Top international designer Robert Brunner (pictured) recently brought his expertise to a Knowledge Club Event organised by the University of Ulster’s Office of Innovation.

Robert, one of the world’s leading product designers, who has worked with Lady Gaga and Dr Dre to develop some of this century’s most iconic products, spoke about the emotion behind design and how it is driving change in the market.

The core of his presentation to over 70 Design Students from Ulster, QUB, Northern Regional and Belfast Metropolitan Colleges, was the notion of “ideas, not objects” as a way for companies to connect with their constituents and develop relationships that matter.

Central to his talk was the belief that today, you can’t just create something, make and deliver it, and then expect it to do well. Products must be more than just a thing. They need to build on relevant, meaningful ideas, and the story needs to be driven through the entire proposition in an authentic way. Great products embody an idea that people can understand and engage with – one they can emotionally connect with.

Welcoming Robert to the Belfast campus, Professor Ian Montgomery, Dean of Faculty of Art, Design and the Built Environment, said:  ‘We are delighted to welcome Robert Brunner to Belfast. We really appreciate Robert taking time out of his busy schedule in California to be in Belfast to discuss his groundbreaking international industrial design work.

When he’s not hanging out with Lady Gaga or Dr. Dre, Brunner is off on his own creating leading-edge products most notably, the ‘look’ for Apple’s PowerBook.  His talk was an inspiration to budding new design students and would certainly encourage and re-energise their ideas on design.’

The talk was hosted by the Knowledge Club at the University of Ulster in association with the Northern Ireland Technology Centre at QUB.