Inspiring the Next Generation of Designers

Tyra Oseng-Rees at Bishop Gore School, ready for Product Design workshop delivery

This week I had the pleasure of delivering a hands‑on Product Design workshop for Year 10 GCSE students at Bishop Gore School. The session explored the fascinating overlap between art, product design, industrial design, and engineering and how these disciplines blend in real‑world creative practice.

Supported by Big Ideas Wales and delivered as part of the Young Dragons entrepreneurial programme, the workshop gave learners a real taste of what it means to think like a designer.

Why Product Design Matters

Product Design is the ultimate jack‑of‑all‑trades subject:

Art ✔️
Engineering ✔️
Problem‑solving ✔️
Creativity, sketching, inventiveness, and the occasional bit of design magic ✔️

We began by discussing how the boundaries between art, industrial design, and engineering often blur, and how designers move fluidly between them. Learners then worked in groups to analyse an everyday object, building their understanding of key terminology such as product design, product description, and new product development.

With this foundation in place, we moved into a fast‑paced design challenge: Describe, redesign and improve a water bottle. This mini New Product Development (NPD) task gave students practical insight into how designers iterate, test, and refine ideas.

Bringing It All Together

To finish, I shared examples of my own work and demonstrated how I’ve moved between different design disciplines throughout my career, from art and product development to serial production, materials engineering, and environmental testing. This helped students see just how flexible and interconnected the design world can be, and how their own creative interests might fit within it.

By the end of the session, pupils left with a clearer understanding of how new product development works and a deeper appreciation for the creativity and problem‑solving at the heart of Product Design.