Xavier Massé has been a boundless source of inspiration to the students of Whistling Woods International School of Design in the past and this time was no different. The ‘Design Jam’ workshop was crafted to let the new students of design explore a structured but more hands-on approach to visual design over the span of three days. Xavier Massé, the dean of ECV, France’s premier design school conducted this workshop with great enthusiasm and was impressed with the student interaction from the initial stages of the workshop.
About the idea of ‘Design Jam,’ the dean said, “It’s a three-day workshop based on a methodology of work called ‘design thinking’ and it’s meant to introduce a new way of doing creative exploration; how to not only help the students find a lot of different innovative ideas, but also how to find the right one in an efficient way.”
The ethos of ‘Design Jam’ lies in its highly interactive aspect. Divided into groups, the students were forced out of their comfort zones & had to think on their feet while working in congruence with their teammates. The purpose was to not just inspire the creativity, but also imbibe the attitude of being able to solve problems efficiently within them. “Once you start to understand how the world works, then you start to understand where the problems are,” said Xavier Massé, “Once you start to understand the problems, then you know how to fix them. You become a problem-solver. We teach designers to be problem-solvers.”
Siddharth, a School of Design student, spoke about how this workshop inspired him, saying, “For me, Mr Xavier was the first big thing which set me free in the design world. As he said, ‘Talk less and show them what you can do.’”
Whistling Woods International Blog 