When budding automotive engineers are learning something about the work of automotive designers, the final exam at the end of the semester can sometimes take more unconventional forms. That’s what Professor Lutz Fügener decided in his role as guest lecturer at the Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) at RWTH Aachen University. He worked together with Red Dot to develop an exam concept for his module that meets the requirements of the exam regulations while offering something new and experimental at the same time.
Learning objective: to speak the language of the designers
Lutz Fügener is an expert in mobility design and has been a member of the jury for the Red Dot Award for many years. In 2021, after more than 20 years as Professor of Transportation Design at Pforzheim University, he moved to Hof University of Applied Sciences, where he is responsible for the B.A. In Design & Mobility. For years, he has also been teaching a module on the fundamentals of automotive design and industry practices (entitled “Fahrzeugdesign – Grundlagen und industrielle Praxis”) to students at the renowned Institute for Automotive Engineering (ika) at RWTH Aachen University during the summer semester. The aim is to familiarise future automotive engineers with the work of automotive designers and help them to “speak the same language” so that they can go on to work together constructively and efficiently with the designers in interdisciplinary teams. There is normally a written final exam at the end of the module. In 2023, the exam was held for the second time in a row in the Red Dot Design Museum in an entirely different form.
The exam – observing, sketching, researching, analysing and communicating
On the day of the exam, Professor Fügener travels from Aachen to Essen with his students. Once they arrive at the Red Dot Design Museum, they learn a little about the Red Dot Design Award and the criteria used by the competition jury to assess good design – the four qualities of good design. Then they take the actual exam, which is broken down into several steps: 1. Each student selects an exhibit. 2. The student is asked to prepare a sketch of the object that captures its distinctive features and proportions. 3. The student has to research the special aspects of the product in an in-depth analysis and 4. summarise these in a presentation. The next step is to collect the sketches and walk through the museum together. The other students are tasked with identifying the object featured in each sketch. The student who has drawn that sketch then holds their pre-prepared oral presentation of roughly 5 minutes in length about the design product. This format also allows the teacher to have a rich learning experience. Professor Fügener explains: “All of the students without exception hold interesting and informative presentations on the design objects they select. The presentations allow me to see the nuances of some of the less conspicuous exhibits, while also illustrating and highlighting the in-depth technical decisions taken by the other jurors”.
Theory meets practice “in the eye of the storm in the design world”
Though the exam scenario was unfamiliar and challenging for all of the participants, it was a resounding success. Not only did all of the students produce high-quality presentations and passed the exam, they also had a lot of fun. “As far as the organisation and content is concerned, the event couldn’t have been better”, sums up Fügener. “The aim of the programme was to shift the focus in the area of design from the perspective of the consumer to that of the creator, the professional. We appear to have succeeded, and I am delighted about that.” One of the students later reported the feeling of having been “in the eye of the storm in the design world” at the museum. Lutz Fügener is already thinking about more ways to incorporate the Red Dot Design Museum into his lectures and modules.