In response to the current pandemic, the Chartered Society of Designers (CSD) teamed up with Redwire Design Ltd to set up a virtual ‘Year End Show’ experience for design courses and students.

YES 2020 allows design and design related courses to register on the site, display details of their course, offer a download of their prospectus and receive enquiries from potential new students.

Design students will be able to upload their profile, contact details and showcase their final year projects to their registered course.

Visitors to YES 2020 will be able to search for shows by course title, design discipline, location, award level, institution, student name or simply by using a keyword search.

YES 2020 will be open to any design or design related course from 15 July 2020 until 31 December 2020 and is free of charge.

Frank Peters, CE of CSD said:

“In normal times the Year End Shows form an integral part of the design students’ learning experience providing them with the opportunity to professionally display their final year major project to an audience of potential employers.

We were aware that this year such a critical opportunity was going to be missed and so as our mission is to support designers ‘From Learning to Earning’™ we decided to set up a platform for the shows. Having worked successfully with Redwire Design for many years we decided to collaborate and apply for funding and clearly Innovate UK shared our vision for this innovative project.”

He added, “YES 2020 will put the work of graduates in front of a local, national and international audience of potential employers rather than a local one and for much longer than a few days. It is a win for design graduates, a win for design courses and a substantial win for the profession”.

Funding for the project was secured from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, and was one of only 800 projects to receive funding. In a communication to successful bids, Ian Campbell, Innovate UK’s CEO commented:

“We received an unprecedented and incredible response from the innovation community to the ‘Business-led innovation in response to global disruption’ competition.  We were astounded to receive over 8,600 applications, our highest number ever – in fact this is more than all of our competitions in FY19/20 put together.  This response shows businesses in the UK have the ambition to innovate to address new and emerging needs even in these difficult times.”

Courses can register, students can upload projects and visitors can view the shows at www.yearendshow.com