Local. By Design

At the center of everything we do is design thinking applied to local manufacturing and education.  Every Jam is preceded with visits to local manufacturers, where the students and teams meet their staff, understand the skills, and learn about the machines and materials used to create products. We select one or more manufacturers/machines and highlight those capabilities to the DesignHouse community at the Jam.

By exposing small manufacturers to the methods of design thinking and exposing students and designer to machine capabilities, the potential arises for a more efficient idea-to-production process. Our goal is to foster the use of existing skills, encourage and fund the learning of new ones.  Through our process, designers and makers in each local community also get to know the local manufacturers.  The students learn how design, prototyping and manufacturing work together for more efficient product creation.

MANUFACTURER Library