There is a massive difference between working for a degree and working on a real design project, more so than I first imagined. Apart from a few securities, such as starting the project in the same studios and workshops I graduated from only a few weeks earlier, the Bus Tops project has felt far removed from the comfort of a student project. This is not to say a degree doesn’t prepare a student for the realities thereafter, in fact quite the opposite.

The most nerve-racking thing about graduating is not being sure how skills can be transferred and applied to whatever is thrown at you, thankfully it soon became plain to see that this fear was needless. The concept had already been outlined, it’s our (the designers) job to develop the idea of a public art display platform on a bus shelter roof into something not only that functions but also to develop the original concept, transform an idea into an object and create something the public wants engage with. This all began with a very familiar process… sketching.

Although sketching and producing ideas is absolutely vital to the design process, new skills and ways of working had to be learnt. This is something I feel not only is experienced by designers fresh from university but also throughout a designers career as new projects and challenges appear. Trying to think of my role within the design team is quite difficult, it has shifted (like everyone else’s) throughout the project. During the initial ideation and modeling period we carried a similar role generating, sketching and discussing varying ideas, but as time passed so have our roles. Like during a degree if problems occur that haven’t been experienced before then the solution must be learnt, there are no design teams specialising in modeling, manufacture, electronics etc. A designer is constantly learning and part of learning is attempting something new and allowing mistakes to happen, this is reassuring.

I found not only being accountable to a client but also the public (as this is a taxpayer funded project) far removed from the freedom of being held responsible to myself (as students so luxuriously are). This accountability is not only due to funding, it also exists because the public are the users. To create a project that doesn’t meet the expectations of the people using it (especially as the public didn’t directly ask for it) creates a lot of pressure; we can make sure the project isn’t frivolous, whimsical or pointless but we can’t make people like it. In comparison the only pressure on a degree is to make a project that you’re pleased with in the knowledge that you have worked to best of your abilities and taking something out of it.

One thing about graduating from a course such as Goldsmiths Design, you can produce projects throughout the degree and come out not knowing exactly what your skills are. This, I suppose, is one of the most nerve-racking things; not being able to know exactly what you can do, but this didn’t matter too much as the ability to ask questions and then propose various answers to these questions seemed far more important. To sketch ideas, test materials and research how this could be made possible was a good way of transferring our existing skills into this project. So, although the differences between degree and a project like Bus Tops are massive the essentials remain the same, design remains design.