Pumphouse School of Design is a new and unique private design school geared toward delivering industry-relevant skills training.
Recently launched, Pumphouse will be offering a range of design and creative industry courses in 2016, along with courses and workshops specifically for business.
Co-Director Alison Smith said that Pumphouse is the result of a group of experienced design professionals and passionate design educators coming together.
“There are many small business people and marketing personnel in the Hunter region that would like to learn design skills relevant to the marketing of their business, but do not want to want to enrol in entire degree or diploma programs,” Alison said. “They want the flexibility of being able to cherry-pick short courses and workshops that are just focussed on delivering what they need.”
Their 2016 calendar includes some unique courses. For example, to get to understand the increasingly important role creativity plays in business, Creativity – The New Economy will offer practical techniques examining shifting consumer attitudes, assessing projects from multi-perspectives, effective communication, and understanding the relevance of businesses to their markets. It will be taught by Brian Daly, a Creative Director who has extensive experience in large advertising agencies on prominent national campaigns, and was awarded a global campaign award in 2014.
For businesses who need personnel to have fundamental software skills, Using Adobe InDesign in Your Business is a comprehensive short training course in creating and designing professional documents for print, advertising and electronic output. It is suitable for Adobe software beginners.
A one-day overview workshop, Manage and Market Your Online Business, will be a masterclass in the fundamental principles of online business marketing. This class will demystify the jargon and evaluate business needs and customer engagement with practical techniques.
The principal staff members – Alison Smith, Vanessa Anton, Shane Williams and Bernadette Junor – bring a wealth of career experience to Pumphouse across a range of industry and education. They have engaged other industry professionals to deliver niche courses in their particular areas of expertise, a very different educational model for Newcastle.
Located in Greenway St Wickham (next door to the wonderful Darkhorse Espresso) Pumphouse courses and workshops are taught by prominent industry practitioners and award-winning tertiary educators.
