School of Art & Design

History

The School of Art and Design, originated from the Department of Industrial Design in the College of Mechanical Engineering, is founded in 2020.  It have been offering undergraduate courses since 2002 and gradually worked its way into an independent school offering undergraduate programs such as automobile body shape design, product design, environmental art design and visual communication design.

Faculty and Facilities

The School is proud of its highly accomplished faculty who bring professional experiences and learning from around the globe. Five of the faculty are Professors and Associate Professors. Seven of the faculty members are council or committee members of various academic and teaching societies, such as the Industrial Design Society of Chinese Industrial Engineering Institute, the Industrial Design Society of China, the Industrial Design Discipline and Teaching Committee of Chinese Industrial Engineering Institute, and the Industrial Engineering Institute of Hubei Province. Among them, two are the Associate Chair Councilor and one is the Vice President of Shiyan Artist Associate. Ten guest professors are employed from well-known companies and universities, including Dongfeng Motor Company, Tongji University, and Wuhan University of Technology.

Twenty-two classrooms equipped with Touch-controlled PC, individual desks and painting facilities for art majors are provided. Industrial and product design laboratories, such as photography room, graphics workstation, car model making room, 3D printing room, comprehensive model making room, automobile body parts laboratory, visual communication design laboratory, etc. are built. Fifteen off-campus practice education bases all over the country are ready to serve the students.

Courses and Programs

A Bachelor of Industrial Design, a Bachelor of Product Design (including a minor program for automobile body shape design and for industrial product design), and a Bachelor of Visual Communication Design in Art Education are available degrees for undergraduate students. Students will concentrate in their preferred area of study to earn their degree.

Academic and Teaching Achievements

The research area of the School includes automobile modeling and conceptual design, automobile culture, Wudang Culture and artistic design, rural revitalization and design, etc. It has established such research platforms as Wudang Culture Research and Communication Center (Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences in Huhebei Province), Art Research Institute, China (Shiyan) Automotive Culture Industry Research Center and so on.

The faculty of the School have completed more than 30 research programs of provincial and municipal level, published 7 monographs and textbooks, as well as more than 50 papers. A number of design and research works have won medals and awards in international, national and provincial competitions, including the Hubei Science and Technology Progress Award, Red Dot Award, Shiyan Science and Technology Progress Award and Shiyan Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award.

The online course "Automobile Culture" which the faculty of the School helped to develop has won the title of Excellent Online Open Courses. The product design major was nominated as the First-class Undergraduate Major of Hubei Province in 2020.

The students of the School have also achieved great success in various important design competitions at home and abroad. In recent years, the students' works have won more than 100 awards in various competitions, such as the National College Students Advertising Art Competition, the National Automobile Creative Design Competition, the China Packaging Creative Design Competition, the National College Digital Art Design Competition, and the Hubei College Art and Design Competition.

Career Futures and International Cooperation

A lively environment in the School encourages creative growth and intellectual challenge. With the rapidly changing arts culture in mind, the faculty are integrating emerging technologies into their studios and classrooms, establishing international programs and expanding our curriculum to prepare students for future careers in the arts.

The employment rate of students has been above 90% for many years, and 80% of the students will eventually get enrolled into master programs of well-known universities such as Wuhan University, Wuhan University of Technology, Hubei University of Technology, Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, etc.

The school has launched a partnership with many universities both home and abroad. Students of the school are able to enjoy the resources of Tsinghua University, Wuhan University of Technology and Hubei University of Technology. Academic and student exchange programs are carried out between the school and with universities in Korea, the United States, Germany and many other countries.

Mission and Goal

The School of Art & Design at the Hubei University of Automotive Technology is a community of creatively and critically engaged artists and designers. The school offers hands-on training in industrial and digital arts including industrial design, product design and visual communication design. It attracts diverse students from across the world, and dedicate itself to the development of local economy and the automobile industry of China as well as that of the world.