didactic experimentation

Within the activities of Trend-hub, we launched a didactic experimentation to test the different possible uses of the platform Nextatlas* and its contents in the Metadesign Studios within Product Design, Fashion Design and Interior Design undergraduate programs at Design School at POLIMI.
Beyond the common general structure, each studio develops a specific brief aligned to the specificities of the sector of reference.

Product Design: Lifestyles as Design Booster

The Metadesign Studio within Product Design program in which the experimentation takes place is focused on the design of merchandising—or better “souvenir”, intended as product—of Milanese Museums. In the first phase the student are requested to identify the problematic features of the context (museum and its shop), to analyze the target market (company and competitors), and to interview a set of visitors. As a result, they deliver a map of needs identifying a problematic design area. Through the second step of research—the so called “blue-sky” research—the focus is opened to the softest aspects of the project, rooting them in the findings of the first phase of research. Contextual scenario, users, and museum’s identity will act as a filter for the design phase. The scenario proposal is then realized through a wide iconographic research that, on one hand, rebuilds user-related and/or contextual lifestyles—as it is and / or how we would like it— and, on the other, collects and instantly returns “inspirations” for the future product.
The research will be supported by Nextatlas and, to better exploit its potentialities, students will start considering the latest presented trends, in order to understand the coolest and/or the latest and/or a rising and/or an enduring trend and to profile a minimum of two/maximum of three user’s lifestyles. The identified personas will be evoked through a lifestyle board. Moodboards and lifestyle boards are valuable tools for the design process because they are potentially produced in a short period of time—the activity lasts 2 weeks—and they can often provide directions and insights for the following time-consuming stages of design development. To guiding the students along the process, faculty ask them to select evocative images to deepen user’s personality—also using user’s feature provided by Nextatlas’ researches—but also to connect these elements to other products or situations which characterize the user’s lifestyle (sports, environment, readings, shoes, mobility style, …). The lifestyle board will be then the basis for the concept generation and also for a better-defined CMF design (Colors, materials, finishing). Therefore, the experimentation aims at testing the potentiality of the tools and of its contents in the process of identifying lifestyles and consumption habits to nurture the definition of the context a future product will be designed for.

Fashion Design: Socially-powered Inspirations for Basic Products

The Metadesign studio within the Fashion Design program aims to present the whole design process for an apparel collection, covering phases, activities, and tools. It requires the development of concept and guidelines of a Spring-Summer womenswear collection for a fashion ready-to-wear brand. Students, grouped in teams, are required to develop an assigned inspirational theme—three iconic female characters whose fame rose during a specific decade in the Twentieth century—up to a collection’s architecture, following a methodological path supported by theoretical and instrumental lectures and tools. The first phase of scenario development sees students developing and delivering the assigned brand case, an iconographic research—trend research—, and the consumer profile. The second phase is dedicated to the product design and includes a merchandise research, the definition of stylistic codes, fabrication, and the design of key-items/outfits. The third and last phase addresses the planning of the architecture of the collection, considering: occasions of use; the balance between new products, carry-over, and basic or continuative products; and the management of fabrics combinations and colors variations.
The didactic experimentation in collaboration with Nextatlas is set in the third phase of the metadesign process, when students have already defined the seasonal stylistic codes of their collection but need to balance different levels of product complexity and newness, according to a fastest rotation of products and shorter seasonality that result in the need for a continuous stream of basic product that could be highly attractive for a consumer interested in the latest ideas and trends. To experience this framework, each student is required to explore the contents available on Nextatlas and, following the brand’s permanent and seasonal stylistic codes but being aware and inspired by the latest emerging trends, to design the stylistic elements of a 5-pieces capsule collection. Therefore, the experimentation aims at testing the potentiality of the tools and of its contents in the processes of identification of aesthetic and graphic elements for updating specific part of a collection that need fresh inspirations with a lower investment in term of time and resources used in it design development.

Interior Design: Socio-cultural and Consumption Trends as Directions for Space and Services

The Metadesign studio within the Interior Design program refers to places connected with hospitality design in relation to a sequence of different “points of view” from which to look at the genesis and evolution of some sedimented typologies as well as the emergence of innovative typologies.
The student initially starts to understand the relevant dynamics for spaces for hospitality—from historical evolution to typological analysis, from study of current trends to the research of paradigmatic case studies-to then embark on the construction of a design concept of hybrid spaces, between the spaces of low-cost hospitality and spaces dedicated to study and work.
The didactic experimentation in collaboration with Nextatlas is set in the first phase of the design process. Socially-driven contents extracted from the platform will integrate an initial blue sky research with a double objective: on one hand, to identifying new trends for ways of using/generating/occupying hybrid spaces; on the other, to confirming—and desirably to deepening—already existing trends, recognized and codified in the last year or last months, but with high future growth potential. The spectrum of all those trends related to low-cost hospitality will feed the definition of moodboards to inform a design theme and indicate one or more brands possible close to such topics. The design theme will be then developed in the following phases as guideline for the definition of new housing behaviors and, therefore, new spaces.  Finally, the experimentation aims at testing the potentialities of the tools and its contents in the process of identification new housing and spatial models—or in the process of confirmation of already codified and still relevant models—emerging from new and innovative behaviors and needs within the context of low-cost hospitality.

 

* Nextatlas is a unique, end-to-end data platform leveraging proprietary algorithms and artificial intelligence methodologies to detect new trends that are statistically likely to become mainstream. Processing volumes of data in real-time and on an ongoing basis, it is designed to systematically perform quantitative measurements of the indicators of moods and preferences expressed by large numbers of individuals profiled as trendsetters. With the platform’s advanced simulation techniques, it is possible to strategically evaluate prospective scenarios in the context of brand positioning campaigns for all sectors in all geographies, factoring in different variables including exposure to newsworthy events.

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