Shimano Cycling World, located at the Singapore Sports Hub, was designed by alumnus and Trustee Tim Kobe’s (BS 82) Eight Inc., and just won two SPARK awards. Photo: Aaron Pocock
In the latest issue of Dot magazine, we explore Art Center’s long history—nearly 60 years—of connections to Asia. Today, we look at the College’s presence in Singapore and its decade-long relationship with INSEAD.
From Beijing, take a six-hour flight south and you’ll find yourself in Singapore, a geographically tiny city-state where tropical rains meet Blade Runner-esque skylines.
Singapore is not only a central hub for Southeast Asian business, but it is also a country banking big on the innovation economy and bending over backwards to lure creative and entrepreneurial talent to its borders.
Just ask Environmental Design alumnus and Art Center Trustee Tim Kobe (BS 82), the founder of Eight Inc., a design firm whose clients include Apple, Citibank and Nokia and which has offices around the world, including Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.
“The strategic location was certainly a key factor as it makes doing business with China, Australia, Dubai and India easier,” says Kobe of why Eight Inc. opened an office in Singapore, but adds that even more significantly, Singapore’s Economic Development Board was very proactive in their outreach and offers of support. “The country wants to build an innovation and design ecosystem. They thought we’d be able to help them grow and that would bring other companies into the market.”
Art Center students in the INSEAD program can study at the campus in Fontainebleau, France or at the Singapore campus (above).
Which brings us to Art Center’s joint program with INSEAD, one of the world’s leading graduate business schools, and an institution which Art Center has collaborated with since 2005 at both its campuses—in Singapore and in Fontainebleau, France.
Each year at INSEAD, eight to 10 Art Center students work alongside INSEAD MBA students on projects that focus on the role of creativity and innovation in business decisions and the impact design strategy can have on corporate management.
“When we first started our collaboration, INSEAD’s MBA students were skeptical and asking, What are these art students doing here, taking up space?” says Karen Hofmann, chair of Product Design, the department which has acted as Art Center’s ambassador for the program since its inception. “Fast forward a few years and the business community has finally embraced design as a differentiator for large corporations or start-ups to define and bring innovative ideas to life. Today there’s a long waiting list for INSEAD students to get into the program.”
What do Art Center students get out of the experience? First, they get exposed to thinking from a wealth of different cultures.
“You look around at the 40 to 50 students in each amphitheater-style classroom, and they’re all identified by a name tag that includes their country of origin,” says Hofmann. “You quickly realize that every continent on the planet is represented in each room.”
Courses at INSEAD have a distinctly United Nations conference vibe.
Another major benefit for Art Center students studying at INSEAD is access to MBA courses in innovation and entrepreneurship. The core of the study-away program is a collaborative course in product development—lead by INSEAD professor Manuel Sosa and Art Center faculty—and it is the only course at INSEAD that takes place in a studio-like environment with the design process leading the project-based curriculum.
In this course, each Art Center student is teamed up with four to five MBA students to spend seven weeks immersed in an innovative challenge, giving the designers the opportunity to guide their teams through a design-led process.
And those MBA students are intense.
“Like our students, they’re high octane,” she says of the INSEAD students, who complete a rigorous MBA program in one year, many at the expense of their respective employers. “They’re engaged and demanding. Yet, they’re also incredibly social in the evenings, particularly at the Singapore campus. They are powerful networkers.”
INSEAD professor Manuel Sosa (left) and Art Center faculty Babette Strousse lead the Art Center/INSEAD program in Singapore.
Hofmann proudly lists a number of recent Product Design alumni who have gone on to achieve success after participating in the INSEAD program in Singapore, including Eric Burns (BS 07), a senior interaction designer at Frog; Audrey Liu (BS 07), a creative director at SY Partners; and Katie Dill (BS 07), head of experience design at Airbnb and the recipient of Art Center’s 2015 Young Alumni Innovator award, which she will accept in person this Saturday at the College’s Spring term graduation.
The program is open to students beyond the Product Design department as well.
Recent Environmental Design alumna Alexandra Yee (BS 13), who studied at INSEAD and now works as a lead interaction designer at Telenav, says her experience in Singapore was inspirational on a number of levels. Yee says living in the heart of Southeast Asia allowed her to explore Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka and, in the process, discover more about Asia than she thought possible.
“Many of my friends and classmates from INSEAD have decided to stay and begin their startups in Singapore,” says Yee. “It’s a great scalable testing ground for new ideas, filled with brilliant and driven minds.”
And many of those minds will be gathering this coming February, when the College plans to throw a 10th anniversary celebration in the Bay Area for Art Center alumni who completed the program.
An aerial view of Singapore’s skyline, with the Marina Bay Sands hotel in the foreground.
Read more about Art Center’s connections to Asia in the Fall 2014 issue of Dot magazine. And be sure to check this space for upcoming stories about Art Center and INSEAD’s collaboration and upcoming 10th anniversary celebration. You can also contact our Alumni Office at alumni@artcenter.edu. .
