Project Brief

As some of the most driven students of the senior Industrial Design class at Pratt Institute, we have developed a course that will pair our love for design with our passion for the outdoors.  This studio, we believe, will enable us to enter the professional design world that we are so passionate about.  Pratt’s Industrial design department has taught us to seek out the best design opportunities for our education and learning needs.  Due to the strength and skills of its faculty, we are engaged young designers.  Our faculty has fostered our passion, excitement, and extreme sense of drive.  Giving us the ability and freedom to truly explore design to the fullest potential of our creativity.

The goal of this studio is to give students design opportunities outside of the classroom. Incorporating in depth field research, and project testing, this course will engage students in a greater understanding of design and its real world application.

Semester Overview

1.     Semester long senior level Directed Research course

2.     Week-long trip to the Ecuadorian Andes to summit Cotopaxi during our winter vacation.  This trip will act as a kick-off to the semester.  This will foster problem recognition as well as current market research.

3.     2 weekend excursions during the semester to local state parks to give students the opportunity to test initial products and concepts in the appropriate setting. 

4.     One weekend excursion for a final project testing performed around week 12 to test final designs and prototypes.  This will allow students to come back to the classroom to analyze successes and failures as well as provide proper testing to finalize designs and prototypes

Furthermore:

1. We would like to, and have researched to date, companies that might act as industry partners for this project.  We see the value of working with experience in this regard.  We would also like to propose that if we can garner industry partnership that the company outfit the camping trips if possible.  

2. We see that it might be more feasible if we separate the various functions for camping.  Each student in the class would be assigned, or volunteer, to solve one task.  This would enable the group to cover much ground, as well as, focus each students activity in a much more precise way.

In conclusion, course has the ability to be an extraordinary experience for students. We are sure it will be remarkable, breathtaking and extremely productive.  Not only for the students involved but also for the other students and faculty members.  As this class’s deliverables will create a base of knowledge, creating a learning tool, for potential projects to come.