Design

You join things to make a thing people use. A design society gives you a studio, a printer that jams and a stream of projects, posters, zines, websites and objects, and that is your idea of a perfect week.

You see the world in layouts. You notice bad kerning on a shop sign and good colour on a bus. You like turning an idea into something real and visible. You are creative, practical and a little bit obsessive about details. A design society gives you a place to make, to learn tools and to collaborate with people who care about the same small things you do. You are happiest at a desk with a pen, a screen and a deadline.

You find the design society at the freshers' fair, probably because their stand looks the best. The first session is a workshop: a print technique, a software skill or a brief to make a poster in an hour.

By week four you are making flyers for the society and for others: the theatre show, the debating competition, the mutual aid stall. You learn a new tool, try screen printing and stay late in the studio fighting the printer. Midway through term there is a group project, a zine or an exhibition, and you see your work printed and on a wall. By the end of term you have a small portfolio, a favourite typeface and a crowd of friends who also have opinions about fonts.

Creative, curious, slightly nerdy people with good taste and strong opinions. The group chat is mood boards, screenshots of beautiful packaging and arguments about colour.

Your design friends are fun to work with and fun to be around. You collaborate on projects, critique each other's work honestly and celebrate each other's wins. You go to exhibitions together, visit print fairs and make each other birthday cards that are genuinely art. They will help you with your portfolio and you will help with theirs. Many of them will go on to interesting creative careers, and you will keep working together for years.

How to take a brief, ask good questions and make something that solves the problem. How to take feedback without taking it personally. How to meet a deadline when the printer is jammed.

Design teaches you to communicate visually, to think about users and to pay attention to detail. It teaches you collaboration, because almost every project involves other people. These skills turn up in every job, from marketing to engineering to running your own business. You leave university with a portfolio, a set of tools and an eye that will never stop noticing things. You also leave knowing how to make the poster, and then the thing.

Say yes to every brief in the first term, especially the small ones. Making flyers for other societies is the fastest way to build a portfolio and make friends across the university.

Learn one new tool or technique each term. Try print, digital, three-dimensional and type. Share your work early and ask for honest feedback. Take on one project that is all about function, a sign system, a form, an app screen, so you learn design is about use, not just beauty. Then document everything as you go. Design at its best is about solving problems beautifully. You have the eye. Keep making.