For the past twenty years, the second year students of Industrial Design from the University of Montreal are brought to conceive a series of products in the curriculum of their Ideation course. The objectives of this course are to sensitize the students to the processes of ideation, manufacturing and marketing, all of which require reflection, determination and accuracy. The end goal of this course is a sale in which the designers in the making introduce their creation to the general public.

This allows the students to understand the importance and the difficulties that can occur during the various stages of the realization of a project through hands on experience. They have to draw, present, and produce and package a minimum of twelve high quality replicas of their product to ultimately present them at the sale. It is a stimulating exercise that allows them, for the first time during their studies, to experience first hand, the reality of industrial design.

The first week, the students must come up with three concepts of products remediating to three problems of their choice. Within the same week, they are directed towards one of the ideas they developed, which directly lead them into the ideation phase of the project. For six weeks, multiple sketches and prototypes are realized. There is an important evolution of the all the concepts through the whole process, during which students had several proposals to make where their concepts were to be defended based on solid argumentation and justifications.

The students worked under the supervision of Jean-François Jacques and his collaborators Annie Legroulx, Claude Mauffette and Michel Morelli. These talented professionals were able to pass on their knowledge, their experience, their vision, their determination, and most importantly, their passion. Their involvement helped the student push their concepts to their full potential. The University’s technicians also significantly helped the evolution of the products.

The day of the sale, visitors gathered in large numbers and excitement could be felt everywhere. The sale was such a success that several products were sold out in mere minutes!

Following the sale, an idea stemming from the show the “Dragon’s Den”, the students prepared a sales pitch to market their product to a panel of experts. The jury this year regrouped Julie Payette, co-founder and partner at v2com and Pierre Laramée, consultant and advertising designer. After this presentation, three prizes were awarded. An Honorable Mention was awarded to °133, the Favorite Prize was awarded to Klip and the First Prize: HEC 2015 was awarded to UBLO.