The past year has taught design educators a great deal about our approach to virtual efficiency. The term “a new normal” is itself now old, and it is up to us as educators and design leaders to create our future. This requires a heightened emphasis on industry collaborations, high-profile guest discussions, wellness programs, and communication workshops in an academic setting. This approach will futureproof emerging designers.
For the past eleven years, SCAD’s collaborative innovation studio, called SCADpro, has provided industry collaborations for students of all disciplines. Some of the many SCADpro partners include Canon, Google, GE, Delta, Coca-Cola, AMC, Orkin, and Home Depot. These are truly collaborations. Students interview, present their portfolios, and are selected to join custom courses that give first-hand opportunities to research and design for top tier companies during a 10-week timeline. The students then present their innovative business solutions to leading industry creatives who now have the opportunity to incorporate these findings into their brands and corporations. Students are then able to use the collaborative work in their reels, resumes and profiles, enhancing their own success in their future creative careers. This provides a fast pass into industry by giving them professional experience before graduation.
Another focus for the faculty of SCAD’s 40+ degree programs is to constantly evaluate and update cross-disciplinary curriculum that directly relates and evolves industry. For example, game design perfectly augments interior design and film. These collaborations are welcomed and sought after. This approach includes researching and introducing the very latest vetted technologies to our students. Faculty constantly research, network and speak with industry contacts to enhance teaching methods, design practices and development. In motion media and game design, advanced levels of learning in applications such as Unreal and Notch are a vital part of undergraduate programs.
SCAD offers a multitude of festivals and guest lectures for student and public consumption, on ground, virtually, or both. Our successful inaugural Futureproof event, held in January, 2021, featured pioneering pros like Grace Dolan, Samsung VP of integrated marketing; Michael Gough, Uber VP of product design, and Google interaction designer and SCAD alumna Shabi Kashani. As Kashani said during a FutureProof panel: “At Google we talk about disability being situational, temporary or permanent. I’m really curious about how we all adapt around the world we’re living in today. I believe establishing our digital well-being is at the forefront of FutureProofing.” To hear this design approach thinking firsthand makes an enormous difference to students.
Lastly, it is imperative that higher education students should have access to communication coaching and professional presentation programs. Not only must you prepare them with a dynamic curriculum, exposure to the latest tech, and opportunities to engage with industry, but in order to truly futureproof these emerging designers, they must be equipped to share their unique vision and story. At SCAD we achieve this through workshops, industry events (both virtually and in-person), and our professional presentation studio titled SCADamp.
By the time they graduate, SCAD students possess a thorough knowledge of how to design and work at industry level. They have a network of alumni and other key industry contacts. They also have industry partnership experiences, communication development, and the innovative tools that they need to succeed.
Utilizing current design methodologies, experiencing industry workflows, visualizing analogous disciplines and solidifying networks and more is what we do. We all must prepare students for a future that remains unwritten. This is the definition of futureproofed.
About the Author: Eric Allen, MEAE | Associate Chair of Interactive Design and Game Development (ITGM), Associate Chair of Motion Media (MOME), Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)