PPR French worldwide group is sponsoring a series of design studios at California College of the Arts (CCA) during the 2007–8 academic year. Students in CCA's Architecture, Industrial Design, and Graduate Design programs are examining a variety of design issues while working with representatives from three PPR brands: Gucci, Puma, and Redcats.

"We are delighted to be working with PPR," stated Stephen Beal, provost of CCA. "This partnership enriches our design curriculum considerably and provides our students with unique opportunities to interact with top international professionals."

Sponsored studio courses at CCA give students the prospect of conceptualizing design within the context of a particular brand. They also give the retail, manufacturing, and design industries access to the fresh perspectives of next-generation designers. Other recent sponsored studio collaborations at CCA have included a sustainability studio with the international design firm IDEO and a pet product studio with the Turkish design firm Gaia&Gino.

About PPR
PPR develops a portfolio of high-growth global brands. Through its general consumer brands and luxury brands, PPR generated sales of EUR 19.8 billion in 2007. The group is present in 90 countries with approximately 93,000 employees. PPR brands include Fnac, Redcats Group (La Redoute, Vertbaudet, Somewhere, Cyrillus, Daxon, Ellos, The Sportsman's Guide, The Golf Warehouse and brands of the plus-size division), Conforama, CFAO, Puma, and the luxury brands of Gucci Group (Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent, YSL Beauté, Balenciaga, Boucheron, Sergio Rossi, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney). Explore the universe of PPR brands at www.ppr.com.

Founded in 1907, CCA offers studies in 20 undergraduate and eight graduate majors in the areas of architecture, business, curatorial practice, design, film, fine arts, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of business administration, and master of fine arts degrees.

This past fall, California College of the Arts Industrial Design students partnered with the South Korean cell phone manufacturer Pantech for a sponsored, senior studio course in which they took on the future of mobile communications. Addressing the idea of emotional networking, CCA Industrial Design Program chair Yves Béhar and instructor Noah Reinhertz worked with CCA students and their counterparts in South Korea.

The results included such designs as the Inhealth phone, which encourages exercise and uses NASA's ENose technology to track dietary needs, and the Nike+ phone, which uses social-networking technology to allow users to compete with each other during a run in real time.

At the end of the course, four students selected for their outstanding effort and designs—Gregory Davis, Kristina Lee, Seth Murray, and Cecilia Nguyen—flew to Pantech's headquarters in Seoul to present the cell phone designs on behalf of the entire class. The other students in the class included Edward Allen, Chip Beal, Cubby Golden, Tirshathah Hunter, Kenneth Ng, Nick Shen, and Henry Smith.

"This collaborative class pushed the threshold of what students at CCA can accomplish in terms of the physical realization of designs. The students reached further than the limitations of their own handcrafting skills and broke new ground in the sculptural representation of social and technological interactions," says Reinhertz.

Sponsored studio courses at CCA give students the opportunity to conceptualize product design within the context of a particular brand. They also give product manufacturers access to the fresh perspectives of next-generation designers. Recent sponsored studio collaborations have included a sustainability studio with the international design firm IDEO and a pet product studio with the Turkish design firm Gaia & Gino.