Product Design
The development of a designer's mind is the foundation of our program. By understanding the conceptual language of design coupled with the technical skills, our students learn to create appropriate methods to approach a variety of design issues. Students discover underlying structures, patterns, and relationships that are universal in both products and services.
Product Design students build on this conceptual foundation with the techniques necessary to develop, visualize, and communicate their ideas. Research, drawing, model making, computer aided design, and presentation skills are taught through both traditional and state of the art technology.
Through rigorous practice of these skills our students gain the ability to pursue innovative and elegant solutions that elevate the user experience.
Our design philosophy is very straight forward: provide our students with a broad conceptual
basis for understanding design problems and equip them with an
integrated skill set to solve those problems. In order to do this we
engage our students in a rigorous curriculum that is both traditionally
focused (hand skills) as well as the latest software and hardware
(computer aided design and computer aided manufacturing CAD/CAM). Our
students are exposed to working professionals, seasoned academics, and
an extremely knowledgeable staff. Chicago is our lab outside the
classroom allowing us to engage with outside companies, outside
organization with design needs, and the real world.
We try to
convey to our students the importance of design as a tool of change and
not fashion- emphasizing social, cultural, economic and environmental
issues as well as engaging whenever possible in real world problems.
Our students have worked on projects that range from designing
interfaces for Alzheimer patients to re-thinking obesity and exercise
on the grade school and high school level. Outside collaborators have
included: The Center for Neighborhood Technology, The Museum of
Contemporary Art, Bretford, various Alzheimer organizations, Life
Fitness, and most recently the City of Chicago and their Bike 2015 Plan.
Columbia
College Chicago's product design concentration is entering its 10th
year and continues to grow connect with other programs within the art
and design department as well as within the life of the broader college.
PRODUCT V Bike Project: PBwiki
DEMO Magazine article on PD Graduate Mark Kinsley (pdf)