Workshops

by June Trondsen & Casper Boks (NTNU) in collaboration with Dirk Van Rooy (UAntwerp)

During this one week workshop, students will become familiar with shame as an emotion and how it takes shape through various social phenomena such as such as guilty pleasure, dark comedy, cancel culture and green shaming. The role of shame as a design tool is explored through different lenses of design, stretching from commercial and norm affirmative design solutions to speculative and norm-critical design approaches. When designing interventions, both adding and removing shame, in subtle or explicit ways, can affect behaviour and experiences. Such interventions can play a role in many design contexts, like sustainable, social, and healthy behaviour. The workshop will be in an intensive, but explorative format, starting with an introduction to shame as an emotion and mapping how shame affects us in social life. Using different design tools and methods the students will explore, test and prototype how inducing / reducing shame can play a role in different design interventions. The first half focuses on exploring the use of shame (and similar emotions such as guilt and embarrassment) to change user experiences and affect user behaviors, while the final part focuses on more provoking and awareness creating ideas which question the moral storyline behind why we feel shameful for something or not. Ideally, the results are presented in a mini-exhibition on Design for/with/against/without shame.

by Filip Fransen (De Ster) in collaboration with Els Dubois (UAntwerp) & Komida

Are you already dreaming of your own start‐up that will have a radical positive impact on the world? LOOK NO FURTHER AND SIGN UP!

In this workshop you join with your fellow students a new start up for a week. We launch a reusable solution for take‐out meals. Software, packaging and basic communication is ready. But off course it won’t be perfect yet. During the week we will observe if it actually works, check if people like it or not, identify what we can do to improve as we speak and make noise about it on social media!!! So, you will get actual feedback from the market and learn how you can iterate fast and make great design improvements in a matter of days. Sign up and join us for this reusable workshop and help change to the world.

by Gert Verheule (Fannfarr)

​Domes, zomes, dodecahedrons, icosahedrons, buckyballs, 3D structural grids, lattice structures…These meshed type structures are basically made of straight lines of specific length connected at specific angles. In my last IDW workshop we only focused on the structure. This time we add “light” to the equation.

“Light” : the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible

In this workshop we will make meshed structures that incorporate light into the design.
How will you integrate your light points into your structure?
How will you connect your rods, sticks, bars, …?
What materials will you use?
How will you power your light sources?
Will you play with reflectance, Light intensity, change of colour… ?

Let’s build stuff…

by Wouter Eggink (UTwente)

Designers have social responsibility by the very nature of their activities; bringing new products and services into the world of the user. This responsibility calls for ethical awareness in the practice of design, as designers will be inevitably influencing the context of people and society for better or worse. The challenge of responsible design asks for active reflection on ethical issues. However, with the classical top-down approach, ethics may be perceived as restrictive, setting boundaries for what is allowed and what not.

In this workshop we will therefore explore ethics with a bottom-up approach, addressing ethical questions with creativity and imagination.

How might we influence healthy eating habits? Are gender neutral toilets really inclusive? How do online meetings influence communication behaviour? Explore with us how you as a designer can foster desirable futures for society.

by Beste Özcan (ISTC-CNR) in collaboration with Muriel De Boeck (UAntwerp)

a naturally born human in an artificially made world

We are genetically coded to adapt and now we are using these new tools to program our
world towards an unknown future. Thus, it should be the designer’s responsibility to control
and pay attention to the potential consequences of their products in the world. Through this
workshop, firstly, it is expected design students to have new insights about their role as
“now”here citizens to understand how design will affect us in the future. And secondly,
to design and prototype smart wearable products as an innovative approach for social
augmentation of humans. Students will reflect on their role as “now”here
citizens taking into consideration questions such as:

are we, as designers, prepared, right now, to see that far ahead?, with the
current speed of innovation, are we taking the necessary introspection steps
to truly understand how these products, which are becoming part of us, are
and will affect us in the future?, how can design mold the near future?, will
innovation surpass this current need to supply more and faster goods?, do
we need to reassess our priorities and values for the betterment of
humanity? ...

1st day: Introductory presentation, design dimensions in a new era, human needs, design solutions. 2nd day: Some examples and solutions for smart wearable designs, brainstorming. 3rd day: Decision of the problem, innovative solutions, debate between teams. 4th day: Generating storyboards with role playing, real-life scenarios and prototyping. 5th day: Storyboards and real-life inspired role-playing sessions with the last prototypes. Students are free to use costumes and scenography.

Equipment are laptop, cartoons, pens, etc. It’s supposed design students will have better insights and inspiration about the future of design, have critical, free and innovative approaches. Posters and video recordings will be presented as outcomes.

by Sally Stone & Joan Beadle (MSA)

This workshop proposes to invite imaginative solutions to the idea of the portable office. Running across five days from the 14/2/22 and culminating in an exhibition of the work produced on the 18/2/22.

Changing working practices combined with digital communication has meant that it is possible to complete work away from the office: at home or maybe in the garden, or even in an outdoor public square or park. However, carrying a cumbersome desk or dragging an awkward chair into the park is a difficult and off-putting activity.

This is project to investigate how to create the portable workstation.

We will be considering and asking questions which enable a hands on exploration of the portable, personal office space: who will occupy this space ? and where might it be located ?

We will be working physically, making and manifesting playful and speculative solutions, using repurposed old clothes, hacking existing shapes and processing raw materials through bricolage approach to construction

We will be concerned with distilling the essential, the desirable and the potential qualities of a portable workspace, reflecting the current and imagineering the future.

by Jan Willem Hoftijzer (TUDelft)

from concrete to abstract, from abstract to concrete

These days, the fields of design, architecture, system engineering and even social sciences seem to overlap more and more. Of course there are field-specific knowledge areas, but the areas are increasingly collaborating to find solutions for field-exceeding challenges. Specifically the area of sketching, with firm roots in both design and architecture, has this overarching reach, and is adopted in an increasing amount of different contexts.

Considering the complexity and multi-disciplinary character of the challenge at hand: the ‘capping’ of Antwerp’s ring road, this IDW workshop will approach the problem from different visual perspectives. Through inspiration from other city infrastructure, through incorporation of Antwerp inhabitants’ and user viewpoints, through visualization exercises, students will address the multiple sides of the ring road issue.

by Gert Dierckx

​So many great ideas stumble upon a wall of rejection of change.
How to get through the wall in a connecting and caring way is the key.
Experience the process of problem solving, ideation, implementing solutions and be the change.
Learn to use the powerful instruments and tools of creative facilitation on a human scale.
This by getting to know the steps, experiment with the methodologies, learn from the mistakes and implement them into your day to day work.

Keywords: ideation, design thinking, creative problem solving, active workshop, what if, what might we, how when what, everybody = creative, deep democracy, non violent communication.

by Adriaan De Bruyne (Material Mastery)

Material Tinkering is the process of creative, direct, and iterative experimentation on materials in order to stimulate a deeper understanding of its technical and sensorial properties and serves as a driver for innovation. 

In designing physical products, materials and production processes play a fundamental role. Developing the skill to choose the right materials and apply the properties and processes to the benefit of the product quality should be an integral part of design education. A mere theoretical approach to material science and only consulting the vast amount of digital sources do not deliver a sufficient sensitivity towards the evaluation and potential use of materials. 

In this Xplore workshop week we’ll go through the experiential learning cycle. Direct manipulation of materials, exploring processes and discovering creative results but also its limitations fosters the students knowledge of material characteristics and helps them to use this in their design process. During this tinkering process we let “the material speak” and try to be open and listen to it. 

Next to making the physical samples out of a diversity of materials it’s important to record all the steps in the process, taking annotations, pictures and video’s and visualise the progress. This is a crucial part in the learning cycle.

by Kris van Bosstraeten (Atlas Copco) in collaboration with Karine Van Doorsselaer (UAntwerp)

The next step in circularity.

We used to think we could design products and make them recyclable. Put only recyclable materials in our designs and be done with it. Leave the options for a second life of materials and components to the next guy.

As with a lot of things, it doesn’t really work that way. We cannot leave the responsibility to clean up and find solutions to whomever comes after us.

A workable circularity business model will need to incorporate both companies that are willing to use recycled materials as a resource and products that generate these material streams for them. Both need to be in equilibrium, or the system will not work.

If we design our products for a second life to begin with, we might get closer to a sustainable product solution.

I decided I wanted to give a workshop on taking that idea and bringing it to our existing products: Harvest components and materials from a compressor and creating ways to use them in subsequent products.

Ideally, we ‘ll be able to dismantle a compressor, and explore what we can make with the end of life product as a material resource. Together with Karine Van Doorsselaer, we will analyse what materials are available from an end-of-life compressor and what possibilities we have to rework them.

I am counting on your creativity to show me what you can come up with to give the old materials a new life. Hopefully we learn something about designing for disassembly in the process too.

You ‘ll be working in small groups, take apart a compressor and show me what you can build with it.

by Lansen Walraet, Thomas Waegemans & Andries Reymer (Accenture)

Each year, we ask our 2,000+ Designers and Innovators from Accenture Interactive’s Design community across the globe to watch out for potentially influential signals and trends. Our Fjord Trends 2022 tell a story of people and their relationships with the planet, technology, brands, and each other. Each trend stands on its own, but a natural connection across the set is clear.

During XDW 2022, we will together explore the Fjord Trends 2022 and we will apply them to a real-world challenge. Here’s the schedule:

• Day 1 – What might the future look like? We will do a Fjord Trends 2022 deep-dive. Hear from our experts how the world we live in is changing and how businesses might need to respond to stay relevant in the future.
• Day 2 – What challenges does our client face? We will share the story of a real client challenge we are currently working on. Hear from our fellow Designers what wicked problems they are aiming to solve.
•  Day 3 – Mash it up! We will apply the Fjord Trends, presented during Day 1, to our client challenges. Together, we will generate new ideas and shape propositions at the intersection of design and innovation.
• Day 4 - Time to prototype! We will make our ideas tangible and test them with real users and our Trends Squad. Will the idea fit into our users’ lives? Does our Trends Squad believe in the idea’s potential?
• Day 5 - Pitch it ‘till you win it! We will get you ready for the toughest crowd by sharing our winning formula for amazing pitch presentations.

Our Designers from Fjord will interact with you every day, once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. The morning sessions are usually to share stories and brief you. The afternoon sessions are mainly about checking in on progress and coaching you.

It’s going to be packed, but more importantly, it’s going to be fun!

Find out more on accenture.com and fjordnet.com