From 25-27 March 2025, the School of Design hosted its third annual Summer Lab, aimed at supporting our second-year students to develop their personal design portfolios and identities as designers.
We began the first day with a great talk by one of our alumni, Charlie Sturgess, who spoke with the students about his graphic design journey with Danbro after graduating with us on the BA Design course. The students were then tasked with selecting design work they had done, which we printed out in preparation for an afternoon session of portfolio making with Roger Whitham.
On the second day of the Summer Lab, we introduced the students to another alumnus, Lizzie Huckett, who is on a graduate scheme for Capgemini. It was great to hear about her interview process as well as the different types of projects she is doing. We then had an enlightening session about CVs and cover letters from Lauren Jackson in Careers, followed by more time for students to work on their portfolios and consider their design identities.
The third day saw us introducing students to the modules they will be taking in the final year as well as telling them about the annual LICA Festival. Students were given the rest of the day to further develop their portfolios with feedback from teaching staff and each other.
Overall, it was a great experience to be able to work with our students and see them developing their identities as designers as well as their personal portfolios.
Christopher Boyko
Adrian Gradinar
Naomi Jacobs
David Pérez
Lisa Thomas
Roger Whitham