Dorina Coste is a professor of graphic design and visual identity at Grenoble Ecole de Management. Every year, her second and third year students work on many projects for various companies.
The key requirement: establish clear project specifications
"It's very important that the project specifications be as precise and clear as possible to avoid confusion, which can lead to a lack of results." explains Dorina Coste. The professor's second and third year students work on different projects every two months. As a result, Rossignol charged them with designing a series of skis for women. Lustucru asked them to imagine and create an appealing and innovative packaging for a new range of pasta aimed at young consumers. Clear project specifications require a company to detail key points such as targets, goals and values in order for students to be in line with the company's needs.
Open innovation: a chance for a new perspective
Apart from the project specifications, Coste gives students complete freedom to innovate. "The students are completely free and this lack of constraints allows them to go further in the creation process." explains the professor. It's important to remember innovation is also born of external ideas from outside a company's own ecosystem.
By delegating to students, companies can go outside their usual processes. "This allows companies to benefit from the Generation Y's perspective on new challenges. Such a point of view can be a real advantage, as it was with Rossignol and Lustucru, where the target audiences were younger generations." adds Coste.
Creation from A to Z: the advantages of a versatile team
The goal of the school's graphic design and visual identity classes is not to train future graphic designers. "The objective is to give students the tools they need to order a service, analyze a quote and understand the jobs of each and every person in the process in order to manage and argue a proposal. We have removed the barriers between management and design to create a link between these fields." explains Coste. "By working with a versatile team of students, companies benefit from a wide skill set that covers everything from logo design to product creation. Their skills encompass the entire creation process."