Life after Top Designs with 2026 alumni, Maya Soha
Top Designs 2026 is now open running until Sunday 26 July with tickets available via the Melbourne Museum website.
Star of the Sea College graduate and Top Designs 2026 exhibitor Maya Soha shares what she’s been up to after Top Designs. Maya, who is now studying Design and Architecture at Monash University, described being selected for Top Designs as a “really meaningful opportunity”.
In what ways did your Top Designs selection shape your creative identity or confidence in your tertiary studies?
Being selected for Top Designs was a really meaningful opportunity. It reinforced the idea that creativity, dedication, and hard work can be recognised, which has helped me persevere during challenging university projects. My Top Designs selection has served as a positive reminder of the success I can achieve and increased my confidence in presenting and sharing ideas, which is particularly important in the design field. Most importantly, it encouraged me to have trust in my own design process and creative instincts. I am motivated to continue experimenting, take creative risks, and push towards developing my skills as a designer.
What does a day in the life of a Design and Architecture student at Monash University look like?
Design and Architecture are both very social courses, all classes are on campus and involve studio work. I enjoy that no two days are the same. My week is centred around architecture studios (about 15 students in each), alongside one separate design drawing class. The architecture studio projects are guided by task sheets and semester-long briefs, and involve developing design ideas, creating drawings, building models, researching precedents, or discussing work with tutors and classmates. There are always opportunities to develop our designs and receive feedback. The group studio set up has made it easy for me to make friends and meet new people in the cohort.
How does your university experience compare to what you imagined working in the design would be like?
I am finding university to be quite similar to what I expected. A short design internship that I undertook with the Monash Design Health Collab, prior to commencing my studies helped guide me towards my current course. It also gave me the opportunity to further develop practical design skills in research, problem-solving, and creative thinking. This provided valuable insight into what working in design is like, and accordingly, my practices in university have felt very familiar. One aspect that surprised me, however, was how collaborative design is. I quickly learned that regular discussions with peers and tutors, along with critiques and reviews, are an important part of developing designs.
Are there skills you developed while creating your Top Designs product that have been useful in your studies so far?
Throughout the development of my Top Designs product in VCE, I gained several skills that have been valuable during my first semester. One of the most useful has been an understanding of the design process and the importance of developing and refining ideas over time. Learning to respond constructively to feedback and use it to improve outcomes has been relevant in my studio classes. Another skill I developed through creating my VCE product was perseverance. Design projects rarely progress exactly as planned, so the ability to overcome challenges, adapt to setbacks, and continue working towards a solution has been incredibly beneficial in my studies so far.
Top Designs is an annual exhibition at Melbourne Museum presenting work created by students who completed VCE Media, Product Design and Technologies, Systems Engineering and Visual Communication Design, as well as a range of VCE VET studies including Creative and Digital Media, Engineering Studies, Furnishing, Integrated Technologies and Music (Sound Production).