Collaborate with us
Twice a year, we welcome a diverse group of 3rd and 4th year bachelor students to join our program. We operate as a design studio, welcoming challenges from clients throughout the program. We believe in learning by doing, so we always offer our students projects to apply the knowledge we share with them. Therefore, we look for clients who can offer a relevant case connected to our topics and are eager to work with the great minds we have on board.
What we offer
A team of students that will devote their creative brainpower to your challenge, and several designers from the work field that will coach them through. Together with one of our coaches, we can determine how to best frame the project for the students and decide what part of the process will get most attention. This coach will stay involved through-out. We have several slots available, with different focus and duration. Please find an overview of our offerings below. Our team can help you determine whether your challenge is fit, or what kind of project would best fit your challenge to get the best results.
About Co-Design
The program is focused on Co-Design - the art of including all stakeholders, especially the user, in the early stages of a design process. It brings together elements from Design Thinking, Service Design, Systemic Design, User Research, Future Scenarios, and (early) prototyping. We roughly see two parts in the Co-Design process: 1) understanding the real challenge, 2) finding suitable solutions for this challenge. We guide the students in conducting design research and coming up with various solutions. This way, working with students generates a lot of fresh perspectives around a project. We always go through all the steps, although we can decide to put emphasis on the step that we feel best serves your project.
About Co-Design Studio
Co-Design Studio is a specialisation program that is offered by Hogeschool Utrecht (HU Utrecht University of Applied Sciences) and operated by Fundamentals Academy. Our team is a perfect blend of designers from the work field (the Fundamentals Academy team) and researchers from the research centre for Co-Design (HU team). Together with our international partners we will go the extra mile to ensure that our students and clients get most out of their time with us. Our group (approx 15-30 students) is both international and multidisciplinary. These students work full-time in our studio. In teams, they take on challenges offered by real clients, applying the Co-Design process.
THE Projects
We offer three projects in Co-Design Studio. The projects differ slightly in focus and duration. All projects follow the Co-Design process. However, we do add specific flavours to the projects. Our students will go through these steps in each project:
• Reframe: articulation of your design challenge from a user perspective. • Research: to better understand the challenge at hand. Includes desk research and design research (to learn more from the stakeholders). • Ideation: come up with ideas to solve the challenge at hand. • Iterations: together with the stakeholders and you, challenge the ideas or directions and select the most valuable ones. • Delivery: upgrade the ideas into contextualised concepts that can be transferred to you for continuation (e.g. a report, movie, or poster, depending on what data is delivered).
Inclusive Design Projects
If you have a challenge and you need some fresh perspectives, this is a great project to join. Inclusive design will be the common thread of the project. This means diverse stakeholders will be involved equally in the design process. For most of our students this is the very first encounter with Inclusive Design. Therefore, our team of coaches guides them through quite rigidly.
Systemic Design Projects
If you have a complex challenge and you need some new overview, fresh perspectives and insights, this project is for you. In this project, Systemic Design Thinking will be the dominant way of working within this project. The result of will most likely be new understanding and fresh perspectives to a situation that seemed stuck. In this project our students explore the art of Systemic Design. For many of our students, this will be a first. In this project our team of coaches will also closely mentor the students.
Signature Design Projects
If you have a challenge that needs some more nuanced attention, this might be a great opportunity. For the final project of Co-Design Studio, we allow the students to work with a dedicated client and coach, and develop the entire process based on the needs of their project. You, as a client, can choose to emphasis more on one of the steps in the process. Our coach-team can help you decide on this.
How It Works
1Get in touch
Select a project within your organisation and send us a project outline of approximately half an A4, describing your project and how you think we can help you.
2Project review
We will review your project outline to make sure we are the right program for your project.
3Discuss the details
One of our coaches will reach out to you to take a next step and further discuss the details and the dates of the project. In the unlikely event that we are not sure our program is the right place for your project, we might suggest alternatives, or see how we can find a fit.
4Let's go!
Once the students are working on the project, your main contact is the student group itself. You will collaborate with them as you would do with a creative agency; having meetings, check-ins, workshops and preparing the needed data and insights from your organisation.
5Check and evaluate
In between your dedicated coach will check-in with you to ensure everything goes well. Afterwards, this coach will also evaluate the project together with you.
What we ask of you
A leading role in setting
the project
Helping kick-start the project by delivering background information and connect students to stakeholders, users, or colleagues.
Spending time with the team
At least the kick-off, interim presentation, final presentation, and two co-design sessions per project (1,5 to 2 hours each).
Client contribution
We ask per project a client contribution. Please contact us for more information.
Contact us
We love to hear from you and learn about what you are working on. With the diversity of projects available, we feel confident that we will find the right fit for your project. Please reach out to Jasper Huitink for further elaboration.
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Fundamentals Academy BV, Utrecht, The Netherlands