NEWS
On Wednesday 4 June, 35 graduating designers from the Umeå Institute of Design will display their degree projects. The students are highly sought after, as ten international companies, including Toyota, CARAN and Philips visited the university in the spring to recruit employees.
The theme for this year’s annual degree show event - Momentum – is about new ways of exploring the unknown, to stretch boundaries and constantly ask oneself “what if…?” The students have examined how environmental friendliness and practicality can be combined in a luxurious sports car; how citizens, politicians and developers together could create a green city; and what happens when information technology of the future is applied to street hotdog and sausage vendors.
The degree projects are carried out by students from the three-year bachelor’s programme in industrial design and the three English based 2-year master’s programmes in transportation design, advanced product design and interaction design. There are twelve nationalities represented among the 35 graduates and several students have already been awarded for their design work.
Umeå Institute of Design was ranked for the second consecutive year as one of the worlds leading design schools by the magazine BusinessWeek this past autumn, the only Swedish school making the prestigious list.
In conjunction with the vernissage, a day of seminars has been arranged on Thursday 5 June. Lectures by three innovative profiles in industrial design will be featured. Among the special guest speakers will be industrial designer Branko Lukic, master of the unexpected, who is one of the entrepreneurs behind the celebrated design firm Non-Object in California.
Additionally, some selected students will present their degree projects during the afternoon. The day of seminars is expected to be visited by about 150 design managers, consultants, students and university representatives.
Media members are welcome to attend the press exhibition of the degree show on Wednesday, 4 June at 2:00 p.m. where there will also be an opportunity to interview the speakers. The exhibition is open to the public during 9-16 June from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day. Venue: Umeå Institute of Design, Östra Strandgatan 30, Umeå, Sweden
For further information, contact:
Tapio Alakörkkö, head of Umeå Institute of Design Phone: +46 90-786 98 35, Mobile: +46 73-620 51 51 E-mail: Tapio.Alakorkko@dh.umu.se
High resolution images for publication can obtained via: Fredrik Nilsson Phone: +46 70-633 53 57 E-mail: fiknon01@student.umu.se
