DeSE Spring 2010 Syllabus and Course Description

Welcome to the Design for Social Entrepreneurship Spring 2010 advanced studio in the RISD Department of Industrial Design!

Download the course syllabus here

Course Description

Instructor : Sloan Kulper, IDSA, RISD MID `06

Curriculum Advisor : Yi Zhang, Wellesley `10

Overview

This advanced studio will provide you with the opportunity to work with world-class social businesses and non-profits on new social ventures that tackle problems ranging from poverty and lack of access to healthcare to environmental degradation in both local and international contexts.

The semester will include two major milestones: a 3-week design workshop with an international non-profit organization operating in Asia, and a 9-week project where students will develop in-depth proposals for their own social ventures based around products, services and systems designed in collaboration with local businesses and non-profits. This work will be supported by personal mentorship from design professionals with experience at IDEO, Sustainable Minds, Continuum, KVA and other firms. Projects may be completed individually or in small teams.

Throughout the semester visiting speakers will conduct open lectures and discussions on relevant topics ranging from product design and ethnographic research to sustainability and marketing.

Skill Development

This will be a fast-paced studio where you will be expected to practice and build upon your skills in many major areas of craft that are crucial to design practice: rapid sketching, concept development, modeling and prototyping. However it will also be an opportunity to develop research-oriented skills related to thought-leadership in this exciting discipline of design: collaboration with non-profit entrepreneurs, conducting user research studies, evaluating and comparing precedents, developing business plans and pitching your ideas to community leaders and potential funders.

Social Entrepreneurship and Design

Designers are playing a pivotal role in social entrepreneurship, an emerging field that seeks to address pressing social issues such as poverty, health and environmental degradation with financially self-sustaining models. From IDEO and Philips to small start-ups, the design community is learning to “do well by doing good,” designing new products and services that meet social needs while generating profits. Likewise, designers working in the non-profit sector are taking a more progressive approach by focusing on philanthropy as an investment rather than a hand-out.