Students tackle a brand new creative challenge

University of Kent students combined artistic flair with business sense when they pitched ideas for a series of exciting new products to a panel of leading professionals from the creative industries.

The final-year students on the Creative Events: Design and Production degree programme, based at the Medway campus, made their presentations as part of one of their final-year modules, The Brand Experience.

Students chose from four design briefs - featuring fictional products including a new electric car, an energy drink, a range of sporting fashion wear and a children's charity - and had to impress the judges with their knowledge of how to conceptualise, design and manage a unique and memorable launch event for the brands.

The final audio-visual presentations included 3-D conceptual models, storyboards and event time-lines, as students explained how they would create a maximum impact for their product launch. They also designed brand logos, defined their target audiences and demonstrated how they would continue to develop the brand names.

Presentations took place before industry experts including Richard Cuthbertson, a leading brand consultant, and John Wright, design manager for brand communications and event consultancy M - Integrated Solutions. Gavin Carver, course director for the Creative Events degree, plus event designer and course tutor Paul Gambrill, were also on the panel.

Mr Gambrill, who organised The Brand Experience project, said students had impressed the judges by demonstrating a broad range of skills. 'This is an intensive module which tests skills in creativity, marketing, modelling and presenting, on a large scale and to strict deadlines, and I was thrilled to see our students rise to the challenge,' he said.

'They dedicated many hours to coming up with slick and professional concepts and marketing plans that would be at home in the real world of advertising, design and brand management.'

The Creative Events degree programme teaches students the design and business skills needed to produce a range of high-profile events such as carnivals, street festivals, processions, product launches, banquets and light shows.

Creative Events students also have use of their own dedicated art and design studio, called the Galvanising Shop, based at Chatham's Historic Dockyard, close to the main Medway campus.

Contact: mediaoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 10:48am 7 January 2009