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Young Designers in France
France
The aim of the ‘Young Designers’ programme is to identify talented, newly graduated students by their diploma projects. These projects are then collected on a CD-Rom which is sent to SMEs and bigger companies in the Rhone-Alps region and in
One of the objectives of the Design Centre Rhone-Alps with this programme is to promote design to companies. Companies may want to integrate the design function, they look for specific competencies for their projects and they regularly contact the Design Centre to obtain help in the recruitment or in their selection. Each year, a large number of young designers graduate from various schools with different diplomas and it is sometimes difficult to understand the particularities of these young talents.
In order to help companies understand what young designers can offer, and to facilitate access to them, the Design Centre started the ‘Young Designers’ programme in 2004 with a number of design schools from the Rhone-Alps region. In 2005 the programme was enlarged to include design schools from all over
The programme is aimed at companies, newly graduated young designers and the design schools. It is organised by the information manager at the Design Centre Rhone-Alps, who works with a professional designer experienced in working with design schools and evaluating student projects. The budget for the programe is 3000 euros, which excludes the cost of producing the CD-Rom which is sent out to the companies. It is paid by the Ministry of Industry – one of the three financers of the Design Centre Rhone-Alps. This programme is not one of the main activities of the Design Centre but it is important as it helps young graduates to promote themselves.
A large number of design schools are invited to participate in the programme, and they are asked to choose a maximum of three projects per diploma (there can be more than one diploma in one school). A registration form is available on the Design Centre website. Once registration has been closed, the professional designer organises the projects in order to structure the final report. Several categories are created to facilitate the consultation of the report and the comparison of the projects. A focus is made on the materials and the methods and there is a special chapter on eco-design projects. The Design Centre creates an address book allowing the companies to contact the young designer that might interest them directly. The report is produced on a CD Rom which is available to the members of the Design Centre on the website and sent out to approximately 250 companies in
The design schools are getting more and more interested in taking part in this programme and the number of schools involved is increasing each year. Positive feedback has also been received from the companies taking part, and more CD-Roms are being sent out each year. The projects of the young design graduates are also featured in a special gallery on the Design Centre’s website (www.centredudesign.fr).
For further information about the Young Designers in
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