Specializing Master in Furniture Design

The furniture industry is undergoing profound transformation and therefore companies are reconsidering their product ranges, presence in international markets, distribution channels, and product and brand communication. All this requires a strong upgrading of the skills of designers and their ability to relate to added value building.

The Master is based on the capacity of Italian companies, working in the furniture industry, to use design as a fundamental lever of competitive advantage and a structural element of corporate culture. The core of the program is focused on the knowledge generated from the advantageous relationships instilled between the Italian production system and the network of professionals involved in the design. The Master sets its cultural roots in the “Italian model” of rapport between enterprise and design, while also aiming to develop new knowledge in innovation that responds to the challenges posed by technological, social, and market changes. The program’s structure takes on a systemic vision of the role of design in the furniture industry, teaming new fields of interest with the traditional focus on product development, along with the growing importance of brands and their tangible and intangible elements of expression.

Furniture Design

The Specializing Master is based on practical application activities centered on the involvement of some of the most important Italian furniture companies and international designers. Students will work on real problems related to the many contemporary challenges of the industry, starting from actual project briefs from the partner companies.

The Master in Furniture Design provides the following types of didactic activities:

Introductory and specialized lessons, entrusted to a highly qualified faculty, composed of teachers from the Politecnico di Milano, professionals from the industry, and experts from the business world. The lessons will introduce and expand on different aspects of contemporary design and will give you an overview of methods and tools that will help you innovate and manage added value through design.

Testimonials and meetings with designers and companies that will bring participants into direct contact with the protagonists of Italian design.

Project work in small teams starting from project briefs from Masters partner companies with the support of the companies, professionals, and experts from within the industry.

300 hours of professionalizing projects or 300 hours of curriculum internships at companies and professional studios, to experiment and expand the skills acquired during the Master's in the world of work.

The Number of Admitted Students is 30

The aim of the Master Course is to provide designers with specialized skills in the field of furniture design, teaching them to respond to the changes and transformations occurring in the industry’s production systems and markets by using the most advanced relationship models of integrating the product development processes with market dynamics and technological advancements. The program furthermore seeks to complete the training of professionals in the industry working in R&D, marketing, and brand management departments and provide them with the ability to understand and manage design as a lever of competitive advantage.

The course is primarily intended for those already with work experience in the furniture industry and in related fields seeking to: complete their training, expand their knowledge base and understand the dynamics of an advanced relationship model between design, culture, and productive systems.

Title Released

Students, after the final examination, will achieve the 1st level Specializing Master in Furniture design. Learning from the Italian experience diploma will be issued, with the related achievement of 60 CFU/ECTS.

Didactic Plan

The program is delivered through company visits, lectures, testimonials, case studies, and project work according to the following teaching modules:

1. Design and Manufacturing Processes

The main production models, technology, and their relationship with design skills are introduced, providing students with a wide panorama of the diverse product typologies and technological matrixes of the furniture industry.

2. Product Design

The module focuses on the many phases of the design process, from need and opportunity exploration to conceptual solution definition and from product development to engineering. The objective of the course is to provide students with vertical and transversal abilities through the development of projects that start with a brief provided directly by companies supporting the educational program of the Master.

3. Design, Brand Direction, and Communication

The module introduces design direction and management principles by linking brand positioning and identity with supply management and brand expression (brand positioning and architecture, product portfolio strategies, brand presence at the point of sales, etc.). The course aims also to introduce strategies and tools for managing media and digital distribution channels.

4. Retail, Service, and Exhibition Design

The module introduces issues in retail (channel typologies, presence formats, etc.), point of sale organization(layout, etc.), user experience (service and experience design), and integration between the tangible and digital dimensions. The course also introduces the principles of display and product styling, as well as exhibition design.

5. Internship

350 hours of professionalizing projects or 350 hours of curriculum internships at companies and professional studios, to experiment and expand the skills acquired during the Masters in the world of work. The final exam consists of the development and presentation of an elaborate in which the candidate will take care of bringing out the experience gained during the curricular internship and all the master activities and developed projects.

Didactic Modules

• Portfolio Empowerment
• Pitch and presentation strategies
• Empowerment
• 3D modeling and rendering
• Free Hand Sketching
• Introduction to Italian Design, Technologies and Materials
• Italian Furniture Design and Manufacturing
• Ideation and Concept Design
• Sketch modeling
• New Product Development
• Product Engineering
• Design for sustainability and Design for circular economy
• Design for manufacturing
• Shapes, Surfaces and Colours
• Design and Brand Direction
• Digital Media and E-Commerce
• Retail, Service and Exhibition Design
• Curricular internship or Project Work

Training Modules

The course is divided into the following modules:

1. Italian Furniture Design and Manufacturing Module
   1. 3D Modeling and Rendering
   2. Introduction to Italian Design, Technologies and Materials
   3. Italian Furniture Design and Manufacturing
2. Product Design and Engineering Module
   1. Ideation and concept design
   2. New Product Development
   3. Product Engineering
   4. Design for Manufacturing
   5. Shapes, Surfaces and Colours
3. Design Strategies Module
   1. Design and Brand Direction
4. Communication, Retail, Service and Exhibition Design Module
   1. Digital Media and E-commerce
   2. Retail, Service and Exhibition Design

Extra didactic activities:

The Master provides complementary elective teaching activities, meant to reinforce the manual skills of the students (manual sketching and sketch modeling), to give support for the preparation of personal portfolios, and to provide stronger transversal skills (inter-personal and intra-personal skills). Concerning this last objective, the Master proposes a mentoring and coaching program in collaboration with Fondazione Franco Albini, based on the Albini method that gives students a unique occasion to clarify their long-term objectives with a view to individual and collective achievements.

Moreover, the Master provides complementary activities to the teaching, which aim at giving the Master an experience of going into Italian design as a sociocultural system connecting places, events, and networks of people. These activities, which are not mandatory but strongly recommended, will take place mainly in the evening, outside the university, and under the responsibility of participants. In particular, the Master will propose:

• Visits to museums and temporary exhibitions;
• Participation in events;
• Active participation in the Milan Design Week (Salone and Fuorisalone), through agreements with the organizers.

The Master seeks to train international designers for companies and design studios working in the international market, in Italy, and abroad. The program trains students for the following roles in the Furniture Industry:

• R&D Managers
• Designers or Leaders of Product Development Teams
• Product Engineers or technical experts in the design of furnishing elements
• Product Portfolio Managers
• Design Managers or Art/Design Directors
• Communication and Brand Managers

• 1st in Italy
• 4th in Europe
• 8th in the World

Politecnico di Milano - QS Ranking 2023 in Art&Design category