It's hard to imagine how insightful sitting in front of a class talking and typing code can get. But teaching at NAFA has been incredibly refreshing both for my professional practice and (I hope) to a larger extent the students I teach—future designers.

It's somewhat liberating, maybe even romantic, for me to introduce a working environment that's free of frameworks and CSS pre-processors to freshmen students.

What are the traits I hope to see in these students in a couple of years time when they graduate?

I'm told that time and experience is the ultimate teacher for year 1 students to gradually grow in professional maturity. Apart from honing their craft, perhaps I'm hoping these students can develop a broader understanding of their creative space. It's a little je ne sais quoi (or I'm just terrible at articulating what it is) but maybe it's an understanding that none of us can excel in our profession unless we become more self aware.