The School of Design at South China University of Technology was established in June 2010 through the integration of the Industrial Design program from the School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, the Art Design program from the School of Art, the Engineering Drawing teaching team, and faculty members from the School of Materials Science and Engineering. Leveraging the Greater Bay Area's abundant creative industry resources and strategic advantages in international development, the School embraces the philosophy of “integrating science with art, and design with culture”. It focuses on building an education and research platform centered on creative design and sustainable development, striving to become an internationally influential hub for innovative design in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The School actively explores talent cultivation models in “New Engineering” and “New Liberal Arts”, focusing on cutting-edge “New Design” areas such as intelligence, safety, sustainability, and health. It cultivates exceptional designers capable of addressing future challenges, propelling the design industry in the Greater Bay Area and globally toward new heights. 

The school currently employs 83 faculty and staff members, including 65 full-time teachers (16 professors and 26 associate professors). Over 60% of the faculty hold doctoral degrees, and more than 70% possess interdisciplinary expertise or overseas study/work experience. The School comprises four departments: Industrial Design, Product Design, Environmental Design, and Fashion & Apparel Design, alongside the Intelligent Interaction Design & Graphics Education Center and the Creative Aesthetic Education Center. It offers four undergraduate programs: Industrial Design, Product Design, Environmental Design, and Fashion & Apparel Design. Among these, Industrial Design, Environmental Design, and Product Design are designated as National First-Class Undergraduate Programs, while Fashion & Apparel Design is recognized as a Guangdong Provincial First-Class Undergraduate Program. In August 2011, the school was approved as one of China's first master's degree programs in Design Studies at the first-level discipline level. It currently offers master's degrees in Design Studies (conferring degrees in Engineering and Arts) and professional degrees in Mechanical Engineering (Engineering) and Design (Arts). The school currently enrolls over 900 full-time undergraduate students and more than 200 full-time master's students. 

The School is committed to cultivating design professionals who meet the demands of developing new productive forces in the Greater Bay Area. Through a collaborative teaching model integrating “project-driven learning, science and technology, and humanities and arts”, it constructs a multi-module interactive ecosystem of courses to enhance students' communication, management, coordination skills, and professional competence. The School strengthens international cooperation and exchange by establishing partnerships with top design institutions worldwide, actively participating in domestic and international design competitions, and regularly hosting international seminars, workshops, and academic exchange activities. These initiatives provide faculty and students with broad international perspectives and abundant practical opportunities. The School has established an Industrial Design Experimental Class (Information Interaction Design track) and jointly launched an Sino-Foreign Cooperative Education Program in Industrial Design with Chiba University, Japan. Guided by the demand for “Internet+Intelligentization” and “Internationalization” talent, it leverages innovation and entrepreneurship education alongside industry-academia-research collaboration to cultivate high-caliber and versatile design professionals equipped with innovative spirit and practical capabilities. 

The School possesses a solid disciplinary foundation and excellent educational facilities, with a total teaching, research, and administrative space exceeding 8,000 square meters. It is equipped with 2,066 pieces of experimental instrumentation and houses two national-level teaching demonstration centers: the South China University of Technology Humanities Comprehensive Experimental Center and the Mechanical Engineering Virtual Simulation Experimental Teaching Center. Additionally, it hosts seven provincial and ministerial-level teaching and research platforms, including the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Digital Intelligence-enhanced Design Innovation and the Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Center for Human-Computer Interaction Design. It also operates two Guangdong Provincial Humanities and Social Sciences Popularization Bases: Red-Themed Printmaking and Chinese Ceramic Culture. Over the past five years, the School has undertaken more than 200 research projects, secured over 20 million yuan in research funding, published over 500 high-impact papers, and obtained nearly 400 authorized patents. 

Currently, the School is committed to advancing high-quality development, upholding the fundamental mission of fostering virtue through education, and prioritizing the enhancement of talent cultivation as its core objective. It seizes opportunities presented by the design and creative industries, aligns with global design frontiers to elevate original innovation capabilities, addresses major national and regional needs to cultivate design talent, focuses on the primary economic front to drive innovation-led development, and promotes green and sustainable design research for public health and well-being. The School strives to become a nationally leading and internationally influential design institution.