First Years, Sixth Project

'You have to understand it before you can design for it' is something we say a lot around these parts. That's because design is all about considering what you want to communicate to your audience and if you don't understand your subject, you won't have much to say about it!

With this in mind we asked the first year students to produce a digital instruction booklet that explained how something worked.

The 'somethings' chosen were mostly things that the Grillust™ team themselves don't understand. We are continuously looking to learn new things and thought in this instance the 'young pups' (students), could teach the 'old dogs' (tutors), new tricks.

Examples of things we don't understand include: how bats navigate; fracking; why we blush; the alleged 'popularity' of Nick Grimshaw and why people would listen to (let alone buy) the music of Mumford & Sons.

Have a look at the following, you might well learn something that you can later use to impress, perhaps in a social context (like the pub) or perhaps in a more formal context like a job interview (for a position in telephone sales).

First up we have Zac and Liam (both former students of Bury College) who sadly were not aware that Bury's most famous sons Elbow, had written a moving ballad called The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver. Tut, tut!

INCOMING!!! Linu and Hannah show you how a Mills Grenade goes bang.

Watling Street, Fosse Way and Ermin Street are all lovely, long and straight. How did the Roman army manage to achieve these magnificent feats of civil engineering? Sophie and Vincent explain...

Some 50 million of Thonet's No. 14 cafe chair were sold between 1859 and 1930, and millions more have been sold since. What was so revolutionary about this design? Let's ask Peter and Amy.

'It's a lot less bovver with a hover...' Catt and Molly explain the workings of the hovercraft.

What's you view on fracking? Have you ever fracked? Is it good for you? Let's find out (ably assisted by Jessica and Hannah).

Who doesn't love Plate Tectonics? Nathan and Ben both love 'P.T.' and have a wide range of 'P.T.' related posters on their bedroom walls. This is a mighty mechanism responsible for some very sexy features: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; subduction zones; Iceland and... ...of course, volcanoes!!!

The hard-working and amazing world of the ant is uncovered by Drew and Rebecca.

Paper! Paper! Read all about it! Proclaim Louis and Tanya.

If you follow this link you can see many more wonders...