Fashion School Q&A: IED Istituto Europeo di Design

The Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) is a private design school in Italy founded in 1966. The school is organized into four disciplines: Design, Fashion, Visual Communication, and Management and is spread over nine cities - Milan, Turin, Venice, Cagliari, Florence, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, and São Paulo. FashionUnited recently spoke to Veronica Biondi, IED International Marketing Specialist at IED, to discuss the impact of Covid-19, the type of courses the college offers, and the future plans of the institute.

How has the transition from in-house to remote learning been for the school and students?

Students, alumni, and teachers of the IED Network did not stop in the face of the Covid-19 emergency and have fully interpreted the role of the designer: transforming the difficulty into an opportunity, reinventing, generating new ideas and new processes, new solutions to support society.

IED launched the SMART SCHOOL to cope with the prolonged closure of schools, starting from March 9th, 2020, a large part of IED teaching has entered into distance learning mode - to guarantee the delivery of the courses as well as the continuity of relationships, which are a core value for IED. Within the activities, 40 IED Tips were produced: video pills recorded in laboratories illustrating workings, use of machinery, suggestions for the realization of prototypes in different disciplinary fields, with the aim of narrowing the knowledge gap of the students who can't access the workshop activities today. The IED Tips are also the basis for the future library digital processing.

Moreover the academic offer has been enriched with modular courses in a 100 percent online format on the platform IED FORWARD. These courses deal with the Creative Process in Fashion, Product, Interior, and Graphic Design in order to inform all audiences of the steps needed to go from inspiration to an idea, to the development of a project. By means of our own e-learning platform, the world of creativity can be accessed easily, at any time, and from any place. They are definitely an extra tool allowing prospective students to experience IED teaching methodology and deepening some topics of their interest.

How would you describe the student community at IED?

The brand new IED Alumni Network project well shows the tight community IED is proud of: an interactive networking platform that fosters constant dialogue between former students, also promoting initiatives to support start-ups, relationships with companies, job opportunities, lifelong learning. 10 successful Alumni will be leading a series of meetings and training sessions aimed at supporting the creation of start-ups, develop professional relationships, transfer knowledge, sector information, and opinions to those who are at the beginning of a new career path, to those who want to change professional direction or to those who are just curious to deepen certain topics. More details here: www.iedalumni.com

What kind of courses does IED offer? What is the focus area?

In each of the countries where IED is located the academic offerings include fully accredited Undergraduate and Master's programs as well as private diploma courses. Foundation courses, Continuing education courses, Summer, Semester, and Academic Year Courses complete the offer and are able to meet everyone’s needs. Every course aims at developing practical agile learning materials for students, supporting students to grow and make them better.

What do we need to know about IED?

IED is an international network of education with 100 percent Italian DNA. It was born in Italy in 1966 from the idea of Mr. Francesco Morelli. IED has been operating in the fields of training and research in the disciplines of Design, Fashion, Visual Arts, Communication and Management, Art. IED means creativity, culture, projects, and planning. IED's mission is to offer young talents thorough training and hand them the “Design Knowledge and Mindset” that will be the key success factor in their careers. Learning with the company is a must in IED: curricular and extra-curricular activities involving projects commissioned by public institutions, private companies, agencies, and manufacturers are a main feature of the courses. Moreover, all IED schools are found in some of the most creative and vibrant cities around the globe. IED supports young creatives through a dedicated set of scholarships, promotions, and financial aid. Scholarships are awarded on the merits to particularly deserving and motivated students, usually evaluated through the submission of project work - more details on ied.edu/financial-aid.

What are the plans for this year? Any new things coming up?

Also in 2021 IED is committed to providing you with academic excellence and the best students’ experience possible as well as ensuring students’ safety. IED is formulating its operational plan for the remainder of the academic year and beyond. IED has started a gradual, phased approach to increasing the percentage of on-ground seats offered. Laboratories and final projects will be prioritized for on-ground instruction. These offerings, as well as additional general education courses, will be supplemented with robust virtual learning via Zoom/other platforms.

Do you have any tips for future students who want to study at IED?

As the working world grows even more complex, demanding and competitive, new job offers are being launched to find specific profiles and professionals who are constantly changing. Definitely, IED aims at fighting the comfort zone and being more aware of your own desires, ambitions, and individual worth, analysing the strengths in your personality according to the demands of today’s market, making you feel happier and more confident about your decisions.

Images: IED