Students of BA (Hons) Visual Communication presented application ideas to EPM Agency last week as part of the course’s latest industry-standard brief.
EPM, an experiential agency based in Poole, heard from 11 teams of second-year students on Thursday 20 April. They set a brief around how an app or website might benefit students’ life at university. The students were asked to tailor their app to one of four themes – finance, diet and cooking, networking and connecting, and work-life balance.
“We wanted them to focus on the user’s experience,” explained Francesca Griffiths, EPM’s Head of Digital and AUB alumna. “Maybe to think about some of the pains and gains they’ve had at university and how to overcome that in application format.”
Joining Francesca on the panel from EPM were Lead Creative Strategist and fellow AUB alum Dot Falla and Content Marketing Executive Sam Brown, as well as Richard Hurst, Senior Lecturer on the BA (Hons) Visual Communications course, to assess the students’ work.
On the importance of the industry-standard briefs, Richard said, “I think it’s great to see how we can give students the experience of both an academic approach to the learning experience, but also something that’s industry-focused.
“Where it moves so fast, it’s always interesting to see where industry comes in and has a different perspective in terms of what they’re looking for from students.
“That’s how working with agencies like EPM really helps to enrich the whole experience, and how that feeds into students being ready for their careers.”
The winning team was made up of Toby Archer, Alex Bartlett, Krisztina Mayer and Tonya Mazaeva, who chose to address networking and connecting with their app.
“We decided to design an app called Crit, which would help students give anonymous feedback and allow creatives to gain confidence in their work,” Krisztina explained.
“It would give students the ability to receive feedback from other universities and industry professionals and get recognised by design agencies.”
Krisztina went on to say that one of the main takeaways from working on the brief was learning to prioritise the user experience and focus on the aesthetics after. She also said that thinking about the small issues that a user might face whilst using the app was one of the bigger challenges.
“Overall, EPM had extremely useful feedback and the workshops were good for idea generation. It was a professional experience.”
This was the second time that the Visual Communication course ran a brief with EPM, and the agency’s working relationship with AUB began in 2020. Part of that relationship includes encouraging students to keep in touch with EPM, whether that’s to ask for advice or to visit their offices.
A full-service design and creative agency, EPM’s services range from marketing, web and app design, exhibition stands, to virtual, mixed- and augmented reality.
Take a look at EPM Agency for more information. Alternatively, find them on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.
