Savannah College of Art and Design students Kaela Proctor and Emily Pun create a 3-D map by gluing natural products to a wooden base.
COLBERT COUNTY-There are ample opportunities for college students to learn about design in a classroom, on the internet or by reading books, but only one where they can be taught by facing real-world challenges deep in the woods of northwest Alabama.
Almost 70 students from colleges throughout the country spent the week of June 8-14 living in tents at Seven Springs Lodge in Colbert County while honing their design and life skills. Shift Design Camp, which began in 2013, was created by Owen Foster and John McCabe of the Savannah (Georgia) College of Art and Design.
During this year’s camp, the challenges for the students included creating furniture from wooden pallets, designing and building rustic showers and commemorating their visit by making totems from sticks, vines, rocks and other materials found in the woods.
“We want the students to use common sense and intuition to design objects,” Foster said. “We want them to be able to design when they are not in classroom and when they don’t have access to Google to help with their research.”
One of the activities for the campers was creating 3-D maps using moss, twigs, pebbles and other natural products instead of a computer.
McCabe said the students do not receive advance notice about the daily activities.
Campers discuss activities for the day on furniture they designed and built from wooden pallets.
“We don’t want them going to the internet and doing research to help them with their designs. We want it to come from the hip and the brain.,” McCabe said.
The students were from a variety of design genres, including graphic arts, product, industrial and automotive.
Kaela Proctor, a student from Savannah College of Art and Design, enjoys the challenges at the camp.
“You either don’t have all the tools you need or you have to something in a different way or use a tool in a different way to complete your projects. It makes you think and be creative,” Proctor said.
Foster hopes to expand the camp in 2015 to include a session for high school students.
For more details about Shift Design Camp, call Seven Springs Lodge, 256-370-7218.
MEDIA RELEASE/COLBERT COUNTY TOURISM
