DESIGN FORUM PROJECTS Make design a competitive advantage! Our design know-how at your service. The Design Forum (the research, product development and service centre for design innovations) is the Academy’s link with business, information services and management, and other training organisations. All the Academy’s joint projects with colleges, businesses and organisations are organised via the Design Forum. Through the Forum the Academy also offers clients research in design and graphic design, design and product development services, and graphic design services. Projects at the Design Forum are led by a Design Manager. The Forum also has two project planners acting as links with the client and the teachers/students working on the project. By means of project work we encourage businesses to exploit the potential of design in their own product development strategies and support the client- and marketing-oriented teaching in accordance with the Academy’s degree programmes in design and graphic design. We thus train students for professional assignments in their respective fields. Projects fall into two categories: development projects for which funds (investment and operating grants) are sought from various financing organisations, and corporate projects tying in with study carried out as commissions for corporate clients. These commissions, executed according to the client’s requirements, are for design, graphic design and prototyping services as part of our service concept. Examples of projects >Our design services cover graphic, ceramic, glass, textile, product (industrial, interior, furniture and precious metal) and fashion design. They may take the form of design or product development projects, usability studies, design of a company’s visual identity, logo or emblem, individual products, product ranges, co-productions and competitions. The Design Forum may also assign topics provided by clients to students as topics for their theses. The focal areas in the R&D carried out by Kuopio Academy of Design are: • product communication and usability The information technology highlighted in strategies for the Kuopio region is also a focal area of the R&D in design. Design know-how is, in particular, manifest in the content production involved in information technology and in visualisation and modelling skills. The Design Forum has indeed been developed to bring together product development and research projects in different fields of expertise. The role of design in the promotion of well-being is a focal element of our R&D. One of the Design Forum projects for 2000-2004 was a Design Park project in accordance with the EU objective 1 programme. The final report described the development of the project-based training and service concept. Design as a means of enhancing well-being is a major item for Kuopio Academy of Design in a project funded by the Ministry of Education addressing the development of well-being know-how. This project is addressing aspects of product development and usability research as practical applications for SMEs and carrying out pilot projects in companies making well-being products. Contact persons: Ms Raisa Leinonen Mr Toni Ruotsalainen Ms Petra Penttinen Email addresses are formed as follows: forname.surname@designkuopio.fi. |