The brief has been set. Industrial design school students have been grouped with other department students. Now it’s time to get to started and put those creative juices to work.

At the heart of this Corporate Partnership class of the School of Industrial Design is the key lesson of collaboration to be learned. It’s what they expect of their students, but also, it’s what they’re setting up as an example.

In many ways, this class is different from its previous iterations. For one, Subaru provided financial backing for the program. Funding that will go a long way in the students’ journey to creating what will be, perhaps, their very first car design.

Beyond that, however, Subaru maintained a solid presence all throughout the program. Every other week, they sent representatives, designers, to collaborate with and provide feedback to students. For them, this was just as advantageous as it was beneficial to the students.

A Collaborative Give and Take

“The core reason we came here is because we want to dig into the minds of the kids in the classroom, because they are the 2030 vision. We feel the core values that those students have right now will become core values in the future for Subaru,” said Gary Chu, Interior Designer at Subaru Research & Development.

Meanwhile, instructor Tom Collom explained the essence of this class to his students as their “introduction to collaboration.” It’s a great mimic of what it’s like to work in the real world. And as students like Udaya Madala learned quickly through this program, “design doesn’t happen in a vacuum. So, collaboration is a great thing.”

 A Good Car Design is Not Just About Design

With the class divided into several teams, a lot of creative ideas were soon bouncing off within the classroom walls—and sticky notes filling up the space. Interestingly enough, not all teams pertain are focused on designing cars. Others, like the Global Experience team, instead work on creating product experience for the target market. This group then works with all the other car design groups to help better convey the Subaru message in their final product.

The students’ concept designs slowly take shape in this part of the series. Get to know more about the teams and their members, and be one step closer to seeing their final products below.

Check out Part 1 of the series here. Stay tuned next week for the next part of the collaboration series between Subaru and the School of Industrial Design.

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The School of Industrial Design is just one among several others from Academy of Art University that features a Corporate Sponsorship program to let students gain firsthand experience in working with real-world brands as clients.

Request information from our admissions representatives for more details if you want to earn an industrial design degree. Apply now if you’re ready to get started on making your passion for art and design into a professional career.