DNSEP Design Objects course

At master’s 1 and 2 level, each student on the Objects course is supported in a research and design project. This leads to a dissertation and a plastic project that complete the course.

Over these two years, the Objects course proposes projects supervised by the master’s course teachers. These projects, developed at hand and body scale, are deployed in the domestic sphere, the public space, public and private professional spaces and cultural venues. The user-practitioner is always the focus of the design process. At each stage of the project the question of "making it real" arises, i.e. feasibility and the application and manufacturing processes.

The projects fit into the complex contexts typical of industrial production and both public and private commissions. And yet they always prioritise a forward-looking dimension and ethical reflection.

A certain number of these projects are undertaken as part of external partnerships with companies and institutions and sometimes in the form of competitions. This provides an opportunity to address the notions of marketing, engineering and production costs, but also issues like contracts, intellectual property, relations with the client, etc.

The aim of these projects is to allow students:

• to develop appropriate creative, personal project methodologies in complex contexts;
• to find a personal focal point, a means of expression that each student will then be able to implement afterwards in the more restrictive context of real practice. At the same time, students must acquire the means to document and communicate on their projects to clients, publishers, institutions, galleries and manufacturers. The freedom offered by the educational framework provided on this course is conducive to research and technical and intellectual experimentation.
• to position themselves as designers able to dialogue with clients. As part of a general and shared reflection on economic, ecological, societal and ethical transitions that need to be made, the aim is to equip future designers to participate in the analysis of needs and the preparation of the commission, especially where it concerns the public domain or common goods.

The DNSEP Design Objects course offers can be completed as a work-study programme in Year 5.

Coordinator (Years 4 and 5) : Rodolphe DOGNIAUX, head of the Labo d’Objet (Object Lab) research team. A designer who trained at ENSCI-Les Ateliers after completing a BTS vocational diploma in industrial aesthetics, he has been artistic director in two companies, Xalchimie and Celevenus, and since 2003 has been pursuing a career as a freelance designer, which has led him to produce and propose objects in the field of household arts, but also to work as a consultant advising companies. He also created the DesignMatin blog, a space for research, analysis, observation, reflection and experimentation focused on design.

Since 2012, at ESADSE we have been keeping a record of our graduates’ work, which you canbrowse here :
 
Découvrir les DNSEP design mention Objet