WDD: Jack & the EXP Makerspace

Scout alum Jack discusses his role as the Lead Designer at EXPmaker, the new makerspace and creative innovation center being built in the EXP building.

By Elizabeth Cui ft. Jack Vogelsang

Hi everyone!

I’m Jack, a Northeastern alum who graduated last fall. While at Northeastern, I spent seven (yes, seven!!) semesters in Scout, where I worked on a wide range of different teams and saw the organization evolve over the years.

Scout has been such an important part of my college experience — it’s allowed me to develop professionally and become a design leader with both student teams and industry professionals. I grew so much in my experiences as a project lead for the Interventions: Amplify conference last spring, through being a PL on a studio team, and in designing collateral for our marketing and events team!

Everyone says that they end up learning more from Scout than from their classes — and honestly, it’s true. I’ve been so fortunate to have benefitted from Scout’s student-led structure. Scout paired with Northeastern’s co-op program is the secret ingredient to improving as a designer, and it even led me to my current role as a designer at EXP.

Speaking of …

Northeastern’s New Building: EXP

Currently, I’m the Lead Designer at EXPmaker, the new 16,000+ square foot Makerspace and creative innovation center being built in the Boston campus’s EXP building. I’m working alongside a small team of incredibly talented people with big ideas for this space and its potential to inspire innovation amongst students in all nine Northeastern colleges. Our team is full of dreamers, constantly feeding off each other to envision a better space for future generations of students.

I’m responsible for leading the visual identity of the space — which includes some collaboration with the building’s architects and interior designers — but more so with the Northeastern External Affairs team, which leads the marketing for the university and its new initiatives.

Our main priority is to market the space in an exciting and innovative way, with a focus on engaging students through a youthful, bold, and creative brand. As an entirely new offering from the University, I’m a strong advocate for the identity to be as innovative as the building is: We want to think outside the box and use the established Northeastern brand as a springboard to make something new.

“Our goal is to create an environment where students from a diverse range of disciplines and backgrounds can form spontaneous connections and meet new people — simply by being in the space.”

A student-led vision

When researching how to achieve this, we’ve run focus groups and gathered solid data amongst current students, prioritizing having our vision align with their desires. It’s been really fun brainstorming ways to make this space engaging for all 9 colleges. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:

• Branding the EXP Makerspace to reflect the blend of youthfulness and sophistication of Northeastern students
• Positioning the space as a creative community center where various student backgrounds can hold events and showcases
• Making it inclusive to students of all years and academic disciplines

Additionally, I’ve been working with Scout to form a partnership with the Makerspace as a new resource for the organization. This relationship would unlock limitless potential by allowing Scout to take on new types of projects — like spatial design! Something like designing a pop-up exhibit would allow Scout to reach a new level of creative expansion while bringing makers and creatives together.

Scout’s Role in the Makerspace’s Future

We want to bring Scout in early, as it’s such a passionate organization full of creatives down to its core. We’re still ironing out the details, but we would love to:

• Have Scout or a Scout team be the continuing creative directors of the space and work with the full-time staff
• Host events, workshops, and speaker series with Scout, with an emphasis on student-led activities
• Maintain a strong design team to ensure our branding is fleshed out and marketed to the greater university — I’m thinking posters, wall art, and collateral!
• Curate an ongoing student showcase to display the work that is being made both within and outside of Scout

How You Can Get Involved

Want to become a part of our team?

We just hired our first cohort of students who will be working at the Makerspace once it opens (Fall 2023!). Keep an eye out for applications opening again next semester! EXPmaker will definitely be hiring in the future and looking to bring in students from the entire university — from all 9 colleges. Volunteers are also always welcome, and you don’t even have to be an employee/volunteer to get involved! You can drop in on events or just hang out.

Join our mailing list here to stay informed on all EXPmaker updates.

It’s been great to see this first generation of the Makerspace get started. Everyone has so much to bring to the table, from coding websites to woodworking to entrepreneurship. And just like Scout, it’s so cool that the students are the ones driving the vision of the space and shaping its future.

I cannot help but feel grateful for the opportunity to work on this project at Northeastern, especially because nothing exists like it on campus. It’s been an incredibly fulfilling experience that has allowed me to give back to Scout and propel them into a new era of creativity. I’m excited to see what the future holds for this organization and the impact it will continue to make for the students and university!

💫 That’s all for now! Thanks for reading!💫