London, the centre of England, is a 21st century city rich with history that dates back to the Roman times. One of the world’s most visited cities, London is a leading global city in the arts, design, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, media, research and development.

With the students’ learning in mind, a trip to London was organised in conjunction with The Design School’s annual Activity Week event. In this 8-day, 7-night educational trip, students of Foundation in Design (FID), BA (Hons) Graphic Communication Design (BGCD) and BA (Hons) Interactive Multimedia Design (BIMD) programmes were accompanied by 2 lecturers. As future designers, the students’ experience in a foreign culture is important because that exposure, which is filled with vast design and art elements, will widen the students’ perspective on global design issues.

The learning objectives of the Activity Week are:

• To enrich students’ experiential learning, in line with TGC 1: Discipline-Specific Knowledge.
• To create a more holistic learning experience, in line with TGC 2: Lifelong Learning.
• To enable intercultural exchange to take place, in line with TGC 7: Citizenship and Global Perspectives
• To create an opportunity for open communication among students of different programmes and semesters, in line with TGC 4: Communication Skills, TGC 5: Interpersonal Skills and TGC 6: Intrapersonal Skills.

 One of the highlights of the trip was a screen printing workshop organised by Print Club London, where students learned and refined their knowledge of screen printing. They also learned how to screen print their own design and went through the whole process from digital image to pulling the squeegee. Assisted by a host of artists, designers and illustrators, Print Club London made screen printing a fun experience, while guidance was provided by these professionals in the field. Printmaking is one of the most fundamental yet important experience and knowledge in the art and design field. Making one’s own prints require planning, design thinking, manual skills and patience in order to produce individual pieces of work that are unique. For this Activity Week, screen printing was selected as one of the major activities to enrich and reinforce students’ learning of the printmaking skill.

 The next highlight was a visit to “Dali / Duchamp”, art gurus of all time, exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. Visiting the exhibition educated these future designers the value of art history. Not missing out on other important art and design resources, visits were made to a series of London’s well known art galleries and museums such as Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum, Tate Modern, Natural History Museum, Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising, Design Museum and Cartoon Museum. Finally, the students gained some experience while exploring London’s best markets, Portobello Market and Camden Market.

The exciting, educational itinerary that included a number of design-related museums, art galleries and markets were planned so as to provide students a holistic experience in this overseas expedition. The wide variety further piqued the students’ interest and curiosity in the field of art and design.