Abstract:

Design studies imply the knowledge of vastly diverse fields of subjects and topics as well as a copious amount of creativity and technical thinking. The various methods we use in teaching students the proper methods of approaching design are meant to improve skills, push boundaries and test distinct means of acting and reacting to new challenges.

Focusing on every step of a project, we approach a general method of progressive work phases, that spans from an idea to a sketch, technical solutions, and, at last, the prototype. We encourage our students to propose bold solutions, to act courageously during the entire creative process, and to never skip steps, such as running into a creative block while thinking about the difficulties that may occur during the implementation phase. A valuable suggestion is that every step has its own advantage and usefulness, as the purpose of design studies is to nurture a safe environment where students can find out “how it’s done”, explore, learn, debate, and apply a collection of best practices and methods of manifesting creativity and knowledge on a project.

Experimenting is absolutely essential through every step of any given project. Students have to experiment with different mediums of representation, from traditional to contemporary and even prospective mediums, in order to discover revolutionary design methods. New materials, new technologies, and new environments are components that can solve problems or make a process more efficient, but the most important aspect of the design process is the experiment itself as a practice, followed by its outcome and the analysis of said outcome.

The experience starts from a convention between the teaching staff and the students, where we all agree on being courageous, trying out new approaches, and thinking outside the box. First-year students are invited to understand the space that they are studying in, the University’s studios and workshops, and to choreograph them as they please. The choreography of the creative environment is always manifesting different types of approaches to design matters, solutions, and methods of creating new and innovative concepts, all through our students. This is an example of focusing on the process rather than the result. The concept of user experience is explored by analyzing behaviors, actions, or non-actions and reactions to different stimuli. As we play along with our students as teammates, we try to simulate the profession and everything it implies. We experiment and learn by making ourselves the subject of the studies to better understand, on a personal level, what experience means. We manage to conversate about different ways of thinking by trying and doing different exercises. We believe that we can only understand a subject and its methods by experiencing its real features.

Keywords:

Exercises, experience, future of creativity, revolutionary design methods, experiment, practice, stimuli, innovative concepts, students, courage.