The Savannah College of Art & Design's ID department continues to impress us with its significant ties to real-world industry and the educational opportunities this affords to its students. SCAD's latest team-up was with heavy equipment manufacturer JCB, who collaborated with SCAD ID students on a re-design of their 3CX backhoe loader, show above.
The new 3CX features aesthetic changes to its loader arms, cab roof cap and engine hood that make it look more "rugged.""We gave it more of an Americas look," said Chris Giorgianni, JCB's general manager for product marketing. "From a look and feel aspect, it's always been about the guts of the machine. Now it looks on the outside the way it performs."
The relationship [between JCB and SCAD] goes back three years and started with redesigns of accessories, like in-cab cupholders, assembly line workstations and skid steer loader attachments.
The 3CX was the first product redesign on which the company and the college collaborated. And it will be the first of many, Giorgianni said, given the results.
"The construction community is pretty tight-knit, and you end up with tunnel vision," he said. "The students challenge everything. They have virgin eyes. Every meeting we have, they mention some simple improvement that is an aha moment for us. We come away saying, 'Why didn't we think of that.' "
Read more about it at Savannah Now's source article.