UNDERGRADUATE COURSE PRODUCT DESIGN

Project by D. Piersanti UNDERGRADUATE COURSE PRODUCT DESIGN THREE-YEAR COURSE IED Milano Bachelor of Arts Degree Italian or English

2 Product Design ied.edu/how-to-apply 50 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE 100% ITALIAN NETWORK 11 LOCATIONS AROUND THE WORLD 10,000 STUDENTS A YEAR 35% OF FOREIGN STUDENTS + 100 NATIONALITIES + 1000 PARTNER COMPANIES 86% PLACEMENT RATE Title* Specialisation Coordinator Duration Credits Language Starting date Further studies Bachelor of Arts Degree in Design Product Design Giacomo Bertolazzi 3 years, full-time 180 English October 2017 Postgraduates, Masters, Specialisation courses * This BA awards 180 Credits Project La luce che verrà, by S. Onaran and T. Borisova

4 THE PROFESSION The Product Designer profession is experiencing a great change, besides designing as a freelance or within a professional studio, he is demanded to directly enter the job market becoming a self-made man, entrepreneur and producer of his own ideas. The traditional relation between Designer and enterprise is evolving and boosts the former to broaden his competences by stepping in not just on the product - the visible part of a project - but also on the related service, the intagible part connected to the relation among product, user and the surrounding system. The Product Designer shows those methodological competences allowing to design objects, strategies and services in the light of researches and market analysis, useful to industrial, self or artisanal productions. Thanks to a user-centered approach he respects nature and humanity; his work is featured by sympathy between people and projects sustainability. Project by O. Cohen, D. Elgrabli, J. A. Mejia Grandos, Y. Wu in collaboration with MIDEA

6 THE COURSE Job prospects Product Designer, Service Designer, Concept Designer, Inventor and Self-Entrepreneur. Today a Designer develops the product but also the connected service, widening professional horizons and improving people s lives. In three years, students acquire the worldwide famous Italian design culture, with origins in Leonardo s genius, capable of expressing works of great aesthetic, functional and emotional value. Students learn to interact with the Italian Design System, that unique and complex network of relations between world designers, Italian companies and craftsmen; in the end, they become Designers. To reach these educational goals and undertake a professional career, students get a wide range of competences: cultural, technical and based on project development. Cultural elements connected to design, architecture and art are analysed but also sociology and anthropology, necessary to comprehend and interpret the evolutionary phenomena of behaviour, the main subject of design. Students are introduced to marketing, a fundamental tool for analysing brand values and corporate market positioning of the companies they work with, and for reading and anticipating consumer needs and trends. Students develop their own solid project development method that, starting from ethical, social and sustainability values, allows them to acquire a mindset for strategic design. This design method is completed by the study of tools to develop, assess and explain a project: the pencil, 3D modelling software, rendering, lab work for the construction of models and prototypes using 3D printers. Thanks to the electronic prototyping platform Arduino, students are able to experiment the interaction between functions of the object and people s behaviour. Project Il valore del cibo by G. Franchi, E. M. Pedrero and D. Piersanti

8 METHODOLOGY AND STRUCTURE Training is divided into six semesters, for a total duration of three years, each one with a specific purpose. The undergraduate path is based on cultural, methodological, technical, technological tools and their application through increasingly complex projects in collaboration with external partners (agencies, companies, institutions). Students can partially define, in relation to their training needs, their individual study plan choosing among specialisations (if available), optional training activities and extra-curricular activities offered by IED network or one of the Partner universities. The first year is introductory and seeks to provide students with the technical, cultural and basic design tools, necessary to manage their creativity and identity. The training activities aim at making students familiar with the basic technical equipment and allow them to acquire an adequate design methodology and a solid cultural preparation. The second year is a moment of in-depth study, in which the method and tools are experienced through structured design workshops. The cultural, economic and technical disciplines in the study plan help students in deepening and integrating contents and phases of the design process, allowing them to acquire knowledge and competence in specific professional areas. During the third year, students are introduced to cultural themes of increasing complexity and get the latest tools for the development and communication of the project. Project planning takes on a dominant role and students learn to independently manage the development of a project. By the third year, students enrolled in the courses taught in Italian have to show proficiency in the English language, while those enrolled in the courses taught in English have to show proficiency in a second foreign EU language (preferably Italian). Students who possess a certificate are assigned credits and are admitted directly to the final test. The graph represents the ratio between theoretical content and design workshops, featuring all of the Undergraduate courses. For students who do not have a certificate, IED shall organise in-house language courses or courses organised in collaboration with certified institutes to get the required proficiency. During these three years, project workshops, cultural seminars, competitions, conferences, special projects, visits to production plants and companies will be proposed as well. 1 ST YEAR 2 ND YEAR 3 RD YEAR Final Project Workshop with Companies Design The Final Project is developed in a professional simulation context in 2 semesters and 2 steps: the first one dedicated to research and detailed study of theoretical, technical tools, necessary to develop the concept. The second one consists of the practical realisation of the project itself and an in-depth analysis in terms of marketing/communication strategies. Cultural Disciplines and Techniques Cross-disciplinary projects

10 The educational training alternates frontal lectures and lab activity through individual or multidisciplinary team projects. The project activity, which is both theoretical and technical, is developed in close collaboration with professors and asserted professionals of the industry and combines tangible design and constant updating of the learning content. IED method - based on learning by doing and project culture - allows students to immediately apply the acquired knowledge and translate it into practical design skills, essential in the job market. IED faculty can count on its team A teaching method that builds its value on the comparison, the exchange and the relationship among students, faculty and companies. of renowned professionals as lecturers, constantly supporting students in their learning experience. Students can benefit from a privileged student/teacher relation thanks to the limited number of participants on a course. Workshops and cross-disciplinary projects carried out in teams of students from different backgrounds develop a multidisciplinary approach. The projects are conducted in collaboration with companies, organisations and institutions, which allows students to contend with the production system. SUBJECTS 1 ST YEAR PERCEPTION THEORY AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FORM The course illustrates the scientific theories that explain the functioning of our senses and connects them to research on the psychology of shape. The course also focuses on the relationship between colour and matter, analysing the material properties of natural and artificial materials and of superficial sensorial responses. Furthermore, the course teaches students to use color atlases (the Munsell System, NCS, Pantone, Pantone Tessile TPX9) in order to develop the ability to distinguish between the hue, value and chroma of a colour. DESIGN METHODS The course provides students with the analytical tools to examine the relationship between product, people, market and brand. Furthermore, the course focuses on the various stages of design development, from the briefing to the final project. Hence, it uses the Design Thinking method to analyze and understand behaviors, people s needs, usability, technological and technical issues. TECHNICAL DRAWING The course explores the principles of descriptive, projective and perspective geometry, all preparatory to the study of technical design and the use of 2D and 3D project design software. The course first focuses on free-hand drawing and then moves on to technical drawing, which represents the analysis and detail of an industrial product. The second part of the course focuses on 3D modeling software. GRAPHIC DESIGN The course sets off with free-hand drawing as a representation tool. It deals with the use of pencil as an expressive tool, in order to teach students to perceive proportions, sizes, and shapes. The second part of the course introduces students to essential software notions, graphic design and image processing software. MATERIALS TYPOLOGY 1 The course focuses on the analysis of the processes and materials used to translate an idea into an industrial product. The materials physical and morphological features are analysed as well as technological, industrial, and handcrafted production processes. Starting from the analysis of pre-existing products, the technological and structural choices are studied in relation to the functional and ergonomic choices made by the Designer.

12 HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ART 1 The course explores the main artistic movements and their main exponents. Together with the historical development of art the course seeks to go into depth with a critical understanding of artistic codes and artworks considered as complex visual texts and as phenomena that illustrate cultural, social and aesthetic evolutions, in relation to other forms of expression and communication (architecture, design, etc.). HISTORY OF DESIGN 1 It seeks to provide students with a basic knowledge to understand the shapes and concepts that underlie industrial products in history. The course also examines the design situation at the time of the industrial revolution, and then studies the birth of the first industrial products to later focus on the project philosophy of the Masters of the Modern Movement and of the designers who have contributed to the history of Italian design from the Post War period up to the present. MODELLING TECHNIQUES 1 The course provides the theoretical and practical tools to produce models using the most suitable materials for the project model and different design steps. 3D vision enables the student to examine the idea and to assess its formal essence. Hence, the model defines the project from a 3D perspective and makes it possible to assess proportions and volumes in real terms. INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL MARKETING The course explores the role of marketing in defining a product strategy and its relationship with design. The concept of market as a place where businesses compete is studied. The course stresses positioning research techniques, in order to strategically determine brand and product value. Finally, it s analysed the marketing mix, which studies the product in relation to the market in order to define promotion and advertising actions. PRODUCT DESIGN 1 The course experiences the Design Thinking method acquired during Design Methods course. The design theme is a small household appliance. It s required the design of an industrial product taking in consideration the needs of people who use it, the market position and the manufacturability. The acquired method helps students to analyze needs and behaviors of people who will use this appliance, all the issues related to usability of the product and those related to techniques and construction. In the first phase students acquire and analyze all the information needed to define the scenario of the project through laboratory activities in classroom under the guidance of the teacher. Other activities are developed on field to understand the design problem. In the second phase, students work on preliminary project and then to definitive project through technical drawings, models and digital presentation. 2 ND YEAR SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE Sociology, as the science of social phenomena, represents one of the most effective tools to understand people behaviors. Hence, it is one of the most valid instruments to study the development of cultures, of ethical and social values, of lifestyles. The course studies the techniques and the tools which allow to understand lifestyles and dynamics of social interaction. DRAWING TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES The course aims at refining students rendering skills, from free-hand drawing to digital tools, to favor communication effectiveness in the presentation of an idea. In all its stages, the project is thus described with the most suitable technique: freehand drawings and digital renderings achieved with the latest and most updated software. MATERIALS TYPOLOGY 2 The course deals with the new frontiers in design related to the DCA (Design Cycle Assessment) philosophy which focuses on the control of a product s sustainability from its creation to the end of its life cycle. The technological features of some families of new-generation materials are examined in relation to their processing and properties of sustainability. The course goes into depth with the most advanced production processes and technologies for rapid prototyping (Rapid Tooling), 3D printing, and self-production. DESIGN 1 The course deals with the theme of self-production for the constitution of a start-up company. Starting from an in-depth research about the environment and of people s behavior and needs, a design concept able to lead to the development of a product is worked out. The product is prototyped and built by means of the typical processes and materials of self-production, with the aim of penetrating the market. The course therefore provides a series of skills for the creation of a business, for identifying the market with the highest commercial potential, and for the analysis of the most promising commercial channels. The experimental character of the course enables the student to design and actually create the prototype in the lab by using technologies like the ones linked to the platform Arduino. HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE The history of architecture is analysed from the point of view of project methodologies and the technological and social contexts. The course explores the heritage of the Modern Movement and its expression in various geographical contexts, both European and international. Through the analysis of buildings, projects and documents, the characteristics of the architecture of the last fifty years are outlined. 3D COMPUTER MODEL- MAKING TECHNIQUES The course focuses on digital image processing in a 3D context. The first part of the course goes into depth with 3D surface modelling software, automatic generation of perspectives, views and sections, shadows, surface texturing, and rendering. The second part of the course explores rendering and animation to create, view and assess 3D objects through texturing and lighting techniques. MODELLING TECHNIQUES 2 A specific training focused on the self-production of objects that guides the student from product design up to the choice of materials and production processes. The course stresses the knowledge of prototyping techniques, thus combining technological know-how with the practical skills of artisanal culture, by means of an experimental approach. HISTORY OF DESIGN 2 The course offers an analytical overview to highlight movements, schools, organizations, companies and designers that have determined the evolution and trends of design. The aim is to stimulate a critical reading of design expressions and to provide fact-finding and methodological tools to situate artworks within a social, economic and cultural context. The course analyses the relationships between expressive languages, companies and people, but also the mutual influence among creative disciplines: architecture, design, fashion, music, and visual arts. DESIGN MANAGEMENT The course deals with the concept of brand, which is the main element in the definition of the values that the company seeks to communicate to the market and the values that the market actually perceives. Then the consumer is analysed, as well as his approach to objects and space, in the light of experience marketing, which today represents the main lever in the positioning process of brands and products. PRODUCT DESIGN 2 Aim of this design course is testing new instruments and techniques of Design Thinking. The design theme is a product that can respond to new behaviors and new trends. It s also necessary to understand what exists on the market today andto design a product with usability features.

14 3 RD YEAR 3D RENDERING TECHNOLOGIES The student learns to use software for photo rendering that can recreate products, objects, materials, and lighting to make them look similar to a photograph. Hence the Designer can create 3D objects and environment with photorealistic images in order to assess the material and chromatic choices made in the project. LAYOUT AND DISPLAY TECHNIQUES The course deals with issues related to the communication of the project and the creation of professional tools, such as the portfolio of projects to present to the customer. The course focuses on how to communicate Learn how to draw and create objects with original style. the genesis of project idea by the composition of a storyboard, intended as an organizational chart of the project narrative. Moreover, students learn to use software to generate multimedia communication tools for the project. DESIGN 2 This project is the preliminary part of the final project laboratory, which takes place in the second semester. Their project are in collaboration with companies or associations, or may be proposed by the students. The student choose a theme at the beginning of the course. This course together with the final project laboratory, is the course which allows students to use all the technical, methodological and cultural elements learned in the three-year course. In addition, the presence of companies gives students the opportunities to live the simulation of a professional experience. PRODUCT DESIGN 3 The course focuses on the design of services, a booming project field. The issue concerns the application of services to the inhabitants of the cities, with the aim of simplifying life. Groups of people who have similar needs and behaviors have been identified by the school. Students focus their analysis on this specific group through advanced tools of Design Thinking, which are used to develop a survey on field to get in connection with the identified groups. The project involves both the development of the service (the intangible part), both the development of objects and products that will help the implementation of the service (tangible part). PHENOMENOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY ART The course uses phenomenology as a science and method to understand the connection between reality and creative expression. Artistic phenomena are contextualised within their era to explain how they have been influenced by, and simultaneously magnify, their historical context, affecting society. The course delves into a multiplicity of artistic fields and intertwines them with timely issues like sustainability, fair trade, multiculturalism and globalisation. The perception of the arts and man s surrounding environment ultimately delivers the experience that phenomenology analyses in this class. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY It s a branch of human sciences focused on the study of the human being within specific socio-cultural environments, which aims at defining ethnic groups ideas, life styles and culture. Among its main methods, there is the ethnographic survey, which consists in the participant observation of the society, its practices and interplays. The anthropologist applies this method by living within the society under observation, side by side with its members and conducting interviews and documental analysis. He then works out his theories by stepwise simplifications and abstractions using inductive reasoning. With this course, students improve their skills in their design s primal survey. Design LAB

16 Project by S. Crivaro, M. Marconi, A. Trapletti in collaboration with TwentyFourHours

18 DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN AND APPLIED ARTS School of Art and Design for Business Bachelor of Arts Degree in Product Design Location: Milano SUBJECT CREDITS 1 ST YEAR PERCEPTION THEORY AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FORM 4 DESIGN METHODS 4 TECHNICAL DRAWING 8 GRAPHIC DESIGN 8 MATERIALS TYPOLOGY 1 6 HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ART 6 HISTORY OF DESIGN 1 4 MODELING TECHNIQUES 1 4 INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL MARKETING 4 PRODUCT DESIGN 1 8 Interdisciplinary Lectures/Seminars/ Workshops 4 Total credits required 1st year 60 2 ND YEAR SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE 6 DRAWING TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES 4 MATERIALS TYPOLOGY 2 4 DESIGN 1 6 HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE 4 3D COMPUTER MODEL-MAKING TECHNIQUES 6 MODELING TECHNIQUES 2 4 HISTORY OF DESIGN 2 4 DESIGN MANAGEMENT 6 PRODUCT DESIGN 2 10 Electives Interdisciplinary Lectures/Seminars/ Workshops 6 Competitions Total credits required 2nd year 60 3 RD YEAR 3D RENDERING TECHNOLOGIES 6 LAYOUT AND DISPLAY TECHNIQUES 4 DESIGN 2 8 PRODUCT DESIGN 3 10 PHENOMENOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS 6 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 4 Electives Internships Competitions 10 Interdisciplinary Lectures/Seminars/ Workshops Foreign language 2 FINAL PROJECT 10 Total credits required 3rd year 60 Total credits required during 3 years 180 EXTRA VALUES STUDYING IN ITALY AND WORLDWIDE IED is not just an excellent Italian school but mainly a network with branches in Italy, Spain, Brazil and partnerships in all continents. Students are the core of connections among professors, professionals, companies, institutions and Partner Universities in Italy and abroad. The international atmosphere enriches a direct comparison between different cultures and designing methods, training a contemporary designer, always on point speaking of the latest trends, both locally and internationally. The international dimension is confirmed by the diversity of students nationalities: more than 90 every year. IED is part of Cumulus (International Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media), ELIA (The European League of the Institute of Arts) as well as a member of ERASMUS+. It also mantains links with various International Universities and Academic Associations, including: ADI (Association for Industrial Design), NAFSA (Association of International Educators), and EAIE (European Association for International Education). This wide-ranging group of International Organisations provide the chance for students to take part in the Exchange Study Program and in the Erasmus + Program and spend a semester abroad at one of our partner universities. IED BUSINESS HUB Is the brand-new platform that maximizes the value of relations between companies and IED talents. It offers a dedicated support on international talents assessment through the Placement Plus, a strategic consultancy with a database of former students featuring an international nature, multicultural environment and interdisciplinarity. CAREERS IED organises Career Days where students can meet companies and supports graduated students through a dedicated placement service. LABS Labs are the core of IED training, the places where theoretical skills can be translated into practice thanks to the latest technologies. SERVICES IED offers its students many services: Admission Center, International Student Desk, Accommodation, Agreements. For further details please visit ied.edu/services

20 BECOMING A IED STUDENT IS SIMPLE In order to identify which course best suits you, or to explore the development of the profession that you want to undertake, IED offers you the help of an Advisor. Click on Book Interview or Request Information from the web page of any course to get in touch with the IED Advisor assisting you in your choice. After choosing the course best fitting your expectations, you are ready to start the admission process. ADMISSION AND ENROLMENT PROCESS IED procedures The procedure is started by clicking Apply Online on ied.edu: 1) Submission of dossier 2) Admission interview 3) Admission confirmation 4) Enrolment confirmation and dossier finalisation A dedicated IED Advisor assists you throughout the whole process. Portfolio A Portfolio is strongly suggested to show the candidate s creative aptitude and support the application. It could be an organised selection of works (if available), a brand new creative self-introduction, or a presentation on a chosen topic through different/mixed media. Deadline Depending on the chosen course and country of origin/destination, different deadlines may be imposed by official procedures, in addition to the selective entry. IED always recommends to check with local diplomatic authorities about Visa requirements and calendars, verify with IED Advisor special promotions and relevant deadlines, complete the enrolment process four months before the beginning of the course. ied.edu/how-to-apply SCHOLARSHIPS IED supports the most talented applicants awarding scholarships on a merit basis. For further information please contact IED advisors or visit creativecontexts.com