The Global Design Initiative is founded by the Global Design Faculty driven by five international, globally oriented art and design institutions based in London, Cologne, Singapore, Taipei, and Tokyo. It brings together like-minded people, mainly global design education leaders who believe in new approaches in dialogue and exchange.

The ambassadors and assistants in Taipei

The project aims to investigate intercultural learning, to understand the use of narrative in design, the use of cultural artefacts, behaviours and places as source material for design intervention, and to gain insight into the values, aspirations and concerns of a new generation of designers.

The Initiative aims to accomplish the following key objectives:

Develop new discourses in Design Education through developmental evolutions in iterations, in practice, discourse, and reflection.
Discover new opportunities and activities in Design Education through interdisciplinary investigations and interventions and promote the sharing of good practices.
Increase the dialogue of current Art and Design Education pedagogy and emerging trends in higher education by embracing diversity in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Culminate a database of knowledge and experience and to promote wider participation and interaction through a more global outlook.
The Initiative will take form in different formats and phases. Each year three students from each institution will be chosen to take part in a workshop.

The Faculty

The Global Design Initiative is a joint venture among five globally-oriented Art and Design Universities and Institutes.

Köln International School of Design, Cologne

KISD offers its students the possibility to explore and create the diversity and complexity of design in a profound and systematic manner. During the studies, future designers acquire a practical and theoretical design knowledge, which qualifies them for present and future spheres of activity in design. For more than 20 years KISD has been offering its students a unique project-oriented learning and research environment aiming at strenghtening the students’ individual interests. Therefore, all study courses at KISD can be described as integrative, interdisciplinary and international.
kisd.de

LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore

LASALLE is a leading tertiary institution in cutting edge contemporary arts and design education and practice, located in Singapore. Its faculty is led by a community of award-winning artists, designers, educators and researchers, and their practice-led research sets LASALLE apart as an international centre of excellence. Critically acclaimed alumni form the core of the cultural and creative sectors in Singapore and increasingly internationally.

lasalle.edu.sg/

Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London

Central Saint Martins offers creative arts programmes which share an approach of exploring the boundaries of their discipline; students and staff are continually curious and always restless in developing beyond the accepted norms of their subject, so the work emerging from Central Saint Martins is at the forefront of its area. The College inspires its students and staff to be alert to new approaches and ideas; the resulting journey can be challenging but is never dull. In any one month numerous people, events and exhibitions pass through the College, enriching the core curriculum in multiple ways and making it a major force in the art and design world.
arts.ac.uk/csm

Musashino Art University, Tokyo

Located in Tokyo, one of the design centers of the world, Musashino Art University (MAU) is acknowledged as one of Japan’s leading art and design universities. Since being founded in 1929, the mission of the University has been to train professionals equipped with a good general knowledge and of superlative character for careers in various fields of the formative arts, focusing primarily on the realms of design and fine arts. To achieve this, Musashino Art University is deeply mindful of the need to arm students with a combination of generalist and specialist skills, and the university remains faithful to the founding spirit of providing art education that allows students to function with true freedom as human beings and producing artists of well-rounded erudition.
musabi.ac.jp

Shih Chien University, Taipei

At Shih Chien, the courses follow the University’s teaching and research mission, focusing on “multi-disciplinarity,” “praxis,” and “inter-disciplinary creation.” We complement these core ideals of the college curriculum with courses focusing on creativity, design, humanities, psychology, criticism, consumerism, and management. Professors tailor the classes to the specific needs and strengths of the students, creating an environment in which students work freely between disciplinary fields, also a new energy of collaborative innovation that brings students together from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and to share their professional knowledge and abilities in varying cross-disciplinary projects. Elective courses offer students the opportunity to choose their own area of emphasis within their major course of study, preparing them to enter into the competitive design industry.
english.usc.edu.tw