Unit Verse

Students Visit Unit Interactive

• by Andy 2 years ago
• 3 Comments

On Friday, April 1, we were visited by about 20 design and photography students from Louisiana Tech University (Ruston, LA), Northeastern State University (Tahlequah, OK), and Texas State University (San Marcos, TX). They were in Dallas for the DSVC National Student Show and Conference and made arrangements to visit the Unit Interactive office for a tour and some discussion with our staff of design professionals.

We welcomed them en masse and then spent the next half hour chatting informally. Groups spontaneously found their ways into the various offices and each of our staff members was soon conducting an impromptu roundtable discussion around his desk. Some were looking at and asking questions about our past work, some were discussing device-versus-user experience issues, and I was in the hallway chatting with a few of the students about hiring conventions and job-search issues.

It was such a nice day out that we soon decided to have a group Q&A session under the trees in our courtyard. There we spent about half and hour fielding questions and chatting with the students about a wide range of topics. It was a fun and lively discussion, and interesting to us to learn what they were most interested in and concerned about. I found it pleasantly affirming that at one point in the discussion someone remarked that they could tell we were a tight team and seemed close with one another. I hope that fact made some positive impact on them to aspire toward mutually-committed enterprise (and forming like Voltron) in their professional futures.

Back in the Unit office we spent some time chatting with them in smaller groups, getting a bit more granular on the topics covered in our Q&A in the courtyard. Many of these students had never been to a design agency and I believe few had ever had direct conversations with creative professionals, so they seemed to really enjoy the candid discourse. As for us, we enjoyed it immensely. All of us at Unit are passionate about education and professional development issues so the interaction was invigorating and cathartic. We’re all looking forward to doing this again. Fun stuff!