Creativity Works: Digital Product Design Graduation 2020
Back in September, we partnered with Create Jobs and Mayor Of London to deliver a 6-week training programme giving young people between 18–24 years of age in London Boroughs the tools to learn the soft and hard skills needed to break into the digital design industry.
The course provided practical work experience for aspiring Digital Product Designers. Workshops were delivered online by industry experts from Sparck, Google, Reebok, Hero, and Publicis Sapient and covered topics such as user research, prototyping, project management, and more.
We welcomed 25 amazing young creatives, split into 5 teams supported by mentors. We also loved seeing our cohort update their bios and Linkedin’s ⤵️
A big shoutout goes to Ben Buckley and James Stump from This Place, Susan Zhuang and Iona Seligman from Koru Kids, and Lisa Ellwood from Princes Trust who spent six weeks mentoring a team each. Each mentor dedicated up to a hour a week with our teams offering advice, an extra pair of eyes, and support.
As of the 10th of December 2020, the Creativity Works Digital Product Design programme has been completed!
However, we just had to host a virtual showcase event for the cohort to celebrate their progress and to show their final digital product 🎉
The focus of the brief, set by Reebok, was around defining their legacy, what it means, and what it means to others. We had some of the most amazing interpretations and we’re so proud of what each group produced.
The showcase was also an opportunity for our aspiring product designers to publicly present and receive feedback. See some snippets of their final products for yourself:
Team A (aka Allstar Assassins) wrote their legacy in the form of an app called BeSpeak, where unspoken thoughts make an impact.
Team B connected legacy to sustainability and what it meant to them:
Team C, aka Team Carpe Diem created the Floriss app and took us all on a journey through legacy.
Team D tackled the brief with their app Footprints! An exciting app that allows you to connect with others, find inspiration, track your mood, and build your legacy.
Last but certainly not least, Team E, or Team Elite to those who don’t know, shared their e-learning platform, C-Skills.
We were so so proud of every single team and what they were able to learn and achieve over the six weeks. They not only worked together as a team but went above and beyond.
We already have some amazing testimonials from our alumni and we’re looking forward to the journey ahead.
Throughout the duration of this course I got to practice existing skills such as time management, creating a visual identity- branding etc. I also learned plenty of new ones such as working collaboratively whilst remote, using the software Figma, conducting user research and receiving feedback. Having Tyra and Liz for support has been extremely helpful and knowing we have access to to the whole YSYS community via Slack was also very useful. Personally, the best part of the course were the workshops given to us by professionals with years of practice in the creative industry. Receiving advice from them has allowed my confidence to flourish and also gave me a real world insight into what my future career could look like. I am grateful for all the experiences this program has given me and it has inspired me to continue working hard to soon gain other opportunities in the creative industry.
Cecily Castro, Team A (Allstar Assassins)
Post-programme we’ll be supporting the cohort with further work opportunities, mentoring, weekly stand-ups, and more. Please feel free to get in touch with tyra@thisisysys.com if you want to learn more about what we do and how you can get involved or support our cohorts.
Thank you to all our Partners who made Creativity Works: Digital Product Design 2020 possible. We received such amazing feedback:
Was really amazing to see their awesome work, and very moving. — Sindhuja Shyam, Publicis Sapient
.. and now we would like to officially CONGRATULATE the Creativity Works: Digital Product Design 2020 cohort, we are so very proud of you all 👏🎓
We are actively seeking opportunities for our alumi from digital product design internships to permanent roles.
