Overview of the Major
Product Design falls under the category of design disciplines, awarding a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The major aims to cultivate individuals who are comprehensively developed in moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetic aspects, adapting to the needs of national modernization construction and development, as well as the demands for international industrial product design professionals. Graduates should possess a high sense of social responsibility, moral cultivation, and sound psychological qualities, coupled with strong innovative consciousness, an international perspective, and team collaboration spirit. They should systematically master the basic theoretical knowledge and skills necessary for this major, understand new developments in science and technology, literary and artistic trends, fashion, and local customs related to the major, and be able to engage in industrial product design, research, teaching, and management, as well as packaging design, exhibition design, promotional planning, and market development related to industrial products.
Our product design major primarily corresponds to industrial product design-related positions in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, taking into account cultural and creative product design and intelligent product design positions. Graduates can work in product research and development departments of innovation-driven enterprises, product design companies, research institutes, and digital art graphic design-related positions, engaging in product research and development design, design management, and design marketing.
Training Objectives
This major primarily targets the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, aiming to cultivate individuals who are comprehensively developed in moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor aspects, possessing homeland emotions, a healthy personality, an international perspective, craftsmanship spirit, and innovation ability. They should master the basic theories and professional skills of Product Design, possess certain aesthetic literacy and solid professional knowledge, effective communication skills, and good comprehensive qualities. Emphasis is placed on cultivating the ability to integrate multiple disciplines and work in teams, as well as mastering cross-disciplinary knowledge and advanced design concepts and methods in design science, engineering technology, and business management. Graduates should be able to keep up with the forefront of product design development, solve complex design problems with forward-thinking perspectives, possess strong product innovation design capabilities and the ability to independently complete design projects. They are expected to engage in diversified positions such as product development designers, structural designers, user interface (UI) designers, user experience (UX) designers, interaction designers, design marketing and management in large and medium-sized industrial design companies, product design companies, design research institutes, internet companies, and other enterprises and institutions related to product design in the innovation-driven industrial manufacturing, cultural creativity, and design service industries of the Greater Bay Area.
Knowledge and Abilities
Professional ethics: Possess a firm and correct political orientation, good ideological and moral character, a sound personality, and love for the country and the people. Support the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Have a scientific spirit, humanistic cultivation, cultural taste, professional ethics, and an enterprising spirit. Care about social issues and national development, possess a sense of social responsibility, and actively participate in social practice. Able to disseminate Chinese excellent culture, understand national conditions, social conditions, and people's lives, and practice socialist core values. Possess good professional ethics and adhere to industry norms and social responsibility requirements in product design.
Subject knowledge abilities: Possess systematic and solid general knowledge, basic knowledge, interdisciplinary knowledge, professional knowledge, and professional skills. Understand the history, current status, and frontiers of the major and related disciplines, master research ideas and methods of the major, and grasp basic knowledge in the arts.
Application abilities: Possess cross-disciplinary knowledge integration abilities, able to comprehensively utilize relevant knowledge and skills to analyze and solve complex problems in the major or related fields. Have good logical thinking abilities, scientific research, and practical work abilities, good at discovering problems and obtaining the status quo, feasibility, research methods, and research ideas of the research issues through necessary literature research. Possess the ability to apply professional knowledge in practical product design environments.
Innovation abilities: Possess logical thinking abilities, a critical spirit, and reflective consciousness, coupled with strong innovation and entrepreneurship awareness and social adaptability. Able to organize and conduct investigations and research using research ideas and methods of the major, discover, analyze, summarize, and evaluate phenomena and issues in the major and related fields, form personal judgments, insights, or countermeasures, and creatively solve problems in the product design process. Able to develop new products or services based on market requirements while continuously iterating and optimizing.
Information abilities: Able to track technological developments, utilize various information technologies and tools to obtain and analyze relevant information, proficiently use advanced design tools for design and development, accurately understand and effectively evaluate and solve practical problems in the product design process. Have a deep understanding of the role of green design and the 3R principle in environmental protection and sustainable development.
Communication and expression abilities: Possess strong interpersonal communication and expression abilities, able to use accurate and standardized language and writing to logically express opinions, effectively communicate with peers and the general public, and possess certain promotional and dissemination abilities. Have cross-cultural communication abilities, master a foreign language, and possess listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation abilities.
Teamwork abilities: Possess strong organizational, coordination, and management abilities, able to assume the roles of individuals, team members, and leaders in multidisciplinary cross-integration teams formed by product design and other disciplines. Able to harmoniously coexist with team members and collaborate to complete complex tasks.
International perspective: Understand and respect the differences and diversity of world cultures, able to disseminate Chinese excellent culture and wisdom. Keep abreast of international developments, pay attention to global major issues in the field of product design, and possess the ability to conduct international exchanges and cooperation in their professional fields.
Learning and development abilities: Possess self-planning, self-management, self-learning, and lifelong learning abilities. Able to adapt to the needs of social and personal high-level, sustainable development through continuous learning. Maintain an open and learning attitude towards new technologies, methods, and market trends. Keep up with industry development dynamics and adapt to an iteratively updated design industry environment through learning.
Characteristics of the Product Design Major
This major aligns with the industries in the Greater Bay Area, following the OBE (Outcome-Based Education) philosophy of "student-centeredness, output orientation, and continuous improvement." It constructs talent cultivation programs and curricula closely aligned with industrial demands, featuring collaborative training between government, schools, and enterprises.
Provincial first-class undergraduate major
This major is a provincial first-class undergraduate major and a provincial comprehensive reform pilot major, boasting provincial first-class courses and provincial online open courses as its core courses.
Multi-channel international cooperative teaching
The major cooperates and exchanges with international art institutions, conducts international competition workshops, and has returned teachers from Germany, the UK, the US, and other countries, allowing students to learn advanced professional knowledge and skills without leaving the country.
Abundant enterprise project practice opportunities
The major emphasizes industry-education integration and school-enterprise collaborative talent cultivation, making talent cultivation more competitive in the job market. It introduces projects, faculty, and resources from multiple large and well-known enterprises, integrating the three parties of schools, enterprises, and industries. By bringing enterprise projects and design competitions into the classroom, it highlights the project-based teaching approach of "real problems and real solutions," making the talent cultivation system more comprehensive. It attaches importance to the transformation of student design achievements, obtaining over 200 patents in the past three years, with over 100 being adopted by industries and enterprises.
Artificial intelligence empowering professional education
The major focuses on the forefront of the discipline, pays attention to artificial intelligence technology, continuously explores and practices the integrated innovation of AI+education, virtual reality+education, and platform+education, empowering professional education and cultivating future design innovators.
Dual international teaching pathways
Students in this major can choose the "2+2" or "3+1.5" dual credit exchange study mode with Edith Cowan University in Australia. After studying for 2 years or 3 years at their home institution, they can choose to study for the remaining 2 years or 1.5 years at Edith Cowan University, obtaining dual bachelor's degrees from both institutions.
Core Courses of the Major
Product Design Procedures and Methods, Product Form Design, Ergonomics, Product Engineering Drawing, CMF Experiment, Product 3D Rendering, Home Furnishing Product Design, Integrated Innovative Design.
Practical Teaching
On-campus concentrated practical teaching: Product Engineering Drawing Training, Product Structure and Disassembly, Design Research, Exhibition Comprehensive Practice, Design Competition Special Training, Design Selection Practice, Design Workshop, Enterprise Practice (Production Internship, Graduation Internship, Graduation Design, etc.).
Enterprise practical teaching projects: Online self-study extension module courses, professional ethics education, regional, industry, enterprise research (choose one of three), professional (production) internships, graduation internships, and graduation designs.
Teaching Conditions
Teaching equipment
Relying on our school's overall design plan for building a "digitalized" and "intelligent" campus, the Product Design major possesses advanced and complete teaching equipment, which can well satisfy students' needs for classroom learning and extracurricular practice.
Laboratories
The Product Design major's laboratories cover an area of over 200 square meters, including project studios, scientific research and experimental rooms. The experimental rooms include a hand-drawn expression training room, a 3D rendering laboratory, a digital molding process laboratory , an interactive product laboratory, a CMF laboratory, a packaging and printing process laboratory, a model craft laboratory, a photography studio, and a computer-aided design room. The facilities are well-equipped and advanced, fully meeting the needs of product design teaching, scientific research, and students' professional practice.
Practice bases
The Product Design major attaches great importance to the construction and planning of practice bases. It has established over 20 off-campus practice bases and established long-term cooperation relationships with numerous high-quality well-known enterprises such as South China Industrial Design Institute, LOCA Furniture, Sunhome Sanitary Ware, KUSHE Furniture, VSUN Home Furnishing, Tongnianzhijia, Meiqi Mei, Oupai Home Furnishing, and Baily Group. These bases can well meet the needs of students' on-the-job production internships and graduation internships during their fourth year of study.
Employment Prospects
This major enjoys broad employment prospects. With their professional abilities in areas such as appearance design, structural design, graphic and packaging design, as well as proficiency in cutting-edge technologies like AI design and 3D printing, graduates can successfully enter renowned companies such as South China Industrial Design Institute, Wayes Customization, Guangdong LOCA Furniture Co., Ltd., and Baily Group to engage in key positions like product design, experience design, and product managers.
Faculty Team
Since its establishment, the Product Design major has attached great importance to faculty construction. Through integration, introduction, recruitment, and sharing, it has initially established a teaching team with good political qualities, high professional standards, an excellent structure, and the ability to meet the various work requirements of the major. This team has formed a school-running pattern with a large scale, strong faculty, sufficient teaching resources, and a talent cultivation model that closely aligns with the needs of social application fields. Currently, there are 12 full-time faculty members in this major, including 5 with senior titles (42%), 3 with intermediate titles (30%), and 100% with master's degrees or above. All faculty members come from majors such as Product Design and Industrial Design.
