Alumni

Inês's Story

Inês's Story

BA (Hons) Graphic Design graduand Inês Segadães, from Lisbon in Portugal, has enjoyed being part of a cosmopolitan international community at Bucks and has dedicated her final project to tackling alternatives to eating meat and addressing perceived sustainability issues in the industry

The ambitious final-year student says she wants to 'create change through design'.

For her project, Inês has designed a dietary symbol which aims to guide people when choosing meat alternatives; an article supporting her research; and an accompanying recipe app, to help people find recipes with meat alternative ingredients.

I chose this subject because I feel very passionately about it and had the urge to create change through design. I kept thinking how my work could create such an impact that would help fight the climate crisis and other problems our world is facing.
Ines Segadaes profile photo

See the work at our Online Art and Design Show, open until the end pf August, and view Inês' work, here.

She answers our questions on her experience as an international student at Bucks and the motivation behind her final project.

What is your final project?

The project aims to raise awareness about what I believe to be sustainability issues in the meat industry.

The project addresses what could be considered to be a harmful impact by meat production on our environment.

For this I created a new dietary symbol which aims to guide people when choosing meat alternatives amongst a vast market choice, such as in supermarkets. This symbol is distinguished from all other dietary symbols because it indicates that a product replaces meat nutritionally and dietarily.

To compliment the campaign, I also created an editorial piece that addresses the issues within this industry and is divided in to three sections: methane gas emissions, use of water resources, and deforestation.

Complimenting that, I also designed a recipe app, which aims to help people find recipes with meat alternative ingredients. Therefore, my final major project takes the format of a campaign to raise awareness about any sustainability issues within the meat industry and get people familiar with the new dietary symbol.

What motivated you to do the work?

I chose this subject because I feel very passionately about it and had the urge to create change through design. I kept thinking how my work could create such an impact that would help fight the climate crisis and other problems our world is facing.

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How much have you enjoyed doing the project?

I have greatly enjoyed this project because it had a big area of research and I always kept finding out more and more information, widening my perspective about the climate crisis issue and reinforcing my desire to create change.
 

You returned to Portugal during the Covid-19 situation. What extra challenges have you faced being away from the campus?

It has been very challenging as my course requires several areas of practice work, and not being able to use the workshops and tools offered by the University, made the development of the work a lot harder and challenging. Unfortunately, due to the situation, I wasn't able to physically produce my final major project to the fullest of its potential.

How excited are you to display the work at the Online Art and Design Show?

Very excited. I think that over the three years at university, both me and my coursemates have grown so much and that reflects on our projects. We all ended up choosing a subject that would somehow create an impact, whether on someone's lives, lifestyle or society habits.

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I was very excited to display work at the online Bucks Show as I felt that, myself too, designed and projected something that would help people change and fight the great climate crisis we are fighting nowadays. We all did great, so that will be reflected on the Show.

How have you found life at Bucks as an international student?

As an international student, living abroad during university has been an amazing opportunity and experience to develop my path and career, but also a great chance to meet people from many other places, and build a friendly and strong community.
 

What kinds of support have you found at the University as an international student?

I can say that the greatest support I had were the friendships I built with other international students whilst at university. I met many different and amazing people from several countries, and I can say that they were very important for my development at university. Bucks New University also offers a great variety of societies and clubs, and by joining the Volleyball Club, I felt more integrated with the university lifestyle.

What do you hope to do next and what career do you eventually hope to go in to?

I am very excited to start a Master's at another institution in October and once I am done with that postgraduate, I hope to start building my career around that area of expertise.

What have you thought of your teaching at Bucks New University?

The teachers have helped me develop independent and thoughtful learning, which I didn't possess in the first years. These skills are absolutely fundamental and I am thankful that they were enforced from the beginning.