The Fifth Annual TANDEM Student Design Conference

Last week Jefferson industrial design students held the fifth annual TANDEM Design Conference. The yearly student-run design conference has become one of the highlights of the Fall Semester for the various design departments on campus. This year’s conference continued to expand the range of topics presented, with hands-on activities in photography, VR design and sketching, and character design.  

Featuring both alumni and new faces alike, the 2019 TANDEM conference featured design professionals from an array of creative fields including Industrial Design, Textile Design, UX Design, Fashion Design, Softgoods and more. This year’s keynote speaker, Maggie Bryan, Director of UX at Stink Studios, talked about the versatility of design and how one’s professional journey isn’t always linear.

  “TANDEM is always one of the highlights of our school year. The caliber of speakers and workshops that our students assemble for this conference is truly world-class, says Mark Havens, the Associate Director of Undergraduate Industrial Design. “It embraces one of the core tenants of our curriculum by bringing industry-leading professionals into the academic environment.”

The alumni made a strong showing this year, bringing with them stories of what the first few years after school is like. Jake Brosius, a 2016 alum, gave a talk on his experience at SDI Technologies (iHome). With him, he brought boxes of prototypes and sketches detailing the process behind some of the 10 products he has helped oversee in his two years at the company. 

Adam Beauchner, a 2019 alum and junior designer at Bark, aided in a hands-on character design workshop for dog toys, which tasked participants to sketch as many bunny and bee toys and they could think of. Bark also presented their process of designing for pets and their owners (the sketch sessions get crazy!). 

TANDEM drew a crowd from many of the neighboring design schools in the Philadelphia region including students from Drexel and UARTS. A huge shout out to the Jefferson IDSA chapter for planning such a successful event.