As part of our Be Good philosophy, we partner with organisations who are out there making the world a better place. Conveniently, this also means our students get working experience on live briefs, honing their skills and receiving the same kind of feedback they’ll be getting in the actual design industry once they graduate.
And so we come to HoMie, a Melbourne-based streetwear brand that supports young people affected by homelessness or hardship to equip them with skills, confidence and experiences to be more work-ready and better prepared for their future. They were after some creative support from our students across Communication Design, Graphic Design and Photography in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
Upskilling on the job
This was the ideal opportunity to tackle some no-experience jobs, working on brands and projects that might otherwise be out of reach for students. HoMie’s communications manager, Bonnie Gill, has worked in marketing and communications roles, both agency and client-side, which means she’s well placed to judge talent and provide useful feedback.
“Being able to respond to a creative client brief and execute the assets and do it well is awesome experience,” she says. “I’ve found that Billy Blue students are creative, open-minded, welcoming, curious and talented.”
Learning is a two-way street
Naturally, whenever two creative industries come together, there are learnings on both sides of that cross-pollination. We were curious to know what HoMie took from our collabs.
“How our brand can be interpreted from an external creative perspective, by consumers who may not be familiar but who fit the demographic,” were Bonnie’s key takeaways. “HoMie’s brand story can be translated through different perspectives, while still getting our messaging and key impact across to the consumer, but with a far more outside-the-box direction – not within our style guide.”
Practical lessons, actual results
Work-integrated learning is an important part of the academic journey at Billy Blue College of Design at Torrens University, adding practical experience to our degrees. It’s an exciting and relevant way to expand your skills and experience, working with established brands to support great causes.
“The graphic design aspect in particular served us really well,” says Bonnie of the projects we collaborated on together in 2020. “A big, big thank you from us! People will start to see their work rolled out across upcoming campaigns, which is awesome!”
If you’d like to know more about how our industry team work, and want to explore opportunities to partner with us, please check out our Industry Engagement page.
And if you want to learn more about studying Branded Fashion Design, Communication Design or Photography, click here to start your journey.
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