Celebrating the Edinburgh Napier Student Placement

The Scottish Design Exchange works alongside Edinburgh Napier University in offering mentoring and placements to some of their current students.

Here at SDX we offer a placement at the end of a student's project and the opportunity to showcase their hard work and practice selling their wares to real life customers.

Through this opportunity the students get to learn about working in the field and gain invaluable exposure and experience within their chosen subject. They also have had the chance to talk to and engage with the SDX community of Staff, Artists & Makers who have helped provide advice and support for their product making.

This year our CEO Lynzi helped to mentor a variety of students at Edinburgh Napier University from Product Design, Graphic Design, Photography and Interior Design.

“I am delighted to be working on this project with Edinburgh Napier to help the product design and graphic design students gain experience in selling their products in a retail environment. It is vital that part of their learning includes how to price their products and get customer feedback. Working with the Scottish Design Exchange team, we will help them do just that. There is no better learning process than selling or not selling a product. This teaches you how to adapt and change your design or pricing if required, before taking it to a wider market.”

- Lynzi Leroy, CEO at The Scottish Design Exchange

After first coming together during the Edinburgh Napier Creative City Challenge in 2017, the product sale has been led by Scottish Design Exchange’s Lynzi Leroy, with the University’s Design Society visiting the George Street store, and working with Leith-based Bare Branding, as part of the research and product design phases of the project.

Take a look at a highlight of just a snippet of some of the students and their work available to buy at SDX, Edinburgh!

Napier Student, Matthew Armstrong, (Rugged Wear Designs) created a bespoke solid mahogany chair using reclaimed mahogany safari packing cases found in Scots Gap, which were shipped to Northumbria from Kenya. Based on African Livingston Chairs found in Kenya, the chair is a two piece collapsible outdoor/indoor design.

Matthew was delighted to hear when one of his unique tension chair designs sold at The Scottish Design Exchange!

Previous student products have been available at SDX in 2020 – late last year, third year product design student Melissa Halliday’s range of unique totes bags and face masks printed from original acrylic prints were sold through our placement opportunity.

Third Year Product Design Student, Erin Macpherson had the goal to create a sustainably sourced range of accessories for everyday wear. Each of the items she made included a resourced element of re purposed scrap leather and/or recycled chains.

Claire Bee, employer engagement partner at Edinburgh Napier, said: “Edinburgh Napier is delighted to be working in partnership with Scottish Design Exchange to showcase the creativity and talent of our students.

“The generosity of Scottish Design Exchange has given our students, the unique opportunity to showcase their creativity, develop entrepreneurial skills, sell their products, and put their learning into practice.”

Third Year Interior & Spatial Design Student Jessica Lumsden wishes to pursue a career as a Freelance Artist & Designer. Originally from the East Neuk of Fife, and now based in Edinburgh, Jessica chose to display at SDX watercolour paintings that showed her love for painting fashion and local Edinburgh architecture.

Photography student Owen Rose's work is also available at SDX where he has been selling a selection of framed prints of his beautiful landscape photography.

Melissa set up her own business called Melissa & Jasmine and chose to create handmade dog collars and leads using her own prints that she designed.

Take a look when you are next in our George Street shop at the fantastic work they have all completed during this difficult year for practical based studies 👏 and read more about this placement opportunity on the Edinburgh Napier website