An enlightening challenge: the Procter & Gamble multidisciplinary student design collaborative

Design education is in constant transition. It is becoming more critical that designers are trained to think, strategize and collaborate. Designers are required to approach design problems with a holistic standpoint for creating innovative products and emotional brand experiences. This paper is a descriptive case study of an interdisciplinary course that was centered on a junior–level product design collaborative studio with additional enrolments of engineering and graphic design students. The class was divided into student teams and was co-taught by both product and graphic design faculty in a ten–week academic quarter. The Procter and Gamble Company (P&G) provided funding and a theme for the course project, which was to develop a product design and brand strategy relevant to an intended consumer experience. This arrangement allowed the students to learn cooperatively and to gain experience where success was a function of the convergence and divergence of the participating disciplines. The key focus of this paper is to examine a product, engineering, and graphic design educational collaborative experience from the students’, instructor’ and the sponsors’ perspectives where the gaps were both empowering and constraining during the different phases of the design process, from information gathering, analysis and interpretation, opportunity and criteria definition to design documentation and presentation. This study identifies issues of concern to the participants and discusses the influences of these concerns on leadership, team interaction, communication, roles and responsibilities, and quality of work.