Creative students explore the world of interior design
Level 3 Fashion and Textiles students at Burton and South Derbyshire College have been working on an exciting industry project with Edward Thomas Interiors and St. Modwen Homes to design and present their ideas for a new show home for the opportunity to be selected for an industry work placement.
Students have been tasked to design the interiors of one of St. Modwen Homes’ three or four-bed homes from its nearby Branston Leas development. Taking direction from both Edward Thomas Interiors and St. Modwen Homes, the students have created a design for every room of the house – with the main focus being sustainability.
Creative mood boards were created for each room to showcase their chosen colour palettes, fabrics for upholstery, floor coverings, accessories and furniture choices. Students then pitched their ideas to Andy Richardson, Managing Director of Edward Thomas Interiors; Alison Maclean, Head of Marketing and Senior Content Manager, Ella Pumford from St. Modwen Homes, who gave them feedback to develop their ideas further.
Judges were looking to make sure the designs followed the brief, with a clear direction and purpose, as well as having striking features, a professional outlook and exceptional presentation skills. The winning student, who will be offered a two-week work experience placement at Edward Thomas Interiors’ head office in Birmingham, will be announced in the coming weeks.
It’s a pleasure to collaborate with St. Modwen Homes and Burton and South Derbyshire College to provide opportunities for aspiring interior designers. Connecting with nature and the outdoors is a big trend this year; we’re seeing lots of sustainable materials, fabrics and designs which is why we thought this would be the ideal brief for the students. We’ve been impressed by the students’ professionalism and the quality of work they have produced. It’s good to see fresh, young talent coming through who will be the future of the industry.”
Andy Richardson, Managing Director, at Edward Thomas Interiors
At St. Modwen Homes, we are designing the homes and communities of the future. The interior design of our show homes is crucially important as this helps to create a vision of what life could be like at our developments. The challenge we set the students has given us a unique insight into what is important to the next generation, and this will no doubt help us inform the way we design our show homes.”
Alison Maclean, Head of Marketing for St. Modwen Homes
This has been a valuable experience for learners to be involved in, enabling them to understand a real life creative brief scenario and the role of an interior designer. It has helped them make decisions about their future career path at such a critical time in their college course, and has helped them to develop their professional skills at interview.”
Emma Strange, Director of Creative Industries
