Abstract:

In this course, fourth year undergraduate students in Industrial design, graphic design, and packaging science collaborate on interdisciplinary teams to create sustainable and innovative packaging solutions for industrial clients and national competitions. This experiential course includes all phases of the design process: research and competitive analysis, visual audits, audience identification and the creation of personas, material research, and physical and virtual prototyping. Teams meet with clients for feedback and to refine their solutions. Teams then gain experience in presentation and story-telling strategies when they present to clients or submit their solutions to competitions. This course is a highly competitive course that exemplifies the best pedagogical practices in the college. In this course, students learn collaborative strategies, develop empathy for and an understanding of the challenges faced by the other disciplines, and create highly professional solutions that are market-tested.

In addition, this interdisciplinary experience prepares students for the design professions, where collaboration is an expected norm of daily practice.

Keywords:

Graphic design, industrial design, packaging science, interdisciplinary, experiential, collaboration.