BU’s Vice-Chancellor meets design graduates at Quadrant2Design ahead of the university’s Festival of Design and Technology

Poole-based Quadrant2Design, which employs BU graduates and designs display stands for a range of national and international clients, was visited by BU Vice Chancellor Professor John Vinney ahead of the Festival of Design and Technology 2016.

Quadrant2Design, who have been in operation since 1999, have attended BU’s Festival of Design and Technology for more than two years. The Vice Chancellor was shown around the businesses premises by BU BA (Hons) Industrial Design graduate, Ross Pike, who has been working with the company for two years.

Ross was invited to interview for a job in CAD and graphic design by company Directors Alan Jenkins and Andrew Carney after exhibiting his work at BU’s Festival of Design and Technology.

BU’s free Festival of Design and Technology event sees a showcase of designs, models and prototypes created by design, engineering and creative technology students as their final year projects. Previous projects have included configurable workspaces, futuristic beach pods, and remote pet wellbeing systems.

BU Graduate, Ross, who now works as Design Manager at Quadrant2Design, said: ““My first two years at BU gave me the skills needed to go out and get a great placement, designing products with Disney.

“From there I came up with a set of family suitcases that came together to form a single transportable solution, which I exhibited at the Festival of Design and Technology. While there, I met Alan and Andrew from Quadrant2Design. A few days later, I received an email offer to interview. I came in, we got on really well, and from there I’ve never really looked back.

“It’s been great. The amount of things I’ve been able to do, see and design, with Quadrant2Design has been amazing.”

Quadrant2Design Sales Director, Andrew Carney said: “When we rebranded in 2012 as Quadrant2Design, the vision for the company was for much more of a design-led focus. A key part of that was finding and bringing into the company product and industrial design graduates from BU that we met at the Festival of Design and Technology.

“Initially, we started that process by inviting students on a 40-week placement with us. Those students performed extremely well and were very successful, and, in fact, we have one of these students with us now as a permanent, full-time employee.”

BU Vice Chancellor, Professor John Vinney said: “It is impressive to see our graduates developing their careers in the design industry in Dorset. At Quadrant2Design, who operate on an international scale, we’ve seen our graduates employed through their innovations, skills and expertise.
 
“The company attends our annual Festival of Design and Technology, and it was here that they found Ross, one of our Industrial Design graduates, who was exhibiting his innovative final year design project. Visiting the Festival led to a direct job offer for Ross and he is a fantastic example of the talented graduates available to business in our region.
 
He added: “I’ve spoken to the company Directors, who are delighted to be taking on not just graduates but also placement students who receive important industry training.”
 
Tickets for this year’s Festival of Design and Technology, which takes place on BU’s Talbot Campus in Poole between 10.00am to 4.00pm on Friday 17 June, Saturday 18 June and Monday 20 June, are available to book free-of-charge online.
 
For more information about BU’s Festival of Design and Technology 2016, and to book free tickets, visit: https://fodt.bournemouth.ac.uk/.