At the heart of the Product Design Innovation course is the belief that its students should be capable of effective and productive critical and creative thinking in equal measures. It is not enough to be able to draw well if there is no thinking; it is not enough to think logically if there is no creativity or imagination.

Design is a thinking act and the course educates thinking designers.

In an increasingly technologically complex world in which the interpretation of data and information is as least as important as the capacity for original imaginative ideas, designers are expected to be masters of creativity, communication and collaboration. They must understand the processes of innovation, problem solving and strategic decision making. They must understand how to research, to embrace change, to tolerate uncertainty and unpredictability. They must recognise the role and influence of cultural difference and they must understand the needs of the end-user, manufacturers and of the environment in which we must all live.