Make Change Studio 2019 – 2020

Make Change Studio 2019 – 2020 is an interdisciplinary, cross-institutional program that brings design and business students together, integrating design at the forefront of business, prior to the conception of an idea.

Simon Fraser University’s Make Change Studio is a collaborative 1-year, 4-course program bringing together designers and business students who are interested in entrepreneurship to teach students how to develop a design-led, socially responsible venture that delivers products and services to actual customers. For the 2019 – 2020 programming, SFU has partnered with Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship to co-offer the program to be taught at the Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Titled “(Re) Fashioning the Local Textile Industry”, the 2019 – 2020 program will focus on the sustainable textile industry in Vancouver and engage local experts in textiles and clothing — Emily Smith (co-founder of Vancouver MiniMaker Faire and founder of Vancouver Fibreshed) and Stephanie Ostler (founder and CEO of Devil May Wear) and John Bondoc (co-founder ASIF and former Creative Director, Converse Innovation).

Spanning across Fall 2019 – Summer 2020, the program is delivered in 3 terms. The first term will focus on research through making and connecting with industry, the second on iterating and prototyping design-led businesses and propositions, and the third term on launching a design-led venture.

Students from Emily Carr and SFU will work together to unpack some of the issues, challenges and opportunities in Vancouver’s textile and apparel industry. The program will create and bring together textile entrepreneurs, and form an ecosystem of local opportunities, environmentally-responsible ventures, products, and/or propositions.

The program at Emily Carr will be delivered in partnership with Textile Adaptations Research Program (TARP) at Emily Carr University, which explores adaptive strategies and processes applicable to cloth, with the specific aim to identify new modes for engaging with cloth-based products while maintaining responsible relations to the environment and society. Grounded in material practice, participatory, contextual and critical design research methods, TARP runs in collaboration with Estonian Academy of the Arts, Estonia; VIA University College, Denmark; London College of Fashion, UK; Polytechnique di Milano, Italy.