01.07.2007
Stuart A. Veech appointed Senior Research Fellow at the Royal College of Art London – Dept. of Industrial Engineering.
Research areas to include Media, Ambient and Augmented Environments.

IDE MANIFESTO

www.rca.ac.uk/pages/study/ma_industrial_design_engineering_169.html

The 21st Century has been about change. Change that has been dramatic and swift. Such as: corporations falling from grace, the dotcom bubble bursting, globalisation and antiglobalisation somehow marching forward in tandem, the evaporation of job security, decimation of pensions, collapsing trust in politicians. Where does all this leave the designer?

The designer is at the heart of all this: riding the tiger of change, reflecting the values of the moment, and influencing the future. Product design now has the pace, the immediacy and the quality that’s previously been just a dream. Complex product designs increasingly go from concept ideas to the shops in just a few months. Ideas migrate from sketches to form models, CAD files, rapid prototypes, production tools, circuits and mouldings.

And the work zips around the world as it progresses between companies and experts: maybe a brainstorming in New York, a concept design in London, rapid prototypes in Germany, tooling in Japan, production in China.. and sales? Well, everywhere.

Much, much more is now required of the designer: planning and strategy, web and remote working, multidisciplinary team management, and digital methods. And these skills are additive: they do not replace drawing, or grappling with form and function. Our course is evolving to meet these new demands, both in terms of teaching and facilities.

Increasingly, we see Industrial Design Engineering as a creative “hub discipline”, with our students at the centre of complex, demanding projects, working with several disciplines and juggling creatively to achieve great designs. We see this both at college and later on in practice, either in companies, consultancies or running start ups.

This year’s student model is a significant upgrade: plug ‘n’ play, web ready, and hot to trot: we wish them every success. Maybe we’ll call this the renaissance model?

Tom Barker, Professor
Roger Hibberd, Joint head of Department
Industrial Design Engineering, the Royal College of Art
London, June 2004

About Industrial Design Engineering

Our philosophy is that of the Enlightenment: creativity, design and science in harmony. In contemporary terms, we see Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) as a cutting-edge discipline in which our graduates work at the centre of complex, demanding projects, juggling creatively in teams, to achieve great ideas, designs and successful products.

IDE was born out of the need for leaders in contemporary design to have skills that extend beyond design, materials and technology, to also encompass creative business, marketing and the role of the entrepreneur.

In essence, IDE is a unique hub discipline, from which creative multi disciplinary projects are inspired, led or joined and then executed. The combination of technical and creative design skills is vital for this. Hub requirements also include teamworking, innovation management, entrepreneurial skills and the ability to manage and communicate effectively with other disciplines: industrial design, architecture, finance, marketing and research.

The department believes in the benefits to society of design. Successful design improves our quality of life and facilitates wealth creation. In this context, an IDE graduate must be equipped to undertake and manage the most challenging and innovative design projects.

JOINT COURSE WITH IMPERIAL COLLEGE
IDE is a joint two-year MA with Imperial College London. The course is delivered by a staff team from the RCA and Imperial College in the department studios within the multidisciplinary environment of the RCA.

Students already have a technical degree, relevant experience or excellent aptitude when they arrive and the course provides a springboard into a creative world. They embark on a very intense educational programme in which the first year is skills-based plus project-based and the second year is project-based only. The resulting qualification is an MA in IDE from the RCA and a diploma from Imperial College