Students develop new concept designs for Worcs Rail Trail Projects – June 2023
Student Designs - Worcestershire Rail Trails Project
A unique collaboration between students at the University of Worcester, a regional railways community development organisation and the Worcestershire Ramblers has just produced its first set of concept design work.
Year 2 Graphic Design students on the ‘Graphic Information Design’ module have just submitted a wide range of concept designs for an overview leaflet for Worcestershire Community Rail Partnership (WCRP). This explains the new 95 mile long ‘Worcestershire Rail Trails’ project, which allows users to walk between stations in the region and then return quickly by train to their start point. One or more students’ designs will be picked for use for marketing the scheme.
Students were set the ‘live’ brief in early February by Rail Trails project team members Lyndon Bracewell (instigator of the project and representing Worcestershire Ramblers) and the University of Worcester’s Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design, Andy Stevenson. The aim was to give students experience of working to a ‘live’ design brief of this nature along with the pace, interaction and steer of real clients including WCRP’s Partnership Officer Fiona Saxon.
Norwegian visiting Yr2 graphic design student Marie Oye said of her experiences on the project: “This was a relatively new area of experience for me, as I had not previously designed a walking routes leaflet before however I gained new skills during the project, including adapting my design to fit the project’s requirements and balancing the visuals with the necessary information.”
Presentation by Andy and Lyndon
“In class, I found the learning to be very helpful and engaging. I appreciated the opportunity to receive feedback from my tutor Andy, the client Lyndon, and my classmates. I also found it helpful to do additional research and visit museums and galleries outside of class to gain inspiration and refine my design skills. …Overall, I feel that I learned a lot during this project and developed new skills in information design and layout. I look forward to applying these skills to future projects”.
Rail Trails project instigator and steering team member, Lyndon Bracewell, said: “I was impressed by the students’ skills and enthusiasm. It was very much a two-way process. I learnt a lot about how younger people access and use information through various digital means. Hopefully the way we have presented the Rail Trails in an entirely web-based and smart phone friendly format will help to broaden the Trails’ appeal to a younger audience too”.
Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design Andy Stevenson added: “There’s nothing quite like working on a real-life design project for our students and on this module they were able to apply their new-found skills in developing information graphics and mapping.
While we run student briefs in other modules in lots of areas of the design genre: such as web design, branding and packaging, this module brief also helped students equip themselves for studio working experiences that require wider visual communication skills: diagram design, wayfinding design considerations, pictogram design and how to create linked maps – a form of information diagram. It’s also been great to work alongside a community organisation and know that the new learning and outputs from students have helped give much-needed visual
design input into this project.”
Design Student with Lyndon
WCRP’s Partnership Officer, Fiona Saxon, has been impressed by the students’ creativity and enthusiasm for this project and adds: “The ideas and application by the students has been amazing and it’s been fabulous working with future designers on a venture that offers tried
and tested linear walks from stations. It provides walkers with opportunities to use sustainable rail travel to access some of the best destinations in the country right here in Worcestershire.”
The Worcestershire Rail Trails project is currently developing its initial web presence and has recently hosted a ‘Taster’ day at the Hive in Worcester on Sunday 11th June. We are now focussing on the serious business of choosing one or more ‘winning’ student designs on which to base the final overview leaflet.
Once a final design(s) is chosen this will then be created in full for commercial print. This successful Knowledge Transfer collaboration will then continue into the next academic year to complete remaining components of the project.