Empowering designers to address UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Overview
The RCA x Design for Good Academy launched in 2024 to empower designers to address UN Sustainable Development Goals. Bringing together the creative expertise of the RCA and the impactful vision of Design for Good, the Academy aims to deliver an annual online short course for Design for Good alliance members and RCA students.
The Design for Good alliance comprises a growing list of the world’s largest companies and organisations that includes Airbus Commercial, BP, DBS Bank, General Mills, LIXIL, Logitech, Lloyds Banking Group, Nedbank, Nestlé, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Philips and Royal College of Art.
Course structure
The course modules were developed to explore an end to end approach, from scoping a project with research methods and life-humanity centred design, through to systems and stakeholder analysis, ideation and prototyping, value-proposition development and ultimately implementation.
The course was led by Dr Nick de Leon and Dr Delfina Fantini van Ditmar from the School of Design, delivered with expert RCA academics and invited industry practitioners including Damien Lutz (Founder, The life-centred Design Lab), Dr. Carmen Hijosa (Founder and Chief Creative & Innovation Officer, Ananas Anam Ltd) and Virginia Gardiner, the original inventor of the Loowatt toilet system.
Alongside the short course, RCA Executive Education hosted three free public Masterclass Talks with prestigious invited speakers including Don Norman (Researcher, Professor, and Author), Daniel Christian Wahl (Consultant, Educator and Activist), Sandy Speicher (Design and Innovation Leader) and Terry Behan (Head of Design, Nedbank South Africa).
Outcomes
Delving into the intersection of design and social responsibility, participants explored avenues to create meaningful change in their communities and professional spheres by applying learnings to a real life project or activity. They described the course as a transformative experience that expanded their understanding of design’s potential.
In its inaugural year in 2024, 275 designers participated and 94% rated their overall satisfaction with the course as good or excellent. Certificates were awarded at Foundation and Practitioner Level.
“This course is a testament to the core motivation of designers who want to contribute positive changes to society and the planet. I was inspired by the large number of designers from around the world who were genuinely interested in creating goodness.”
McKinsey and Company
“This course is educational, empowering, equipping and uplifting. As a designer I've previously struggled to articulate the type of design I've always felt called and purposed to do - the RCA x Design For Good Academy is IT!”
Lloyds Banking Group
Key details
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More information
Custom Executive Education
Custom Executive Education Masterclasses and Workshops
Through our portfolio of innovation masterclasses and workshops, the RCA provides senior-level professionals and business leaders with critical business skills. We deliver courses for businesses, organisations and universities on design thinking, service design, creative leadership, disruptive innovation, entrepreneurship, human-centred design, artificial Intelligence and healthcare design.
We can tailor the curriculum for a day, a week, or several weeks over the course of a year with interrelated projects. Courses can be delivered online, on-campus, hybrid or at partner organisations. Previous courses have been delivered in Dubai, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Germany and Mexico.
Find out more here.
Please get in contact with us if you would like to discuss developing a custom programme:
- Peter Christian, Head of Executive Education
- Hattie Allen, Executive Education Manager
