ReFreaming the education of New Media Designers

To celebrate the launch of "46h" - New Media students dressed up in space-outfits to sand, paint and place school desks to portray their school's new name and visual identity. See more photos here! The logo consists of squares, which both illustrate: the pixel, which is the corner stone of digital, visual communication - and the squares also represent the individual students desks that like lego can be put together in infinite, creative combinations.

Yesterday, my colleagues and I unveiled our newest WOW-project: Revolutionizing the content and form of the way the New Media Design programme is tought and structured…

I teach Visualisation & Concept Development at a New Media Design school – one that I myself graduated from 4 years ago this month. The two years that I attended there (2001-2003) where years of innovation, challenge and a learning curve resembling the price level of Jean Michel Basquiat's work in 1982. My passion for New Media arose during those years - mostly because of the many hours I spend amongst inspirational people at the TV-School in the Danish Filmtown, with whom the New Media Design school collaborates.

Since then, my bachelor of Arts degree from Melbourne, Masters in Cultural Production from Malmö, projects in New York, Berlin, London and, of course, Copenhagen have provided me with even more infatuation for the possibilities of New Media Design – and given me an insight into the ever more important world of Education.

In this time of rapid Social Media evolution, the role of the New Media designer become increasingly important. And challenging. And complex. Therefore, we must educate New Media students accordingly!

What we are doing:
Until now, we have been sharing classrooms and computers with other programmes. We have demanded – and gotten – an independent location, where our students are the kings and queens and rule all. Obviously with sound guidance from their trusted members of court, the teachers. In this castle we will be tearing out all the stale, boring interior and letting the students create their own creative space. On the first day of school each student will be given their own personal desk. This desk belongs to them and they can decorate it as they please (bring on the tags, kids!). The desks are foldable and meant to be moved from context to context: They can be put together to form group work stations or separately lined up during lectures. Flexibility and mobility is the name of the game.

We are also working on getting some FatBoys for our library lounge, a TV (with Playstation), subscribing to cool magazines, planning inspiration trip to Berlin, getting frequent visits from successful people in the business, attending exhibitions, strengthening out collaboration with the TV-School, etc. And, more importantly, we are revitalizing the content of the programme: A Cross-subject, theme-based, fast-paced, real-world, New media-relevant, innovation-striving semester structure is in the making - based on agile production processes practiced alongside a high academic and pedagogical level.

We also want to be more involved with the marketing and branding of the New Media design programme! Together with the students we must practice what we preach and create interesting, meaningful, beautiful storytelling. The students are the real ambassadors for the programme - and have proven worthy of the responsibility many times over. Just have a look at this viral video!

To match these grand changes we have created a new name and visual identity. The name, 46h, is based on the geographical location of the school: Køge – the area code being 4600. Numbers are great because they put you on the top of lists and are easy to remember ;o). The visual identity is a manifestation of the physical framework and the educations core area: digital media. The logo consists of squares, which both illustrate the pixel, which is the corner stone of digital, visual communication. And represent the individual students desks that like lego can be put together in infinite, creative combinations.

I will write more about 46h as the process progresses...