A Collaboration that Grows with Challenges

Each year, students at the University of Design, Innovation and Technology (UDIT) face new challenges that test their creativity and technical skills. In the second year, the big challenge is designing furniture. That’s why collaborating with Woodendot was a perfect fit: giving students in the middle of their training a real briefing and the experience of working with a contemporary design brand.

From Briefing to Prototypes

The workflow developed during the 2024–2025 academic year followed all the classic phases of product design. The starting point was a briefing with three possible types of furniture:

• A trolley for transporting objects within the home.

• A piece of furniture designed for pets.

• A multifunctional bench adaptable to different spaces.

Some proposals were developed individually, others in groups. The process included ideation stages, sketches, and scaled-down prototypes to test proportions and shapes. In one of the sessions, the Woodendot team shared direct feedback with the students, helping refine the projects. The journey culminated in full-scale 1:1 prototypes, some of them with impressively realistic and polished finishes.

Standout Projects

Among the works created, several proposals stood out for their originality and closeness to the brand’s values:

• MONA, by Nora Zuaznabar.

• ALANA, by Tania Carranza and Denver Karam.

• PUA, by Jimena Muñoz Alonso.

• MILO, by Naia Lefevre.

• MESETA, by Manuela Rojo and Eugenia Rabanaque.

Each of these projects reflects, in its own way, a dialogue between functionality, aesthetics, and experimentation, with solutions that resonate with Woodendot’s spirit.

A Shared Learning Experience

For Woodendot, this collaboration meant direct contact with the designers of the future, discovering how they interpret and transform a briefing into fresh and relevant proposals. For the students, it was the chance to face a real challenge backed by a brand, learning to see design not just as a creative exercise, but as a concrete response to everyday needs.

Looking Ahead to 2025–2026

The experience was so positive that both sides decided to repeat the formula. In the current academic year, Woodendot and UDIT will once again work together, launching a new briefing that will test the ingenuity of a new generation of students.

Final Reflection

Beyond prototypes and tangible results, collaborations like this highlight the importance of building bridges between academia and the professional world. The classroom becomes a living laboratory of ideas, and design turns into a shared language between those who are learning and those who are already creating.