Pushing Beyond My Abilities: How My BMW Group Internship Helped Me Develop Valuable Design Skills
The internship experience at BMW Group was like no other. It was an amazing opportunity for me to learn and grow immensely in the design world, and I would recommend it to all design students. I was slightly nervous about what to expect, but I took a leap and applied. I was beyond excited when I received the acceptance email and couldn't wait to start. Coming out of the internship, I feel I have advanced my design and professional skills, pushing beyond my abilities and enabling me to step into the design industry confidently.
Over my time at the academy, I was provided with a chosen project brief, requiring me to redesign the visual graphics of five products for the sub-company Idealworks. These products were the Idealworks factory autonomous iw.hub robot and the components with it, including the charging doc, scanbot and 3D scanner, shipping crate and user manual. The brief required me to create a refreshed branding and cohesive design approach for the package. It was open and flexible, helping me move beyond the initial concepts I had to advanced designs that truly reflected the brand. Initially, I created three separate directions for the graphic design approach based on research of Idealwork's current branding and brand personality. These values were a key influence in my design decisions, which were maintained across the designs and in the outcome.
My final concept entailed influences from Idealworks branding but with a technological and interactive focus, purposely placing the design elements where I wanted to draw attention. The colour violet was used to highlight the physical touchpoints on the products and yellow to signify safety, emphasising the importance of these features. Another key element to the overall design outcome was a concept using three lines taken from the Idealworks icon. These helped portray continuation and direction visually across the product designs as they are ultimately in an everchanging and moving factory environment. I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create the 2D graphics, and with Tims's assistance, I was introduced to features within the software I hadn't previously used. Later on in the process, Jordan helped me transfer the designs into Adobe Substance Painter and Blender for final renders. It was great to have one one-on-one time learning a bit about these programs and gaining an understanding of how they work.
This experience allowed me to gain valuable insights into the design industry, such as the real working environment, presentation and social skills, client requirements, deadlines and goal setting. Skills I personally gained from the internship experience were heavily centred around confidence in myself and my abilities. The project pushed me to work beyond my current design strengths and venture into industrial design needs by considering tangible products and how they work inside the factory. This helped me conceptualise beyond standard visual communication graphics but also consider and work with the physical environment of the factory space, those working in it and the interaction with the products.
Overall, the internship experience was highly rewarding and exciting, providing me the chance to explore the design industry workspace. Working with BMW Group and Idealworks gave me insight into further valuable industry design skills within 3D software I previously thought were out of my capabilities. However, it truly helped me discover an interest I have for the field and curiosity to explore further in my own time. Being able to work alongside three other interns made the journey even more enjoyable and memorable, learning from our each other and our vastly different projects along the way. I can't wait to take these learnings and experiences beyond university and further develop them for my design portfolio.
Sabina Bartram
BMW Group + QUT Design Academy Intern, Semester 2 2023
