Skip to main content

Design Products (MA)

Design For Manufacture

About

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.

Cross-College

Primacy of Precipice

Curated by Joanna Moresky
Cross-College

Searching for Presence

Curated by John Thackara
Cross-College

RCA2020: One Designer’s View (Part Two)

Curated by Ian Griffiths
Cross-College

Designing for Difficulty

Curated by Tim Brown
Cross-College

Humanity and Humour

Curated by Paul Priestman
Cross-College

Future Continuous

Curated by Dr Nick de Leon
HapticHumanised TechnologyOppoProduct Design
Show More
Social
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Royal College of Art
Registered Office: Royal College of Art,
Kensington Gore, South Kensington,
London SW7 2EU
RCA™ Royal College of Art™ are trademarks
of the Royal College of Art