Industrial Design Center is an open knowledge center and a communication platform between the industry and the education, research and development programs of the Howest University West Flanders in Belgium. It works in close association with the bachelor course Industrial Product Design and the master course Industrial Design Engineering offered through Howest.The center aims to be an authority on high & low end prototyping, lighting, creativity, sustainability, humanity and materials & connections. Every research project implements the ‘research through design’ philosophy.

The synergy between industry and education leads to a materialization of academic research results and to open services towards companies, SMEs and independent designers. Industrial Design Center continually aims to set up multi-disciplinary projects at the request of businesses and has state-of-the-art equipment available for use. Industrial Design Center always tries to stay on top of evolutions in the field of industrial product design and is at your disposal to share its expertise.

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Prototypes are indispensible in any design process. Industrial Design Center’s Protolab has created an expertise with regard to ‘traditional, rapid & virtual prototyping’. The focus is on materialization and new applications of existing techniques and technologies in domains like architecture, occupational therapy, product design and digital arts. Via permanent updating of knowledge, Protolab is able to respond to special prototyping requests of companies. The lab is equipped with rapid prototyping technology (3D printing), a vacuum casting set up, a 3D-measuring bench with optic laser scanner, thermoforming equipment, a laser cutter and manual prototyping tools and materials

Protolight is the expert research group for lighting. The researchers promote innovation in lighting. They test and implement new technology and processes in various disciplines. The expertise is shared with lighting companies, individual designers and (interior) architects. To realize prototypes quickly, ProtoLight uses techniques like photo goniometry, reflection-transmission measuring equipment, light simulation software (Photopia, Relux), 3D-scanning and (rapid) prototyping. Companies can perform light measurements. Moreover, efficiency studies, optimizations of lighting equipment and fittings according to simulations are possible.

Creativity techniques enhance the creative thinking process of teams and individuals and provide extra incentives for companies that implement innovation processes or change. The  researchers at Industrial Design Center have been intensively researching ‘applied creativity’. The result is INNOWIZ (INNOvation WIZard), a guideline that assists in innovations. INNOWIZ was developed at the request of the industry. The objective is to remove barriers regarding creativity and to mould it into something tangible for all entrepreneurs and at all company levels. INNOWIZ shows companies the way in using creativity techniques through made-to-measure creativity sessions that fit in with an organization’s specific challenge.

Design for [every]ONE is an open design research project. It aims to bridge the gap between universal design and rehabilitation engineering. Assistive devices are custom made tools for a  single user in a specific context. A person in need quickly adapts to his/her device. In an ageing society there is an increasing need for products that are adjustable to local or personal requirements. D4E1 uses co-creation techniques for an incremental personalization process involving design team members, patients and occupational therapists. The use of experience prototyping and rapid manufacturing techniques enables us to make products that are suited to specific end consumers, produced in small batches which are economically feasible.

Sustainable product development leads to environmental advantages and economic, social and cultural benefits. It’s a globally acknowledged necessity. Everyone wants to contribute. However, its practical integration in companies is often a stumbling block. The Design for Sustainability research program supports sustainable design of industrial goods and service systems. In collaboration with BECO, Pantopicon and Flanders InShape/IWT, the sustainability research cell has developed the Play it Forward business game. The 3Ps of sustainable development (People, Planet, Profit) are the pillars of the game. While playing the game companies come face to face with future challenges regarding sustainability.

Industrial Design Center contributes to high-quality education. The center develops educational programs that stimulate creative thinking processes in pupils, students and teachers, foster entrepreneurship, introduce young people to the world of industrial design and encourage them to choose a scientific or technical education/career. The Girls for Design project plunges senior high school students into the amazing world of innovation, creativity and technology. Through workshops, pupils take on the challenge of designing a product themselves. MyMachine is an initiative of Howest, Intercommunale Leiedal and Streekfonds West-Vlaanderen. Together students from primary education, higher education and secondary technical education build their dream machines

Connections play a key role in product design. They influence the total product life cycle: assembly time, use, maintenance and the disassembly of the product. Today, many products are made up of multi and hybrid materials to fulfil the increasing product requirements. Furthermore new (digital) fabrication technologies are developed and widely accessible. The Design to Connect research project links connections, materials and (digital) fabrication technologies within the new industrial revolution. The aim is to create a methodology for supporting the materialization of product ideas considering the product requirements without losing the creative freedom of the designer.

Creativity techniques and innovation methods are often abstract. If you want to apply them, a profound preparation is compulsory. The researchers of the Play, Mate! project open up those tools and methods through the integration of game elements and materialization of physical games. Creativity techniques and games make up a perfect symbiosis in a creative process: a playing attitude implies an unforced atmosphere; competition provides for extra attraction and role patterns are adopted or thrown off … Industrial Design Center will soon offer the developed games by means of an online ‘creativity library’..

The fields of research described above are mainly demanddriven. In other words they involve applied research. The Industrial Design Center is therefore in tune with what companies need. Let us know which research subjects interest you. There are many possibilities for collaboration.

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[+ postgraduate product development]
[+ long-term phd research]
[+ design assignments]
[+ bachelor or master thesis]