Tutors: Alex Williams, Jo Barnard & Tim Rundle

As manufacturing & distribution technologies rapidly evolve through increasingly open systems, the opportunities for large or small-scale interventions in global & hyper-local markets abound for both corporate organisations & small entrepreneurs.

Whether prototyping for batch production, developing service touchpoints, or developing/adapting manufacturing processes for scale, the DfM platform provokes designers to explore conceptions of manufacturing & apply these to their work. The projects are diverse, with typical themes embracing:

• new product technologies

• the development of more circular economies

• reducing carbon miles & responding to local capabilities

• the evolution of long tail markets in ever smaller or more distributed regions

• the changing role of RP in supply chains

• lower energy & less capital intensive means of production

• frugal innovation needs in developing economies

• servicised capabilities.

In each instance, students aim to develop pre-production prototypes providing proof-of-concept, many taking these ideas forward as start-ups.