Sponsored Post: Easter Design Camps for Future Designers at the Design Museum

This Easter, the Design Museum invites your young creatives to get hands-on into the technique of Lino printing and design their own vintage-looking poster. For the tech-savvy, join our Robot Olympics and get super inventive with coding, create and play with the BBC Micro:Bit.

Prices: Each workshop: £75 (non-members); £60 (museum members).
Age: Both workshops are suitable for 11 to 14 year olds.

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The Design Museum

The Design Museum is the world’s leading museum devoted to contemporary design and architecture. With over 2 million visitors since we reopened in 2016 to critical acclaim, the Design Museum shapes the public’s appreciation and understanding of design in every form.

Since it was established in 1989 by Sir Terence Conran, the Design Museum has welcomed millions of people and staged more than a hundred exhibitions on subjects from Ferrari to Paul Smith. Celebrating the role of design and innovation in the world around us, the Design Museum is in an immaculately restored modern landmark building in Kensington and is one of the most charismatic spaces in London.

Learning forms a central part of the Museum’s ambition to inspire everyone, above all the next generation of design thinkers; capable of creating designs that promote greater wellbeing and health, and which tackle planetary-scale social challenges.

 Why Design Camps?

When I joined the Design Museum in Autumn 2021, I had the amazing opportunity of introducing Design Camps to young people at secondary school aged 11 – 14. Design is a way to understand the world and how you can change it. The Design Museum’s vision is a world where everyone values design. Our mission is to build public awareness of design by connecting design with people’s lives and passions, and to reflect the designer’s role at the forefront of social, technological and environmental change. Our Design Camps help us to achieve these aims, whilst giving young people a fun day out exploring the galleries in our beautiful building, learning something new and developing their design skills.

As a local working mother to four wonderful children aged 8-15, I noticed that there wasn’t much for them to do in the holidays once they left the cosy world of their primary school. My children weren’t quite old enough to be left alone all day but did have the maturity to travel locally for an activity, since they were now well practiced with their school journeys. If you didn’t have a sporty child, there really weren’t many local options and up until this point, I had relied on holiday camps to keep them safe, entertained and educated, whilst I toiled away! Even though some well-known holiday camps technically went up to age 13, my children very much felt that they were the eldest by a long way and refused to return!

 Previous Design Camps at the Design Museum

We launched some pilot camps during February half-term and as they were a hit, we’re back for more! We’ve utilized our wonderfully experienced designers, who run our school workshops and are therefore fully DBS checked, to use their talents during the holidays. They are passionate about encouraging and inspiring the next generation about the wonders of brilliant design!

Testimonial from a participant who attended our previous workshop ‘Code your own adventure’ in February 2022:

“It was friendly. I learned and had fun, and you could make your own project. It was about programming, something I enjoy. We also got to learn the history of videogames”.

Testimonial from a mother whose son attended our previous workshop ‘Code your own adventure’ in February 2022:

“When my son came home, he was very enthusiastic about the day and how much fun it had been – high praise indeed from a boy whose usual response to anything is ‘fine’ or ‘good’!’”

 Testimonials from our previous workshop ‘Screenprinting Amy Winehouse’ in February 2022:

“We got to design the art ourselves and we were constantly engaged.”

“You could be creative, see the exhibition and got help when you needed.”

What’s on offer this Easter?

Robot Olympics

Your young people will experiment and learn how to create robots to compete in various games of the Design Museum’s Olympics using the BBC Micro:Bit. During this full-day creative workshop they will be learning how processors work and using code to control electronics. At the end of the day, they will take home your very own Micro:Bit to continue to code and create!

Robotics challenges will vary from speed races to long jumping. There will be a full introduction to microcontrollers – small computers that can be inserted into electrical circuits to allow people to digitise the world around them. We will also learn about the history of robotics and how revolutions such as the internet of things will affect our lives in the future. There will be presentations, gallery visits and opportunities for new inventions.

Lino Printing Vintage Football

Your young people will learn how to design a Lino printed poster inspired by the vintage collection in our Football – Designing the Beautiful Game exhibition. In this hands-on workshop, we will work to create a colourful Lino print onto paper, incorporating iconic imagery, text and pattern to design a unique piece for the wall inspired by the vintage collection presented in our brand-new football exhibition.

Your children will get inspired by their ‘club’ identity. This can mean anything from their favourite hobbies, a replica of their favourite sporting poster or team or simply a collection of beautiful images that you would like to work with. They will be experimenting with a technique called reduction Lino printing, which is a challenging design task that requires you to consider colour, form and layering.

This workshop will teach them how to break down the process and build their confidence with graphic design and printing skills – while having fun! Each participant will go home with one final poster as well as several samples and test pieces.

Learn more about Easter Workshops at the Design Museum

Visit Design Museum website for more information or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

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