Collaborating With Norwegian Industry In An Advanced Studio Environment

In a globalised economy competitive advantage will be created through the development of innovative products, services and systems. From a design educational perspective much has been debated on how to direct post-graduate design teaching to create value-add beyond ‘Core Industrial Design’. This value-add is to be established through focusing on specialized areas of design, such as strategy, innovation, interaction, transportation, etc. At the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Department of Product Design, an educational framework for strategic design has been set up, where industrial design master degree students collaborate with companies as frequently and as interactively as possible. The uniqueness of this program was that each student had been allocated a company, instead of a specific design brief. In this context, the problem space and solution had to be formulated by the student him-or herself, using complex analysis and design methods. From an educational perspective, this led to customized course preparation, mentoring and student evaluation. In this paper the following aspects in connection to studio teaching will be discussed: • The introduction of a step-by-step strategic design process to facilitate product planning and management among three types of industrial projects • A teaching methodology to facilitate advanced design thinking and activity among year 4 Industrial Design students • Level of innovation achieved by adopting Buijs’ Product Planning and Management strategy.