D+I hosts product design and engineering students

D+I was honoured to open up our Melbourne design studio as part of the Emerging Designers initiative.

The Emerging Designers Council, part of the Design Institute of Australia’s Victorian branch, organised tours of creative studios across Melbourne, including product design consultancies, photography studios and advertising firms. The aim was to get Melbourne university students from various design disciplines, including product design and engineering, and emerging designers in front of practising design companies to help develop their knowledge and understanding of the design profession.

The D+I night was sold-out, with budding young product designers wanting to get an inside look at the studio. It was a great opportunity for our team to connect with young designers and share a behind-the-scenes tour of our new studio, design lab and creative collaboration spaces.

The night kicked off with showroom tour and company introduction, to give the students a brief background on why D+I is the successful design consultancy it is today. We then took them through a slide deck that presented the reality of a modern industrial design consultancy, and in particular the comprehensive service stack that D+I offers. 

One of the design examples showcased was the work we have done on the Exoflex hand therapy device developed for BES Healthcare in the UK. The students loved our creative use of simple prototyping tools. We put together a fast and inexpensive prototype made from Lego® components and 3D prints to test, learn and refine the primary concept of finger joint manipulation for the device.

The students got to see that behind the romance of being a ‘designer’ is the detailed work we do to complete a development program for commercialisation. The iterative nature of testing new innovations was illustrated with a multi-generational walk through 11 fully-functional prototypes of Exoflex. This insight in to the inner workings of an industrial design consultancy was a reality-check for the students.

Our team was impressed with the students and graduates, with a Q&A session revealing a keen interest in the profession. The students were told that, along with their studies, it was vital to open up their minds beyond what is taught in the classroom, to integrate diverse skill sets that will help them to uncover new insights and innovations.