Training creative students to become effective brand builders.
Spring 2016 Deadline: Midnight
March 7th, 2016
March 7th, 2016
The Soldier Co-Op program is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for creative Harvard University undergraduate and graduate students (expanding to MIT, and other Boston area schools in Fall 2016) to gain direct, hands-on and term-time experience in a world-class design and brand building practice. Participants gain real-world skills and exposure to best-in-class client work while building portfolio projects ahead of graduation and full-time work applications.
Soldier Design curates challenging but solvable customer problems ripe for investigation by liberal arts minded millennials who in turn complement their academic education with practical and technical experiences.
With this program, Soldier Design continues its decades long investment in the Harvard Square area and benefits from exposure to millennial minds while driving ever strengthening industry ties at Harvard’s professional schools.
WHY WE ARE EXCITED ABOUT HARVARD’S GROWTH IN ENGINEERING AND DESIGN
Harvard University’s graduate schools of Business, Design, and Engineering, will soon be joining forces in Harvard’s new Allston campus, and increasingly with innovative new and shared curricular offerings. Most recently Harvard’s Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Harvard Graduate School of Design announced a new Masters Degree program in Design Engineering. These interdisciplinary programs complement an already robust ecosystem of innovative apprenticeship models at the MIT Media Lab, Olin, Babson, NEU etc.
PLEASE NOTE: This program is only meant to be a complement to your academic coursework and does not replace in any way your assigned curriculum. It’s sole purpose is to broaden your exposure to the real world practice of design and creative strategy.
2016 theme: The unique opportunity of Fast Modern Functionality:
For our 2016 Soldier Co-op program we will explore three forces challenging our partners — the perfect storm of Millennials, Materials and Mobility. These could be described as follows:
Millennials: Young people who represent 80% of today’s workforce that live, work, communicate and travel interdependently and socially.
Materials: Soft and hard material inventions, the internet of things, and nanotechnology, and an ever expanding landscape of physical materials are expanding the capabilities of designers and brand builders to create tools i.e. apparel, outerwear, packability and devices.
Mobility: Not only are we more geographically mobile, but we are more socially mobile. In any given day we transition through modes characterized by red eye flights, morning gym sessions, critical meetings and classes, sport/activity, and late evening dining and social gatherings.
Finding effective solutions to these challenges means that we must invite all stakeholders to participate in the problem-solving process. The Soldier Co-op is the opportunity for Millennials, represented by daring, design-minded students to not only have their voices heard, but to develop solutions that will eventually affect the marketplace.
Who is Soldier?
SOLDIER IS A BRAND BUILDING COMPANY
Located in Cambridge Massachusetts – one of the most diverse and driven innovation centers in the world, our neighborhood is home to some of the most successful brand startups in the last decade.
The name Soldier comes from the strategic and tactical ways in which we choose to serve our partners. Over the last decade, Soldier has influenced the place where product, design, and communication converge. We work with ambitious, optimistic world-class brands to achieve game-changing results.
Strategically: Soldier brings to bear a cross-functional team of founders, engineers, researchers and designers deeply schooled in product making, digital, social, and retail culture. We align brand message, expression, experience and community to exceed audience expectations.
Tactically: Soldier assists ambitious leaders in growing their brands. We optimize performance, style, technology, and personality to meet the needs of highly discerning consumers across all consumer touch points, including product, digital, social, advertising, retail, event and branded experiences.
INVESTING YOUNG TALENT
Through the Soldier Co-op, we are evolving our 10 year internship program to be more dynamic and impactful. Under graduate and graduate students have worked side-by-side with seasoned professionals to transform brands like Under Amour, Canada Goose, Ministry of Supply, New Balance, Rockport and Burton.
The Soldier Co-Op program invites designers, architects, technical developers, expert photographers and other creative and technically distinguished students who want to develop their leadership and design skills.
This is not a program for generalist entrepreneurs or student leaders embellishing resumes. This is where talented students become effective designers and brand builders through hard and rewarding collaborative work.
2015-2016 candidates must be enrolled in a full-time junior, senior or graduate school program at Harvard University.
Candidates are welcome to apply as individuals or as members of a student group with a relevant focus.
Note: You are not required to have design skills to participate in this program. However, effective communication through simple sketches and visual aids will be required.
Timeline:
Tues Feb. 16 – Applications Open
Mon. Mar. 7 – Application Deadline
Tues Mar. 29 – START Day
Tues Apr. 26 – END Day
Expectations:
– Allocate 5-10 hours per week with in person meetings every-other-week
– Work in 2 or 3 person design teams with designated Soldier Team member.
– Attend a Saturday full day “Brandseeking Day” (10AM-4PM, Saturday, April 2nd)
– Execute on every-other-week deliverables.
– Present at an end of term “Brand Delivery Day” – Tuesday April 26th
Soldier will provide a syllabus and non-disclosure agreements to be signed based on both confidential and proprietary. Co-Op
students are expected to attend greater than 80% of meetings.information shared.
Spring 2016 Deadline: midnight March 7th, 2016.
Requirements:
– portfolio and/or resume
– short essay (less than 500 words) on answering the question presented for our 2016 season.
Soldier will continue Its decade long brand-minded commitment to alumni, faculty, partners, employees and advisors where annual gatherings and network events will be staged to support and cultivate relational growth.
Bobby Riley
CEO, Soldier Design and Expert-In-Residence at Harvard John A. Paulson, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Soldier, Founded and headquartered in its Harvard Square studio, is a pioneering brand building company with bi-coastal engagements. Soldier advises premium performance brands (Under Armour, Nike, Canada Goose, Burton etc.) and builds new brand concepts internally (ButcherBox, Concepts, Cape Ann Tuna Club etc.).
Soldier Co-Op is organized and driven by [email protected]
Harvard University’s graduate schools of Business, Design, and Engineering, will soon be joining forces in Harvard’s new Allston campus, and increasingly with innovative new and shared curricular offerings. Most recently Harvard’s Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Harvard Graduate School of Design announced a new Masters Degree program in Design Engineering. These interdisciplinary programs complement an already robust ecosystem of innovative apprenticeship models at the MIT Media Lab, Olin, Babson, NEU etc.