How storytelling, design, and collaboration reshaped my design confidence.

I was tasked with creating a publication for the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy, a magazine that would capture the first five years of the Academy's work and bring it to life for students, parents, industry contacts, and VIPs around the world. It sounds straightforward. It was anything but.

What I did not expect was how much the team would push my thinking. Every week I came to class with ideas and every week I left with bigger ones. That energy is something special about this place. The people here, Rafael, Alex, Jessie, and my fellow students, are genuinely passionate about design. And being around that kind of passion is contagious.

This experience has made me back myself more as a designer. When you work with teammates who are passionate and mentors who believe in you and push you, you cannot help but feel like this is exactly where you are meant to be.

The moment I am most proud of is the cover. Inspired by the BMW i Vision Circular concept car, the cover uses a heat reactive element that changes colour when touched. Your first interaction with the publication is physical, before you have even opened a page. That idea came from conversations with the team about emerging technology and I am so glad they pushed me to go there.

This experience confirmed for me that storytelling resonates with clients and that helping people emotionally connect with design is just as important as the function and aesthetics of the work itself. How design makes people feel matters. That is something I will carry into every project from here.

If you are a design student thinking about applying for this program, do it. You will work harder than you expect, think bigger than you thought possible, and leave backing yourself in a way you did not before.

Brnonte Grayson
BMW Group Design Intern, 2026