After too many years, I had the pleasure of returning to my school in Paris, CREAPOLE/ESDI, as a jury member for the Product Design Master’s program. A great opportunity to reconnect with the team, meet emerging talents, and take the pulse of design education in France.
First, congratulations to the team at Creapole—especially Marie Amandine Gros, who leads the Product Design & Innovation department, Adrian LERALU, Créapole’s Director, and Laurence ROCHET, Head of Professional Integration—for the strength of their pedagogical approach. The students presenting their final six-month projects demonstrated a solid, contemporary design process. Their work integrated thoughtful research, clear brand positioning, experience design, and communication. Most importantly, they are ready to contribute meaningfully to professional design teams from day one.
Second, it was refreshing to see young designers strike the right balance between conceptual ambition and practical, industry-oriented thinking. Too often, student projects lean toward speculative concepts disconnected from real-world constraints. Here, that gap was notably absent.
Design education should absolutely foster bold, out-of-the-box thinking—but not at the expense of the skills that enable young designers to deliver, collaborate, and create impact early in their careers.
A very encouraging perspective on the next generation of designers.
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