The Industrial Design Sprint Project Begins!

For one week each January the Industrial Design program engages in one of our most beloved traditions: the ID Sprint Project. In place of regular ID classes, an industry-leading outside client comes in to work alongside students on a single project.

Students teams have members from every year of the program, freshman through second-year grad students. The teams spend seven days concentrating their efforts: on day one, the client’s design staff kicks off the project, then is available for input remotely throughout the week. Faculty and alumni are constantly circulating within the teams to provide guidance and direction then in-person presentations to the client are made at the midpoint and end of the week.

The teams’ efforts consistently yield spectacular results not just for the client, but also for the students’ individual design portfolios. A project done for a real-world client is a powerful differentiator when seeking summer internships during school and full-time positions after graduation.

The client is different each year. For 2020, the program has partnered with Shea + Latone, a world-class independent design consultancy whose clients range from Knoll to Stanley to Starbucks. Specifically the students are working with UNION, Shea + Latone’s product design and strategy division.

The project marks the twentieth year that the program has engaged in the project. The results are always wonderfully surprising and impressive and we’re looking forward to seeing what the teams create this year!