Design Education. University-industry collaboration, a case study

Which Proximity in Design Education? A Contemporary Curriculum, 2025

Preliminary note [In its moment, I prepared this article for the event, 2013 IDA Congress Istanbul – Education and Research Conference but, as this did not take place, so far I had not loaded it here in Academia.Edu. I do it now, because I think anyway this paper have roots of my current interests, and it can serve to establish dialogues with those whom it may concern] In this article I narrate, from my experience as faculty of the Industrial Design Program at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogotá, Colombia, our process of nurturing academic industrial design community in the period 2009-2012. First, I give some historic background on the beginning of the Industrial Design Program at the University of Jorge Tadeo Lozano. Second, I show the design education scenario in Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, as an arena in which different teaching approaches collide from different positions about what industrial design practice must be. Third, I present some of the strategies we have tried to establish in order to consolidate a process to nurturing industrial design community in our program. Fourth, I approach to the concept of community as presented in works of Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Klaus Krippendorff (who visited our university in July 2011). At the end, I dare to denominate " commplurality " to the eventual scenario for the multiple socialization and interaction between people with different positions, sometimes in accordance among themselves, sometimes ignoring or fighting each other.

Strategic Design Research Journal, 2015

The economic crisis that has hit countries in the west in recent years has generated a decline in the presence and the strength of the entrepreneurial class and also of its traditional role of "customer" of the design sector. Design has recently responded to this new situation by generating new working methods. Politecnico di Torino has evolved its classic demanding approach to design and brought it up to date by incorporating "explorative" capacities into the training of its students, providing them with the necessary skills to cope with an absence of market, proposing the designer as a key fi gure capable of exploring existing situations and off ering new solutions. The aim of this paper is to show how, in the absence of market, the strategies that Exploring Design can implement generate system-product, process, service design projects that are always original and innovative, capable of leading quite easily to new methods, business ideas and spheres of activity in which customers can become involved later on.

Portuguese research in terms of Design is mainly organized into contextual groups related to the schools that offer these courses. Its production exists but it is sparse, it is stimulating but hardly stimulated, it can be recognized but barely known, both nationally and internationally. This study starts with the “history” and methodologies of design in order to make a situation report and try to create a strategic contribution that enables more conscious and active development in the Portuguese economic, social and academic contexts. Besides collecting real information about what is/was done and who does/did scientific research on design in Portugal, it is essential to understand the impact of this work on professional practice or on the institutions that have possibly benefited from its results, as well as to think over the vision and expectation of these agents as far as academic research in this area is concerned. As previously mentioned, Portuguese research in terms of design exists but is not recognized nationally or internationally. This does not suggest any kind of minority on the part of Portuguese researchers, especially if we consider that design study appeared in Universities less than two decades ago and that only in January 2007 did the Portuguese Parliament recognize design as an activity that could be subjected to taxes, or in other words, a profession. Even the Science and Technology Foundation (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT) started to explicitly include design as a category in masters and doctoral scholarships only two or three years ago. This is likely due to the fact that post-graduation programs in this area are fairly recent. There are very few doctoral courses, which results in a small critical mass. Fortunately, this has been compensated in higher education institutions by doctorates in other knowledge areas, as well as high quality professionals whose contribution is conclusive for the formation of new generations of designers, as well as for the development of research tasks. The creation of the first design courses in Lisbon and Oporto Fine Arts Faculties in 1974, and its further integration in Universities in the 90s, and then the forthcoming of more courses in other university and polytechnic institutions has called attention to the development of design research, as a consequence of these institutions’ missions and the requirements of the teaching profession. As previously referred, the problem of “defining" what corresponds to research in the area of design has brought to debate the question of whether research done on the development of a project for a product (industrial, communication or services) can be considered “scientific” research or if this can only be analyzed according to the norms used in other academic areas. Without an answer to this interesting and essential question, research in design has appeared, which justifies the doctoral courses that can nowadays be found in various Universities, as well as the appearance of research groups and associations (there is now at least one group that is accredited by the FCT and approved by the Lisbon’s IADE - Institute of Visual Arts, Design and Marketing). Notwithstanding, there does not yet exist any systematized information about design research in Portugal. What has been done? What is being done? What are the objectives? How can they be achieved? What resources can be used? Which methodologies can be employed? What kind of research is being developed and what is its importance for the country? What are the challenges for the future? The answer to these questions makes this study relevant as the implementation of the Bologna process implies a new approach to research as a driving force of university life. The answer to these questions seems elemental to enable the alignment of the critical mass that exists in various institutions so as to give credit and visibility to Portuguese design research, within both the academic and the scientific community, and in both the economic and the social context. Only this knowledge can enable the creation of the necessary synergies for a strategic coordination of these diverse efforts and initiatives.

Communication design, 2015

2016

This proposal aims to investigate and validate the design action by interpreting a culture of making (La Pietra, 1997) applied to the case of the development of straw articles, typical from Fafe region (Northern Portugal), supported by the concept of design experience (Brown, 2005). The first part explores the technique of straw utilization in order to understand their leverage on design method. The second part presents arguments that sustain that the technique can reach a new existence, if framed in connection with Academy and business reality. To support this idea, the authors present a project, initiated with the participation of 30 undergraduate design students. As a result, the projects scope is focused on the exploitation of the straw concept, moving towards its application in different scenarios. Methodologically the authors use the logic of meta-design (Mendini, 1969), connecting the Academy to the community. In educational terms it is intended to guide design student learn ...

Over the past twenty years, the importance of design as a factor of economic development was gradually being consolidated, which increased the demand for vocational training and spawned the exponential growth in the number of design courses in the country. Understand and discuss the genesis of the first Brazilian initiatives in the field of design education becomes therefore relevant and necessary in order to understand the later developments and make allowances for studies that collaborate for improvement. This study sought to contribute to the understanding and expansion of memory on design education in Brazil.

2021

In the design practice, physical action is combined with intellectual action and comprehension of the reference context, the essential starting point and line taken by the project. The ability to create connections (connectedness)1 is developed during the evolution of innovation processes, which, together with the activity of cultural design mediation, contributes towards the diffusion of new behaviours. These new behaviours are oriented by a sense of responsibility, memory and context. The project defines products and strategies as a guide to the introduction of ways to act responding to the social values and expectations in terms of well-being. Three different experiences, three stories have been taken, from which several tools were identified as characteristics of a specific culture and manner. The ability to observe considered to be making visions and concepts take shape, based on knowledge and history and on bonds with tradition; the ability to take care, communicating a specif...

2020

Collaboration and information exchange are the primary tactics for a globally connected locally produced design-through-production process. With strategic industry partners, Ball State University students test knowledge through real-world applications. While the open access to knowledge in the global environment is critical, it is also imperative to consider the ethic of production and regionally specific conditions under which work is enabled. To this end, the paper will reveal specific design-throughproduction industry-partner collaborations, while exploring the regional implications of making locally, and consider the role of the university to serve as a local catalyst for change in a shifting global economic climate.