Bachelor in Product Design - Transportation Design IED – Istituto Europeo di Design Barcelona

The Product Design Specialisation, itinerary in Transportation Design is a university degree (240 ECTS). This course provides students with the knowledge and skills they need to develop mobility solutions in the broadest sense, ranging all the way from designing the inside and outside of a motorbike, car, airplane, train or boat to all kinds of accessories and associated services.

Designing a means to transport goods and/or people over land, air or sea is a job for a professional who has a broad vision and cross-sector skill set. They need to be able to adapt to current needs and anticipate what will be needed in the future by applying the latest techniques, technology, and materials in the sector.

The course teaches transport design students a versatile, multidisciplinary and innovative approach that will allow them to come up with ideas that factor in the user, the environment, ergonomics, and social value.

IED Barcelona is offering specializations in Design of 4 years (240 ECTS). The aim is to transform passion, talent, and creativity into knowledge and abilities that allow future design professionals to develop their careers.

This course is for students who want to develop their creative skills in the world of transportation, who want to play a professional role in the evolution of transportation.

It’s for forward thinkers, people who look to the future with a strategic and global vision, who fully comprehend that industrial development must meet the challenges of sustainable living and improved user experience.

It’s for people who are comfortable working in 3D environments, with virtual reality and in a metaverse, and who are just as comfortable working with traditional modelling materials like clays or sketching, people willing to lead the way creating new transportation trends and highly aesthetic mobility lines for the future. In direct contact with renowned international companies, you’ll find out exactly what goes into state-of-the-art projects in a contemporary work context.

The degree offers a formative path that teaches students to comprehend and anticipate the market exigences, interceding with business intentions and translating them in a defined project than can be manufactured. It boosts the relevance of the concept, in order to foresee the trends and styles of consumption, thanks to the comprehension of market exigences and social needs.

Also, the course brings knowledge of production materials and technology in order to bring projects to life. Beyond the theoretical comprehension of the project, students focus on analyzing technologies, function, ergonomics, and usability.

The course prepares professionals capable of designing not only vehicles but also transportation systems and accessories related to the sector. Interior and exterior designers for transportation vehicles able to face commercial, psychological and social factors related to mobility.

Comprehension of aspects like psychological and emotional mechanisms of consumers, citizens or users, linked to the concepts of transportation, vehicle, and culture of the different reference targets. It is learned to understand and interpret each world, needs, and expectations of citizens, but at the same time maintaining creativity, style, trends, and products’ life cycle.

The experience acquired by IED Design in this area, in addition to the collaboration with large companies working in the sector, allows developing this particular theoretical competence along with the practice, a typical trait of transportation designers. This methodology emphasizes a permanent comparison between technical and theoretical knowledge and their concrete application based on creating and developing increasingly difficult projects.

The first year of this degree is focused on acquiring basic concepts of design, culture and project methods. Students learn to dare to create and communicate.

The second-year is concentrated on developing one’s own creativity individually, and starting to study specialization-related tools such as packaging, clay, Key sketch, Chartpaks felt tip pen, Alias and graphic communication.

The third-year means the beginning of collaborations with companies and new, more technical and complex projects, with prototypes and real costs. Students begin to study production systems and models. Work is developed in transversal teams composed of students of Product, Interior, and Transportation design. In addition, new materials will be studied, such as sustainable or technological materials, etc.

During the fourth year, students study A-class surfaces, animation, and video. They take a compulsory internship in a company and each one chooses a professional profile. Creative management acquires a great relevance through project management and rethinking, modifying and refining projects to respond properly to users’ and market’s needs. Lastly, the degree final project is developed in collaboration with real companies, where prototypes are produced. In successful cases, those prototypes will evolve and manufacture to be launched into the market.

Car interior and exterior designers, motorcycles, ships, aeronautical sector, public transportation, color&trim, etc.

IED Design alumni work at:

Bertone, Frecan, Capmar, Projeckta, Zicla, Lamborghini, Hyundai, Grupo Pangea, Seat, Fun Lab, Orbitel, Cazaly Sylvain, Home Design, MTL Brands, BMW, McLaren, BM Lightning Design, Design Dies, Ubica, Estudi Interiorisme Salietti, Pia Capdevila, VMoto Europa, Scutum Logistics, Gama Ubica, Tarrago Cortés Interioristes, Ibisland Invest, Interiodista Decoración Digital, etc.

Companies

The course promotes the project culture with companies to solve the distance between education and the world of work. Students not only acknowledge methodologies and tools for their discipline but also learn to work and get in touch with real clients and briefings.

Companies that have collaborated with the area: Ferrari, Iniciativa BMW, Seat, Mercedes Benz, Casa Decor, Volvo, Unopiù, Frecan, Primavera Sound, Orbea, Panasonic, Derbi, Renault, Zicla, Roca, Decoexpo, Alstom, Hyundai, Toyota, Panatta Sport, Illy, Capmar, Piquadro, Entitat Metropolitana del Transport, Japan Tobacco International, AHEC, Elite Gourmet, Vmoto, Omega Z, I+ED Lab, Idearideas, Architecture for Humanity, Consorzio Tecnologie Meccaniche Centro Italia, Volta Motorbikes, Casa Gracia BCN and Los Cármenes.