In early 2019, I made the move of leaving my home in Mumbai, India to pursue a two-year-long, Master of Design course at Swinburne University. Three months into the course, I was accepted into Design Factory’s Global Program where I immersed myself in a different way of learning and culture – both of which have had a lasting impact and value on me today.
A place to call home and a home away from home. A community of like-minded individuals, ready and willing to challenge the status quo. Industrial designers, engineers, mad makers, disruptors, all creators in their respective field… and all somewhat gastronomically obsessed or curious. This is how I would encapsulate the brilliant couple of years and the incredible people I worked alongside during my time at Design Factory Melbourne (DFM).
What kind of event brings together a health minister, leading academics, and c-suite executives from across the private sector? This may not sound like your everyday gathering of professionals, however at Design Factory Melbourne this is our everyday — it’s what’s known as interdisciplinary collaboration.
“Great dreams aren’t just visions,” says Astro Teller, “They’re visions coupled to strategies for making them real.”
How would you work collaboratively to design a solution, service or product if your team worked across different countries? This is the challenge that Global Program students at DFM are facing. International visits from team members have benefits for this challenging working relationship.
Ready. Set. Go! After ten days of working on paper bike designs, students of the year-long Sugar-ME310 Global Design Innovation Program raced their cardboard creations at the Swinburne University Hawthorn campus