Co-Design Studio

Too often, innovation is based on our own ideas and perspectives. Or simply technology-driven, creating a push to the market. Our international programme on Co-Design is aimed at inspiring you and supporting you in becoming an expert in understanding the user and their context – and thus creating better products or services from their perspective. It will increase your chances for successful innovation for sure!

We work as a dynamic design agency with you on design (research) projects for our corporate clients, focusing on mobility, sustainability, social innovation, and health care. Watch our video to get an impression.

This programme is tough. It takes 40+ hours a week (when in doubt, please contact one of our alumni to confirm). We believe that only with a lot of effort and attention from both you and us, we can do great things this semester. Our team of experienced professionals, known for their skills in (product) design, user-centred design, user research, experience design, rapid/early prototyping, entrepreneurship, and organisational development, is very approachable throughout the programme.

Feel free to contact us for any information regarding the programme or whether you’d fit in. But in general: if you have a vast interest in creativity and innovation, you want to be better at understanding the world you are designing for, and you are willing to work hard for this, you are very welcome to our next edition of the Co-Design Studio. We’d love to work with you!

Would you like to know more about this programme or do you have a specific question? Please contact the programme coordinator, Kim van Veldhuijzen.

The programme takes place during one semester. At the end of the programme there is one assessment where you get grades for the following themes:

• Mastering the design process 40%
• Impact and change 30%
• Design Professional 30%

During the exchange programme you’ll build experience and expertise on involving your users and creating engaging concepts. In our 3 Design Projects, you’ll really get to work on a current case for one of our clients. During everything you do, our coaches will guide you to make sure this will be one of the best programmes you’ll ever experience. The exchange programme consists of:

• Projects for clients
  We are working on 3 big projects. The first project is about inclusive design, the second project is about systemic design and in the last project you will combine both approaches. In previous years, we worked for Arriva, UMC Utrecht, Vanderlande, Municipality of Utrecht, Zero food waste (Orbisk), Fischer and many others.
  
  
• Workshops
  During workshops we offer you the opportunity to work with our coaches on a direct and personal level. We offer design related tools and methods and you build experience and expertise on involving diverse stakeholders and creating impactful concepts.
  
  
• Challenges
  Sometimes we get the opportunity to join a one-week challenge, for example the Healthy Living Challenge or the Utrecht Mobility Challenge. In these challenges you will run through the overall design process in a pressure cooker setting.
  
  
• The international week
  The international week is a week where all the juniors are send to one of our international partners within Europe to collaborate for a few days on their project. We have been collaborating with Manchester (United Kingdom), Turku (Finland), Valencia (Spain), Warsaw (Poland), Budapest (Hungary) and Hamburg (Germany).
  
  
• The war room
  Personal and professional development is an important part of our programme. That’s what we're focusing on for two weeks druing the ‘War room weeks.’ We offer personal coaching and some of our coaches are primarily focused on helping you articulate your professional growth.

In our Course Guide you can find all relevant information about the programme in one practical document. Download it here for your convenience.

If you care about creativity and innovation, and you’re ambitious, you’re the one we are looking for! You need to have at least a propaedeutic diploma (issued after the first year of university studies).

We are offering this design programme to both designers (e.g. product design or communication multimedia design) and non-designers (e.g. health care students, business students, engineering students). Feel free to contact us for any information regarding the programme or how it will most benefit your development.

English CEFR level B2.

Please note: If your English language ability proves to be insufficient to participate actively in (parts of) the courses you have chosen, we cannot be bound to the Learning Agreement, neither can we guarantee to offer you the required amount of study load (EC’s). Teachers might request you to take a diagnostic test at the start of the course to check if your English language ability is sufficient to successfully participate in that specific course. In all cases it is up to the programme manager to decide if your English language ability is sufficient to be eligible for the programme/course.

For this programme, you should take into account additional costs of around € 400. This amount includes (among others): introduction days, accommodation and travel expenses for the international week and material costs.

Want to know about the programme? Visit our own website.