THE DESIGN KIDS TUESDAY | Class O' The Month

CLASS O’ THE MONTH w/ Z Kobs | Z KOBS’ MONTHLY REVIEW OF ONE CLASS OR WORKSHOP HELD IN OR AROUND THIS SWEET CITY | THIS MONTH: THE DESIGN KIDS TUESDAY | THE EDWARDS | 1ST & 3RD TUE/MONTH

While it may not be technically classed as a ‘class’, The Design Kids Tuesday offered up too much inspiration & learning for me not to write about it this month! The Design Kids (TDK) is a student & graduate design community spread across AUS & NZ. It’s aim is to bridge the gap between students and the industry by providing forums for members to share industry knowledge, exposure and opportunities vital to securing a dream job in graphic design, typography and illustration. TDKTuesday is the social (read here informal) creative networking arm of TDK, & lucky for Newcastle, we have our own very active crew meeting each month! The particular TDKTuesday I attended was focused on ‘networking’. A simple yet vital component to the progression of so much in this world. Now, before you get all worked up about how awful that might sound, let me tell you that there was lots of beer & only 5 minutes with each person. ‘Speed networking’ they called it!

It was pretty perfect as it didn’t leave too much time for any awkwardness but also gave enough of a taster to see if you would like to chase up a further conversation with someone. While many people may consider networking to be a dirty word, I am a true believer that this is how most of the magic happens in the creative industry. Conversation! You might bounce an idea off someone over a glass of wine & then, hey presto, four years later find yourselves running an arts newspaper together. But it’s not all networking, host Sean Bell (ESSBEE Creative) also organises to have creative industry guests come give talks & workshops. They’ve hosted local design babes Headjam to talk functional creative business practice, and the month before was a hands-on workshop with Brett Piva (Pocket Design) & Wayne Thompson (Australian Type Foundry). This is very exciting new event for Newcastle’s creative scene & I encourage you all to go take advantage of it! If you study design, love design, mildly interested in design or work within an industry with design (yep, that’s all of you) then pop along to The Edwards on the 1st or 3rd Tuesday of the month! Make the most of it, connect with the creative people around you & ignite some of those creative ideas! Follow: Insta: @thedesignkids| FB: The Design Kids Newcastle | #tdktuesdaynewcastle

Photo: Zarah Goldthorp

Image: The Design Kids