Design Camp 2014 for High School Students

School of design (SoD) UPH held Design Camp 2014 for high school students on 10 May 2014. This activity is a part of their annual event SoD UPH, which is Design Expo 2014 that is taking place at 16 June until 22 June 2014. This event is attended by 52 students from school in Jabodetabek and a few other cities. The participants are generally high school students which are interested on design major.

Every person has different background; therefore the factor of choosing the major itself would be different. In the process of choosing a major, they need a careful consideration, where the major is able to support their career in the future. That?s why it?s important to give detailed information about the major itself. In fact, the schools do not give complete information about it. From this situation, Design Camp 2014 was made to give information and also introduce a deep information about the majors in School of Design UPH to prevent the mistake of taking the wrong major and dropping out in the middle of their study.

Each major (Visual Design Communication, Product Design, Interior Design, and Architecture) were introduced well as the materials and also the learning systems. This point was spoken Elya Kurniawan Wibowo, S.Sn., M.A, Dean of School of Design UPH at the opening of the event. It was wrapped up by several activities, such as seminar, campus tour, and workshop, which is started on 8.00 until 16.00.

In the seminar, the participants can directly learn and listen from their alumni that had been working on the professional field of design. For example: Nikko Purnama, Typographer and Founder of ?The Daily Type?, an account in Instagram, which can give an interesting typography towards motivational quotes. He is one alumni of DKV (Visual Design Communication) UPH where he also opened the participants mind about DKV itself. He stated that DKV is not a subject about learning how to draw but, also to learn the process of solving problems through creative visualization.

As a product designer, Gladys Angelina she reminded the importance of finding experience outside their study to enhance their passion. She also has business named GA, a brand which produces home accessories from wood with the theme of ?Scandinavian?.

This seminar was continued by Ang Wugu, an Interior Designer with classic modern touch that now is working for two famous exhibition designs, which are Christian Dior and Swarovski at Jakarta. Design Product alumni UPH shared her struggles and happiness of taking interior design as her major She noticed the participants to find network as much as they can during their study because it will be needed when they are working in the future.

The last speaker is Yogi Ferdinand, an architect at Architecture Company of Andramatin and Reni Jaya. He is also one of the alumni from Architecture UPH. He admitted that the knowledge and experiences he gained from the campus gave him so much benefit. One of the benefits is the comparative student program, where he thought it is important because the students can directly learn from the real world and also to refresh their mind. He also shared that it is important for the students to have a good teamwork in the design world which it was trained during the study at campus.

These four speakers emphasized that design is not as simple as most people think, however it need a long process from research, analyzing, and creating concept, until it can be a valuable and meaningful artwork.

After the seminar finished, the participants were able to take their lunch break, and continued their event on campus tour. The participants are categorized based on their major they interested in, and to go around classes and rooms correspond to their majors. In the last session, there was workshop, which each participants were trying to make an artworks that will be publish on Design Expo 2014, and also to be chosen as the best one.

For Product Design workshop, the participants are given an individual project where they need to build a clock from recycle materials with a free theme. The participants are challenged on determining their own theme based on the background and the target market. Then, in the architecture workshop, in a group, the participants were needed to build a building from triplex module and arranged as tall as they could with the purpose of learning about structure in a building. The last workshop, which is DKV, the participants was guided by Craig Hansen and Andre Surya, as the founder of Animation Company named Enspire Studio. The participants were given tips and trick on making animation, then about creating a characters and story line with their creativity.

One of the participants from Design Camp 2014, Jermiah, high school student of Kemurnian II, admitted that he gained a lot of new information about design through this event. ?I think this is very interesting. I also get a lot of knowledge from the seniors that already experienced the struggles and the happiness of studying design. The workshop is also interesting, and now I?m sure that I will take Interior Design as my major in the future,? said Jeremiah. (ca/pris)