I had the fantastic opportunity to spend two weeks at the Kolding School of Design (Designskolen Kolding)  in Kolding Denmark in which I participated in the 2010 Design Camp focusing on New Ways of Transportation. I worked alongside approximately forty international design students from schools in countries such as: England, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, Germany, Canada, United States, China, India, Syria and New Zealand.

The design camp started with Cordy Swope from IDEO in Munich, Germany who provided expert advice on how to approach design problems, brainstorm ideas, and produce deliverables for a client. Students shared information on the user experience of public transportation in their home country. Further lecturing was done by Barnabas Wetton, a faculty member at the design school. One of the topics discussed was an approach to solving design problems:

“Design uses tools of arts and science to solve business problems.”

After learning more about the business side of design, we were then split into six person teams, which were then later divided into groups of three, which was to be our group for the remaining time. My three-person cohort included a local Dane as well as a student from London but originally from the U.S. The other three folks included another Dane – every three-person team had a Danish student to add a bit of the local taste and knowledge – as well as a student from India and Canada.

Our actual first assignment was to prepare a pot luck dinner for everybody involved with the project. The mass of us working in our groups of six spent a few hours in the kitchen of the design school making up a spur of the moment dinner as well as creating table place settings for the resulting meal. It is amazing working with creative people who seemingly created a dining experience out of nothing.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, each of the twelve teams developed an approach to redesigning aspects of public transportation in the region. Some were products, others were systems, and some were interactions. As time went by, the groups did additional research as well as spending an considerable amount of time in the design lab creating prototypes. Having stacks of cardboard, utility knives, masking tape, hot glue, and other sorts of things is immensely powerful in being able to put an idea into physical being. One of the things I learned was what I say and what others hear – and ditto the other way around – isn’t necessarily the same thing. The ability to actually construct the idea is a very useful and powerful way of describing your idea. Especially so when dealing with abstract or atypical solutions.

Many teams took advantage of the metal shop or textile lab or the woodshop to develop robust working prototypes. Others spent time making videos or other graphic items for display. On the last Friday, a sort of idea fair was held in the atrium of the design school. Various media outlets attended as well as some officials from the national rail line and representatives from the government and non-government organizations. The display of ideas and solution went well and I think everybody who attended was excited with the proposals.

While we worked hard on the projects, we did have opportunities to socialize with our new friends as well as explore Denmark a bit. Most of us spent a day in Copenhagen – fantastic city that is fantastically expensive – and the following day many of us was given a private tour of Ribe (pronounced more like Reeb), which is the oldest known city in Denmark. Lots of Viking history in that town.

We thoroughly explored Kolding, and found a great bar called Republikken which not only had the best selection of beer in town they also had some mind-blowing hamburgers. Republikken doesn’t kid around when it comes to making burgers.

We were provided breakfast and lunch at the design school and I cannot thank them enough for keeping us well feed. The cheese and bread  – oh my gosh that bread was heavenly – in the morning was great, as was the coffee and that afternoon snack and coffee was great. I wish more academic programs fed their students snacks and coffee in the afternoon.

Hint hint.

But the lunch. . . I have never had food so good in an academic building before. It was mind blowing awesome. Those lunch ladies were tops.

So I had a fantastic time and as one of only two MBA students there I learned a lot about the design world. The school and the group of students were brilliant and I simply cannot speak enough about how awesome everybody was.