10 Oct 2014 / The school and employees

Camp round-off

The DesignCamp2014 has ended. Over the last two weeks, 56 students from home and abroad have worked hard to design concepts for new business opportunities for a total of 11 companies.
By mfs@dskd.dk

Under the theme welfare design, the students collaborated with the companies to develop concepts that can improve the life quality of elderly people.

New opportunities with “sidestepping”
The result is 16 unique design concepts which are all bids on new business opportunities for the companies. The participants have worked with a new concept, “sidestepping”, which is about using the competences a company already has to move into a new business area. In this case the welfare area. The students have developed both products and services; from an intelligent system that gives the elderly people a better shopping experience, a lamp that can magnify text and send it to a TV screen so it becomes easier to read, to a semi-closed outdoor area with heated furniture and recreational oases where elderly people can easily move around and enjoy the fresh air in spite of the weather.

Presentations – and next step
The innovative designs were presented on the final day of the camp at a special exhibition in the canteen at Design School Kolding where both representatives from the companies and the teachers in the camp gave feedback to the students. Afterwards, the companies and students continued working on the concepts in a so-called Pilot Workshop, where they discussed how the companies can develop the concepts further.