The colour consultant training for the future: a holistic view of design and technologies

Abstract

The questions about the teaching of colour are central to the AIC community. The SCGE project run by Robert Hirschler in the last two years collected the participations of delegates from 40 countries around the world. The difficulties in this goal are due to the intrinsic multidisciplinary nature of colour and to its many different possible applications and related technologies. Moreover, colours have emotional, cultural and symbolic valences and designing with colour can sometimes look like a matter of personal preference. In order to be able to teach at higher level all aspects related to colour and make the students experience them, Università degli Studi di Milano and Politecnico di Milano have organised in 2015 the first edition of the Master program in Color Design & Technology, with the aim of providing in-depth training in the complex field of colour design and colour technology. The master aims at forming professionals able to manage the technological and design complexities of using colour in creative and industrial processes and in many application domains: from industrial product design to interior architecture, from communication to fashion and entertainment, and even in designing the urban environment. The master’s program is organised in two separate learning phases. The first phase is theoretical, while the second part consists of project works to make students apply what they have learned in the fundamentals in scenarios of typical colour design. At the end of all these modules, students are called for an internship in one of the companies, professional study or research centers related to the master.