Class Design Laboratory

The Design Laboratory curricular unit explores the expansion of the boundaries of Communication Design, considering the product itself as an object of communication. Drawing on the knowledge and skills specific to this field, students develop projects applied to products from a communication perspective, exploring elements such as colour, texture, materials and surface, among others, which are relevant to the formal, functional and aesthetic characteristics of the product. This approach enables interventions in areas such as coverings, ceramics, textiles and tapestry, establishing relationships between Communication Design knowledge and different types of products and production processes. This perspective expands the fields traditionally associated with Communication Design, bringing students closer to different production and industrial contexts and contributing to broadening their opportunities for integration into the labour market.

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The syllabus is organised through a progression from intervention in raw materials to surfaces and three-dimensional products. 1. Intervention in raw materials Exploration of colour, texture and materials in raw materials that anticipate and condition the formal and aesthetic characteristics of the final product. Application to threads, fibres, fabrics and other materials, understanding their definition as a determining design action. 2. Intervention on surfaces Exploration of visual languages through colour, patterns, textures and composition, primarily using printing on surfaces. Projects for flooring, coverings, ceramics and textiles. 3. Intervention in three-dimensional products Application of Communication Design knowledge to three-dimensional products, exploring relationships between visual language, form and volume. Proposals in which communication elements move from organisation on the plane to the three-dimensional configuration of the product.

The methodological innovation of the curricular unit lies in extending Communication Design to the product, understood as an object of communication, through three project dimensions: raw material, surface and three-dimensional product. In the first, students define elements such as colour, texture and materials as design decisions that anticipate and condition the product. In the second, they develop patterns and graphic compositions applied through surface-printing processes. In the third, they apply visual language to the form and volume of three-dimensional products. This progression enables students to practise the transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional design and demonstrates how Communication Design skills can be applied to products and production contexts traditionally outside its field of activity.

Albers, J. (2013). Interaction of color (50th anniversary ed.). Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300179354. Cole, D. (2015). The pattern sourcebook: A century of surface design. Laurence King Publishing. ISBN 9781780674711. Jackson, P. (2024). How to think and design in the third dimension. Laurence King Publishing. ISBN 9781529432046. Lefteri, C. (2014). Materials for design. Laurence King Publishing. ISBN 9781780673448. Lefteri, C. (2019). Making it: Manufacturing techniques for product design (3rd ed.). Laurence King Publishing. ISBN 9781786273277.