This year Interior Design Director and Architect William Nolan gave our HNC Interior Architecture students a challenging brief to get their teeth into.

William said, “Graven has always been committed to supporting training and education within our profession, so I was very happy to be involved in developing a design project for the WCS students.

‘Interior Design is a demanding profession, and a challenging course, so one of  the key objectives for me was to help nuture a forum where young students can learn to explore and articulate design ideas, and start to feel more confident about how these ideas are expressed and make manifest.

‘It seemed important to balance the analysis of the more serious design principals, about scale, order, proportion, use of light and materiality, with some latitude for left-field thinking – and a bit of fun as well – to engage the whole class in what opportunities good design can offer while challenging their thought process.”

With this in mind the students from the Colleges Clydebank and Paisley campuses were required to design a micro bar or café suitable for all, given free range to be as creative as they liked.

William continued, "It was great to see the class buy into the ideas we discussed together and respond with a high level of enthusiasm and hard work.

It was also really satisfying to sense that there was undoubtedly talent within the class, and with continued application and commitment to explore and ask questions of themselves and their work, the future could be very positive for many of them.

Course Lecturer Marisa Giannasi, was not only impressed with what an integral role Graven played in briefing the students, and providing them with constructive feedback which allowed them to gain real industry experience, but also by the imaginative and creative designs of the students.

Marisa commented, “I cannot thank William enough for all of the time and enthusiasm he put into this project. The students were so passionate about this project as it nurtured their ideas as new designers and gave them inside knowledge from an industry professional.”

Culminating the tree months of hard work, learning new skills and long nights the students were invited to present their work at the Lighthouse in Glasgow.

Speaking to student Danielle Hendry about her experience she said, “I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say a huge thank you Marisa and William for what was an amazing brief and for the fabulous guidance and support.

I loved being part of the project and having the opportunity to work with our peers from a different campus. Roll on next term, when we all come together again.

With another student Khaalid Nazir commenting, “I really enjoyed the project. Having Graven create us a brief and help us along the design process was extremely beneficial and certainly helped me improve my skills. Seeing some of Graven’s previous designs and hearing how they went about researching and inventing concepts has shown me different ways to tackle briefs as a working professional in the future.