It’s On!

During the weekend 29 students from all over the world arrived to Kolding excited to be part of the two-week DesignCamp at Design School of Kolding.

And with only two weeks to embark on one of the greatest design journeys of their lives, the 29 students from other universities along with 18 students from Design School of Kolding gathered early Monday morning to a full day of briefing and workshops. This year, 11 companies make their company available to the design students and work with them as they produce new ideas and concepts that create social and economic value.

Based on their individual, cultural backgrounds (21 nationalities!) the students absorb input from the conference on 29 September, work with the companies, and bring design into play as they develop visual design concepts to promote social innovation.

The students have very different backgrounds but are all excited to be part of the Camp team:

Jasper Andrew Ryan, Civil Engineering, Creative Intelligence & Innovation, University of Technology Sydney:
-I’m very passionate about social innovation and I hope that what I learn here in Denmark will enable me to do good things back home.

Ciara Musnitzky, Interior Design, Greenside Design Center, Johannesburg, South Africa:
-I study Interior Design and I hope to expand my knowledge about design.

Jessica Ann Brown, MBA (Design), Case Western University, Cleveland, USA:
-I’m actually new to design. I have a background in Chemistry and Business Marketing and I’m here to bring my professional background into play in relation to design and social innovation.

Why use design?
Design is about creating products and services that benefit users and improve the bottom line of companies. Yet, design is also a strategic tool to set the direction for a business. Through user-studies, visualisations and constant prototyping, design can provide overview and knowledge, establish possible future scenarios, and connect people and professions. All of these are essential components when a business wants to integrate social innovation.

Presentation & Exhibition
The students present their concept ideas on Friday 9 October. The Presentation, which is also an exhibition of the student projects, is followed by a Pilot Workshop facilitated by design consultants. The objective of the Pilot Workshop is to allow companies, students and conference participants to work together to identify and address possibilities and challenges of implementing the concepts in real life.

Partner companies
EasyFood, Kolding Havn, Mungo Park, Our Daily Heroes, Isabella Fortelte Danmark, Kolding Hotel Apartments, Lammhults Biblioteksdesign, Messe C, Nord Gourmet, Olino, Syddansk Kvæg.

DesignCamp2015 is organised in collaboration between Design School Kolding, D2i - Design to innovate, Syddansk Vækstforum, TREFOR and the EU Social Fund.