The Making of a Designer: From Curiosity to Career

Every designer starts somewhere. For some it’s a teacher who spots their potential, a workshop, a studio visit, the first time they make something tangible. For others, that moment never comes. Even when it does, the route from that first spark to the next step is rarely clear.

On Friday 18 September, we opened our studio for an exhibition and event to explore that gap. It followed the work of 15 students, who each spent a week with us over six weeks, and two teachers on our Teachers in Residence programme, run with the D&T Association. All worked on a live brief to imagine how people might move through Manchester in the years ahead.

Full Press Release Avaliable to Download Here.

Discover, Develop, Launch

At the centre of the exhibition is our framework for creative education: three connected stages that follow the journey from curiosity to career.

Discover creates access, sparks curiosity and reveals possibility, through activities like National Saturday Club masterclasses, studio visits and Teachers in Residence.

Develop builds confidence and skills through doing, with live briefs, work experience and placement-year internships.

Launch opens pathways, supports progression and creates lasting connections, through mentoring, professional development and fair and inclusive recruitment.

Each stage is supported by partners including the Design Council, the Design & Technology Association, National Saturday Club, the Design Business Association, New Designers and GreenGrads.

But a framework only works if people can find their way into it.

Curiosity is there. The map isn’t.

That’s why the exhibition was designed to listen as well as show. An interactive board invited guests to add a card: a moment that shaped them, a skill they bring, or a way they support the next generation. The cards told a remarkably consistent story. Almost every one described a person: a sister, a parent, a tutor, a first National Saturday Club masterclass that drew a room of young people out of their shells. What they rarely mentioned was guidance. Few pointed to clear, official information from schools, exam boards or careers services about what creative education can lead to, or how to get there. For most, finding the way in came down to luck.

What comes next

Rather than launching another standalone programme, we want to help make the good work already happening across schools, universities, charities and studios easier to see. The exhibition is built to travel, so if you’d like to bring it to your school, university or studio, or if you have ideas for how we can work together, we’d love to hear from you.

“There is already so much good work happening in creative education, but it often exists separately. For a young person, knowing that a creative career is possible is one thing. Knowing how to get there is another. We want to help make those pathways visible, and keep learning from the people already doing this work.”

Kirsty Dias, Managing Director, PriestmanGoode

Download the Full Press Release Here