D2D, a hybrid robot for land-mine detection and diffusion designed by Yeban Shin for his CCA senior thesis project

This is the latest installment of D-School Futures, our interview series on the evolution of industrial design education. Today we have answers from Sandrine Lebas, chair of industrial design at California College of the Arts.

How different is industrial design education today than it was ten years ago? Will it look very different ten years from now?

We do teach industrial design very differently than we did ten years ago. Young industrial designers today have to be versatile, collaborative, empathic and forward thinking. We are no longer the midpoint between form and function, or the end-of-the-line "beautifying" process. Many other factors are shaping a product today: the business model, manufacturability, material sourcing and pricing, cultural fit, emotional connection... The complexity is much greater every day, and products cannot be created without industrial designers understanding the greater context.

So, beyond the typical industrial design skills that include sketching, form development and CAD representation, we teach our students to question in order to find answers. Being critical thinkers through research but also through prototyping and testing (surpassing failure being a key component of building confidence) allows our students to redefine archetypes or create new product categories, and ultimately bring industrial design as a partner to innovation.

Collaboration is another key soft skill not found in textbooks yet mandatory in today's workplace. As students grow into designers individually, forging their own design voices, they have to understand that their future role is as part of a team society of researchers, interaction designers, engineers, business leaders and marketers. Learning to communicate, find opportunities and understand feedback from those different partners and disciplines starts in college. Cross-disciplinarity—or, rather, co-disciplinarity—is one core component of CCA's design division and senior creative studios, pairing up students and faculty from various disciplines on a common project.

Sandrine Lebas (left) and Synthesis, a redesigned prosthesis by Patrick Mulcahy

I would not worry. I think it's an opportunity for design evolution. What designer has not dreamed about creating a product without pesky buttons? More importantly, the opportunity for the designer to create an emotional connection with the product is the next challenge. When touching or wearing a product for the first time, physical design is dominant. Physically fitting in the home or a person's body is still very relevant. Over time, the digital experience of the same product becomes predominant, but both digital and physical have to be meticulously considered through the design.

What sets CCA's industrial design program apart from ID programs at other schools?

Our program is anchored in CCA's roots for "making." Our ID students remain very involved in building, shaping and testing, both by hand and rapid-prototyping methods, along with opportunities to connect with craft majors, such as glassblowing or ceramics.

The rigor and exhilaration of building is also part of our Urban Mobility initiative, offering electives and summer classes in bike design and construction, and supporting a larger reflection on city commute and transportation.

With many faculty members coming from IDEO and the like, our design methodology focuses on the user, and often engages with the local community for real-life social-collaboration projects.

Located at the door of Silicon Valley, our students naturally engage with the bright and innovative community of faculty, designers, start-ups and renowned studios and corporations in our neighborhood.

Play with Fire, Zachary Goldberg-Poch's science kit for children

Global G10 peeler by Aaron Yang

What's the job market like for recent graduates of your program? Is now a good time to embark on an ID career?

Many of our students find a job through their senior summer internships at companies like Google, fuseproject, LUNAR, Astro Studios, Nike, IDEO, Native Design, Incase, Autodesk, Cisco, Intel and Plantronics. Many others choose the entrepreneur route, and multitask between start-up projects and freelancing. A few also find their voice in design research, CAD imaging or product development.

Today, the path between designer and consumer is shrinking rapidly, and as the typical funding and development process becomes easier and faster, opportunities for industrial designers to find their niche are richer and greater than ever. Design as a methodology is also infiltrating new areas: service, enterprise and organizations, nonprofit, healthcare, government—potentially propelling our students into design roles they may have to define themselves.

If you had to give just one piece of advice to an incoming student in your program, what would it be?

Take risks and don't be afraid of failure. Be bold, but not stubborn.