Improving communication skills of product design students by fostering the link between companies and academia

Abstract

With the increase in competitiveness in all job markets, the reality is no different in design area. Companies increasingly value professionals who present themselves with a diversified profile and hold various competencies. In this sense, more specifically with product design students, the need to provide them with some basic communication design skills was identified, thus introducing, in the curricular unit Communication Techniques, the teaching of software and projects related to this area. The experience already lived in this school, allowed us to realize that the projects carried out in partnership with companies raise a greater commitment from students, mainly because they recognize the importance and visibility that it can represent for a recent graduate. This article describes a case study of an illustration project with product design students, developed for three consecutive school years, and which was proposed by an international paper merchanting company. The work consisted in developing illustrations for each month, for the calendar produced annually, making the most of the raw material that the company commercializes and obeying a general guiding theme and another more specific one for each of the months. Added to this brief was the execution of the illustration using vectorial drawing software and following a methodology proposed by the teachers. In the end, the illustrations were sent with a descriptive memory and, later, selected by the company to be incorporated into the final calendar. The results presented showed a clear evolution in the field of graphic and conceptual representation by these students.