Design for Startups
Design for Startups matches Emily Carr emerging designers (senior undergraduate or graduate students) with Canadian companies pursuing design-driven development to collaborate on clearly defined design challenges that align with business and user needs.
Since 2013, this program has supported over 125 companies in strengthening their products, platforms, and services through human-centred design.
Next Cohort: Fall 2025 (September – December)
Company Applications are Open May 12 – June 6, 2025
Student Designer Applications are Closed
How it Works
- Companies tell us a design problem they would like solved
- We match companies with an Emily Carr designer who has the skills in that area
- Designers work 12 hours per week for 12 weeks in collaboration with your team while receiving structured mentorship through weekly internal design lab sessions, where they engage in critique and peer exchange with other designers and Emily Carr faculty
This is not an internship program. Designers lead a defined design engagement developed in partnership with your team and supported by our faculty rather than taking on day-to-day operational tasks.
Examples of Past Projects
- Leading a co-creative process of user research and branding to transform Karmahire into Callings
- Designing the creation tool from idea to wireframe for Cognilab
- Overhauling the form and function of email campaigns for Spacelist
- Creating icons and data visualizations to represent user libraries for BitLit
- Designing a mobile app for Koho
Interested in using the Design for Startups model?
Our toolkit maps out the framework for Design for Startups model, which is adaptable to suit different contexts, disciplines, and industries – you can read about its use cases and access the toolkit here.
This program is generously supported by the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) Fall 2024 – Spring 2026.
