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Students diversify their skills in exciting international design projects

Our BA (Hons) Product Design students collaborated with students from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Hanbat National University (HBNU) in South Korea to design products for each unique market.

    NTU and Hong Kong PolyU students
    Grant Baker's (second from right) visit to PolyU to review the outcomes of the international design project

    Year Two BA (Hons) Product Design students from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and PolyU researched the commercial homeware market in Hong Kong and the UK, to develop a small stool or bench for each individual market, specifically for production in wood.

    Students swapped directional research, conducting an in-depth analysis into the needs and wants of each market’s target audience. To facilitate their project, all students involved had regular online conferences each week to share their findings and progress.

    Following this project, students also worked on a similar brief with their counterparts at HBNU, exploring the cultural elements relating to the traditional UK stilton harvest and Korean kimchi harvest, and preparations involved.

    PolyU School of Design
    PolyU School of Design

    Senior Lecturers in Product Design, Grant Baker and Daniel Shin, initiated the collaborative projects a year ago in an effort to internationalise the University’s offerings, equipping students with sought-after skills for the workplace.

    Grant, who visited PolyU to review the students’ project work, told us: “The international design projects provide a vibrant international learning experience that facilitates the reciprocal exchange of intellectual design culture. This experience has allowed our students to not only see common ground between designers from all across the world, but also exposed the feasibility for their own future success as product designers within the ever-growing global community.”

    Daniel added: “We believe that, in a globalised industry, future designers will require skills in understanding the cultures of other countries, and be expected to communicate with clients through an online/virtual environment. This skillset is essential within our product design curriculum. In addition, this opportunity will enable us to expand our international partners to build more case studies that will support us in developing the project into a credit-bearing module with overseas partners.”

    HBNU has offered two summer school scholarships this year to our BA (Hons) Product Design students, covering accommodation and tuition fees.

    Published on 7 May 2019
    • Category: Current students; School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment