlesex University. this is a new addition in 2006, its a chilling area, sometimes we have chill our sessions here, chat, chill, recover, all the great stuff. Its just a shame there isn't more room.
CAD Studio
I think that this picture is now out of date, these machines were new when I came to the Uni, (2004) so I'm sure they have all been upgraded with some good Quad Core Goodness. At Middlesex we use AutoCAD, Solidworks and Alias Studio tools.
Workshops
The woodworking shop, you can more of less make anything in the workshops. Plus the staff are very useful, with over 100 years of technical experience between them they know and have seen everything. Just make sure you get on the right side of them and don't push them to do all you work... (they will do it anyway!)
This is our latest addition, a CNC router. ITs pretty dam amazing and you only need to pay for the material you use. This was use for the Unto this Last Project for www.untothislast.co.uk
Computer Aided Manufacture
At Middlesex we have one of the largest heavy machinery grants in North London. We have some very high tech bits of Kit including 2 laser cutters, 2 3D printers, 1 CNC router, 1 CNC Lathe and 2 CNC Milling Machines.
Laser printers are a Stable of our design process, one of the machines I miss at my current Internship.
CNC Lathe and 3D printers, and (David Knight). The Z-Corp printer is a amazing tool... http://www.zcorp.com/
Real World Experience
No Blue sky for us.. we get chucked in the deep end. With a client lead project each semester. The university has a young fresh design firm feel to it. We start professional presentations in our first year, and in your 2nd year we are presenting in front of a CEO and managers of million pound company.
Above is our Univeristy Lectures Wyn Griffiths, presenting the work of a student.. As you can see the hand behind is a classic taught of someone getting nervious. Well the stress gets to us all! (I go red)
The 3rd year placement, For my 3rd year placement I got the chance to go to Seattle to work for Resolute I have had rockery and amazing eye opening experience. Its not been 100% easy, and I was surprised how much I have learnt, I would say that getting a placement is needed for any student. Its a great experience, especially when you get to spend it in the Pacific Northwest.
The Crew
Maybe I was just damm lucky, but I have had an amazing pier group, and I believe this is what really makes my design worth soo much. We have all bounced from each other and have learned some key skills for the different people and believe in a open sharing of skills and growing as a group. Unlike some university such as Central St. Martins which is all about the Individual (very 1980s') we are Product Design 2.0!
If you come to Middlesex, come and say hi! I will even buy you a beer. Good luck and I hope this page has been useful to educate you about a university that isn't' Brunel or Loughborough.