Leveraging Creative Freedom
If you were to read any of the other blog posts reflecting on the internship assembled here, you’d likely be right to notice some common trends. An emphasis on the amazing working environment, on stepping outside comfort zones, and on opportunities to expand networks both locally and internationally. However, there is one element that seems to underpin everything else – the sense of freedom to explore. The freedom to explore your professional practice, to explore concepts and perspectives, and to explore technology and methodologies. If nothing else, my experience at the Academy over the 100-hour program was a crash course in learning how to leverage this newfound freedom, a task as rewarding as it was daunting.
Ask any new design student about what they are most concerned about when entering design practice for the first time, and you might get a variety of answers. For me, when I first started, I could tell you in an instant that I was intimidated by the prospect of the dreaded “open-ended design brief” – the potential of facing down a complex problem with limited frameworks and datapoints for decision making. Fast forward 4 years, and while I’d comfortably say that open ended briefs can still be daunting, they have become an exciting opportunity for innovation. There is a distinct freedom in having limited constraints. The project that I chose during my time at the Academy – a 10-year future vision for idealworks, was no different. Equally formidable as it was exciting, the ability to explore the way I approach projects, decoupled from judgment and performance metrics, allowed me to develop a methodology that spoke to my strengths and supported my weaknesses. Being allowed to experiment with my practice lead to insights I am so grateful to have learned.
Often, you hear how important the right environment is in fostering productive and engaging work, however it can be tough to realise this without experiencing it for yourself. The exploration of my personal practice would never have been possible without insightful and meaningful feedback from the team at the Academy, which, due to their varied backgrounds and areas of expertise, proved to be invaluable in my quest to learn and improve. Beyond this, personally coming from a background steeped heavily in multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder, fast paced projects (which could arguably describe the university experience as well), it was an incredible feeling to be in a space dedicated solely to one project and one outcome, alongside likeminded people.
Beyond the environment and team, the ability to access and develop technical skills across new programs was fantastic. Diving into visualisation and concept development software, a far-cry from the heavily parametric and exact software I was used to, opened my processes in ways I could never have foreseen. From the implementation of cutting-edge technologies to industry workflows and project management approaches, I have a feeling that the lessons learned here will be invaluable in the future.
My thanks, of course, goes to the great team at the Academy and idealworks. The success of the program is a testament to their hard work and passion for fostering the next generation of designers.
Project Outcome:
I developed a 10-year future vision for idealworks and their product, the iw.hub, an autonomous mobile robot targeted at intra-logistics and warehousing. My proposal explored the potential of leveraging expertise and technology to enter emerging markets where AI and autonomy may affect our every-day lives in impactful and meaningful ways, specifically in the context of retail and shopping-centre consumer experiences and brand visions.
Thank you for reading,
Kilian Frunz
BMW Group + QUT Design Academy Intern, Summer Semester 2022-23
