WPI Update: Design Museum & ITP Fellow Interviews

Written by Sarah, Edward, Jessica and Ryan: Worcester Polytechnic Institute ITP Placement Students 2018

This week we visited the Design Museum here in London. Along with the permanent exhibitions, we saw both the Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18 and Ferrari: Under the Skin. Ferrari: Under the Skin explored the life of Enzo Ferrari, his design process, and the impact of the Ferrari company on the car industry. The exhibit encouraged its audience to engage with the exhibit by having seats from various models out that you could sit in. Additionally, they had videos playing at various points in the exhibit, and full engines were displayed, which Jess and Edward, who are mechanical engineers, appreciated. There was also a 2017 LaFerrari at the exhibit with it’s engine out on display.

Although everyone in our group enjoyed Hope to Nope with its current themes and images depicting the combination of politics and graphic design, Ryan enjoyed it most of all. Ryan loves rhetoric, graphic design, and politics, and to see them mixed in one place made this exhibition the best he’s seen yet. The strife, power, and the identity portrayed by graphic design cements its place in modern life, and with the internet as a tool to distribute these graphics, graphic design has never played a more important role in our society.

Returning from the Design Museum, Ryan took a stroll through Holland Park and took this lovely picture.

Along with all our exploring, we’ve been having fun talking to fellows for part of our research! Thanks to all of you that we’ve spoken to so far. We look forward to talking to more of you this coming week as well!

Jessica, Ryan, Edward and Sarah