Design for Kids & Toys

Course

The Specializing Master aims to train, in terms of content and method, a new generation of designers able to manage highly complex product service systems, typical of all the sectors that have the child as a reference user.

Its objective is to develop a transversal competence to move confidently between concrete constraints, such as security and law, and abstract goals such as cultural, cognitive, educational, recreational and ethical.

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Didactics

Attendance

The training course is based on a online learning model. Using an e-learning platform, students are able to access theoretical training modules that they can manage independently according to their own schedule.

Following this, the programme includes workshop activities, for which physical presence at POLI.design is strongly recommended but not mandatory, and a project work developed during a professional internship.

Training objectives

The Master in Design for Kids & Toys is organized in partnership with Assogiocattoli, which represents Italian manufacturers and distributors working in this industry. Italy generally excels in design (that means culture, method and practice of project and production) in several fields like fashion, food and creativity applied to multiple activities, but in the toy and childcare productions Italian design has yet to play a key role in building a recognizable identity.

The “Design System” and “System of Enterprise”, shows significant episodes but certainly not a coherent and recognizable oversight in children’s products, in furniture for children, in the game and in the toy sector. From this scenario it comes a need in poly-technical and multi-skill training.

Designers and, in particular, strategic designers have the role of create scenarios understanding the many aspects and skills that compose the system.

Design a toy or a product/service for children needs the skills to design the whole system of artefacts, around the child and for products and services.

Too often actually products for children have been interpreted as the declination of pre-existing goods, overloaded with signs, functions and colours inserted in a deliberately redundant packaging, or the unmediated reproduction of an adult object.

Today technology offers interesting opportunities but often it is not a vehicle of qualified contents able to generate new ways of playing, learning and socializing or stimulating creativity and imagination, but more often it is a self-referential and not suitable for children component.

If we think today about the “Design for Kids”, then we realize the number and type of skills needed to design a quality product aimed at the world of children.

Didactic Plan

The educational project is based on a blended learning approach that integrates theoretical training modules in e-learning with face-to-face workshop activities and a project work developed during a professional internship.

Didactic Modules

Theoretical training modules in e-learning mode:

Students, using thee- learning platform, follow all the e-learning didactic modules managing autonomously the times and the hours of use of the didactic contents with exercises for the assessment of learning contents. The theoretical training modules, delivered in e-learning mode, concern the following subjects:

• strategic design and design thinking;
• human centered design;
• marketing and communication;
• companies, the sector and the markets;
• technologies and materials;
• laws and safety;
• pedagogy, psychology, cognitive ergonomics;
• communication and distribution.

Face- to-face design workshops:

The workshops are intensive design sessions lasting four weeks each (the master’s program includes 2 workshops carried out with companies operating in the children-oriented sectors). Starting from the skills gained in the e- learning modules and during the workshops, the candidate will then be able to develop a project work during a professional internship lasting 3 months. During the internship, the candidate will be able to independently develop a final project based on the practical experience developed in the internship and the knowledge and interests gained through out the Master. The Final Project must be delivered in the form of a digital presentation and discussed in an exam session with the presence of the appointed Teaching Committee.

Title Released

At the end of the course, students who pass the final examination will receive a joint first-level Specializing Master in “Design for Kids and Toys” from Politecnico di Milano.

The Specializing Master grants 60 credits, equivalent to 60 ECTS.

Employment Opportunities

Master in Design for Kids & Toys has three types of employment opportunities:

• Freelance professionals and consultants able of thinking, developing and managing product service system projects and educational activities (training, laboratories, workshops etc.);
• Startuppers able of giving life to new businesses within offering for kids by taking cross-cutting opportunities in different sectors and areas (from technology to services);
• Positions in research and development offices, technical office, marketing and communication of companies, agencies and institutions that have business related to the child system;
• Positions in retail specialized in the child system.

The Master also has the cultural goal of training mothers and dads aware of the role of play in the educational development of children. The Master aims to train professionals able to exploit all the potentials and opportunities of technology and markets, putting the child at the center of any design process and innovation.

Admission

Requirements

The Master is held in English: a good knowledge of the English language will be an advantage.

Master in Design for Kids & Toys is open to applicants who have a University degree (Laurea, equivalent to a Bachelor of Science) under the old or the new educational system or a Laurea Magistrale (equivalent to a Master of Science) under the new educational system in Architecture, Engineering and Industrial Design, and in related economic disciplines, Communication Science, Educational Science and to applicants with equivalent qualifications.

The Board shall admit applicants who have qualifications in disciplines other than those specified above, if the Master may complete the training of the applicant or the professional skills and experience shown by same.

The selection is made by the Commission.

The selections will be made in chronological order with respect to the date of receipt of the application, until all available places have been filled.

Deadlines

To take part to the selection process, the application form must be completed online within the following deadline:

• EU/ Non-EU who graduated in Italy / EU citizens with qualification gained abroad by February 18th, 2024.

Price

The total cost of the programme is equal to € 10,500.00.

The cost of the programme is divided into:
– Registration fee for Politecnico di Milano, € 500.00 for student;
– Participation fee, equal to € 10,000.00 for student.

POLI.design offers the community of Politecnico di Milano a 50% discount to be applied to the participation fee for a I and II level Specializing Master or Higher Education Course / Post Graduate Program / Continuing Education Course which POLI.design manages and provides. The discount is for internal staff (i.e., structured teachers and technical and administrative staff) with active contracts at Politecnico di Milano and members of their household.

HOW IT WORKS:

To benefit from the discount you will need to:

• send the selection application to the chosen course with the relevant required documents;
• successfully pass the selections;
• send a copy of the applicant’s family status.

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