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Milan Design Week

Experiencing (design) Experiences

The College of Arts, Media, and Design (CAMD) at Northeastern University sponsors a group of talented students attending Milan Design Week to observe, analyze and report how design is represented and experienced at the urban scale.​

Apply to Milan Design Week 2025

An Immersive Global Learning Experience

What is Milan Design Week?

Milan Design Week has served as one of the most significant events in the design industry since its inception in 1961 and attracts designers, innovators, and a variety of industry sectors from all over the globe. Hosted annually in Milan, Italy, the Design Week combines the Salone del Mobile fair and the Fuorisalone festival. The largest fair of its kind in the world, Salone del Mobile showcases the latest innovations and trends in furniture, lighting, textiles, and decorative items. Fuorisalone is a city-scale festival where hundreds of events, installations, and exhibitions broaden the interpretation of design, integrating both established and emerging players and connected industries such as fashion and the arts in an eclectic urban experience.

While the focus of CAMD students is primarily on the Fuorisalone component, they spend one full day at Salone del Mobile to learn how brands can innovate within the boundaries of a traditional international fair.

Meet the 2024 cohort and view their reports.

Transforming Students' Design Perspectives

Design experts

Navigate a global, design-focussed, city-scale event, critically explore experiences and installations, understand industry context.

Research ninjas

Conduct fieldwork, interview experts, analyze & interpret the design landscape.

Communication powerhouses

Write impactful reports, create engaging videos, share your experience with the world.

Professional edge

Gain independence, network with insiders, grow cultural awareness, join the global design scene.

Milan Design Week 2025

The College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) is now accepting applications to attend, explore and analyze the world-renowned Milano Design Week 2025 from April 7 – 13th, 2025. CAMD will be sponsoring twelve (12) talented students this year, covering your events registration, air travel, and lodging expenses.

Program Responsibilities

  • Students will be responsible for actively participating in pre-work from March 31 – April 4 to include an orientation to the event, overview of the city, review of press coverage, target event identification, and the development of assessment criteria in collaboration with partner organizations.
  • Students will have an ambitious schedule during the Design Week to explore the field through observation, documentation, and interviews that will drive the analysis and interpretation of events and exhibitions using the assessment criteria developed during pre-work.
  • Students will be responsible for developing two (2) reports during post-work phase, the week of April 14 – April 18 – an editorial report that describes the outcomes of the field research and the analysis, and a one-minute video that synthesizes the experience and works as a teaser for those who attend in the future.

Eligibility Criteria

Please review carefully prior to applying. Selected students must be/have:

  • 20 years or older by March 2025.
  • Registered for spring coursework in a CAMD program, combined major, or graduate program. (Unfortunately, students on study abroad or co-op are ineligible to participate.)
  • A minimum GPA of 3.3 for undergraduate students and 3.5 for graduate students (cumulative).
  • A current passport with an expiration date no earlier than May 2025.
  • Submitted application materials by no later than 12/13/24.

Please note that if you are selected, you will need to provide written permission from every course in which you are enrolled with an agreement from the instructor about how your absence in the semester will be handled in the course.

APPLY

Main Partner

 

 

This experience was made possible by the generous donors to CAMD.

Endorsed by

 

 

Concept and Coordination Boston/Milano

Center for Design Organizing Team

Dean's Office Organizing Team