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NTU lead workshops for South Korean design students in international partnership

International cultural organisation Gwangju Design Center (GDC) collaborated with Nottingham Trent University (NTU) to give students from South Korea the opportunity to experience new ways of learning.

    Undergraduate design students from the Korean Design Membership programme
    Students on the Korean Design Membership programme with NTU Senior Product Design Lecturers Dr Daniel Shin and Grant Baker

    The GDC is one of four organisations in Korea funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), a government body which supports projects that aim to grow the country’s design industry.

    Nine undergraduate design students from universities across the Gwangju region were selected to participate in workshops at both NTU and GDC as part of the Korea Design Membership (KDM), a programme funded by MOTIE that gives young designers the opportunity to work on projects overseas.

    On 19 August 2019, the chosen students arrived at NTU for the first stage of the project, a three-day workshop led by NTU Senior Lecturers in Product Design, Dr Daniel Shin and Grant Baker.

    The group were set a brief by Dale Nicholls, Design Director of innovative design agency TouchPack, in which they were tasked to create packaging design concepts for confectionary goods.

    Over the course of the three days, the students undertook field research and presented their findings and ideas, with the view to give them an insight into creating products for the UK market.

    Following the first workshop, the NTU academics headed to the GDC in Gwangju, South Korea between 9 – 11 September for the second stage of the project.

    Here, the students were set the challenge of creating another design concept for the agency, but this time targeting the Korean market.

    The participants carried out focus groups and were given the chance to bring their ideas to life using 3D printing.

    Dr Daniel Shin commented: “For me personally, it was an amazing opportunity to invite students from the country where I was born and raised. It was a pleasure to teach and share the knowledge that I have learnt here in the UK with the students involved.”

    Grant Baker added: "Working with the young designers selected for the KDM project was a great honour and fantastic experience. The project set was a challenging brief that exposed the cohort to new ways of thinking within varied cultural contexts.

    "It was a pleasure to tutor the students in key design methodologies used in product design at NTU and to see these methods adopted and successfully implemented in their own work."

    NTU’s involvement with the KDM programme is set to continue in 2020, when another group of students from South Korea will visit NTU to participate in workshops designed to build their experience and knowledge of the UK design industry.

    Published on 4 November 2019
    • Subject area: Art and design
    • Category: Culture; Current students; Research; School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment