DALLAS—The Art and Design Department at Columbia College Chicago is the tenth design school partnering with Groovystuff on its education-to-industry cooperative, and will have a Groovystuff By Design Challenge this fall among the 11 students in the Columbia department.
Groovystuff launched its initiative in 2010, which allows design students at partnering schools to see their designs become prototypes and/or products. The program is a two-stage program in which winners are determined through a popular vote at High Point Market in stage one, and then the winners’ products are produced for the next market, and the grand prize winner is determined by the most written orders at market. This competition will take place at the High Point Market, April 20-25, 2013, with additional exposure at January’s Dallas Total Home & Gift Market and Las Vegas Market.
Under the leadership of Professor Mark Klein, the Columbia students are tasked to design pieces from what Klein describes as an “anthropological perspective.” Klein educates from “this unique perspective that looks at human factors and how they influence social, cultural, physical, cognitive and emotional norms,” he said. The winning designs will be given trade show exposure, celebrity endorsement and royalties for life.