In 2009 the collective Resign set up the Resign Academy with the aim of training a limited number of designers each year. These are structured as intensive workshops with 12 participants selected on the basis of their portfolios. During the three weeks of attendance the students are invited to live at the site of the workshop (excluding weekends). Thanks to this long co-existence , which of course allows many convivial moments, members can build solid professional relationships.
Participants at the Academy are professional designers who are interested in improving their skills and poetry. They must learn how to create objects with their own hands. The creativity of the designer, who must build a working and saleable prototype, must be subject to the physical laws. He must know the difficulties of processing typical of each material and component. The processing laboratory located on the site of the Academy allows participants to perform most of the necessary operations for the development of prototypes. The network of local artisans can provide help with the most difficult or sensitive processes. The raw material for producing the prototypes is found especially by visiting used furniture warehouses and local recycling centres.
This workshop has been able to attract students from the main Italian Universities and also from China, Korea, Argentina and Norway. As far as the founders are concerned teaching is an opportunity to bring themselves forward, creating a dialogue with new personalities, each the bearer of different visions and skills. Students are encouraged to maintain a working relationship with Resign even after the workshop: their products are in the Resign catalogue and web site and they can participate in fairs and events with the collective. In this sense, the metaproject Resign resembles a business incubator. Each participant is enabled to develop their professional activities independently but with the tools of production, visibility and a distribution network provided by the collective. For instance, this spring Resign was once again at the Salone Satellite. Renouncing the anti-institutional polemic which characterised the occupation of 2007, this time Resign simply wanted a platform of international visibility to present its products and the methods of the Resign Academy.
Resign is establishing some strong relationships with institutions, design professionals and critics, art galleries and journalists. Some of them have been involved with lectures during the Academy. Paolo Ulian and Odoardo Fioravanti (Winner of the Compasso d’Oro prize in 2011), for example, agreed to spend an entire day with students, reviewing their projects, discussing the future of design, having dinner together and debating until late at night.
The first edition took place in Verona from August 24th to September 11th promoted by Associazione Culturale Fuoriscala. The outcomes were exhibited at the Palazzo della Ragione from 11 to 19 September during the first edition of Onirica, a multidisciplinary event with the aim of awaken an eco-sustainable awareness.