While Mustard Lane isn’t literally at F.I.T., it is directly across the street! And it just so happens that a dear friend of Kristal’s teaches a Spatial Experience Design course there! Now, there’s some Mustard Lane lore here… Kristal met Barb (the ever-brilliant FIT teacher at hand!) through Ally, who you may remember as our lovely catering partner! Kristal actually moved into Barb’s office within Ally’s first space, when Barb had outgrown it. How about that for a history lesson?! Let’s learn more about this course and Mustard Lane’s involvement…
The Spatial Experience Design Program
What is this class, you ask? The class is Brand Activations and Experience Design and it’s part of the Spatial Experience Design Program at FIT. They all graduate with a BFA in SED! As you might or might not know, the events industry is ever-evolving and fast-growing! Activations, Experiences and Events are a big piece of the promotion and visibility of brands. Students in these courses explore and create meaningful, inspiring translations of brand campaigns and new products. They do this through interactive spaces, installations and experiences with the goal of educating, inspiring and gaining brand loyalty of consumers.
The mission of the Spatial Experience Design Program at FIT is to educate and empower designers to conceptualize, prototype, and realize environments that engage audiences and shape meaningful experiences. Through a curriculum that integrates storytelling, spatial design, fabrication, and technology, Barb prepares graduates to lead across sectors including retail innovation, experiential marketing, visual merchandising, set design, exhibition design and environmental branding. Wow!
Mustard Meets F.I.T.
Well, every year, the Internal Team at Mustard Lane hosts Barb’s current F.I.T. students and leads a cozy masterclass on all things Staffing! Barb knows firsthand the importance of high-quality staff and brand ambassadors; bringing her students to Mustard Lane allows them to get a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into the staffing process and the many different ways they can utilize staff for their future projects!
The ML Team usually starts with a silly, interactive entrance for the students, to get a little taste of how you can morph a check-in process into something fun and curated! From there, we give some background on the company and it’s processes. We also like to go through a few recent events we’ve staffed, to show how it all looks and operates in real life! (Lots of fun and wild stories are shared too…there’s never a dull moment in the events world.) The students enjoy getting to see different decks for various staffing plans and events – it’s great insight! And of course, there’s always time for a talkback, allowing the FIT students a chance to ask any burning questions. This year, we even managed to get Ally involved! She was able to provide an extra perspective from the food prep side of things.
Sending It On
Mustard’s connection to Barb’s class is one we hold near and dear! In the spring, we also head across the street to FIT and peruse the student’s projects – providing feedback from a staffing perspective as well. It’s nice to foster that connection even further by witnessing their growth throughout the year. And hey, Barb’s students have even become Laners! In fact, one year, a student became ML’s very first intern!
If you’d like to learn more about Barb, check out her website and instagram! She’s got some really cool stuff goin’ on!