Jr Neville Songwe

Jr Neville Songwe is Chair and Professor of Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), where he leads the institution’s prestigious, award-winning Industrial Design department, recognized for excellence in innovation, industry collaboration, and graduate research education. An internationally experienced industrial designer, educator, curriculum architect, author, and entrepreneur, Songwe’s career spans more than two decades across the United States, Africa, Europe, and Asia. His work integrates advanced product design, UX/UI systems, innovation strategy, research-through-design methodology, and studio-based pedagogy into a unified leadership framework centered on translating creative practice into legitimate research knowledge.

As Chair, Songwe directs department-wide curriculum transformation, faculty development, and industry engagement initiatives designed to strengthen research literacy, graduate thesis pedagogy, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. He is recognized as a builder of high-impact industry–academic programs, leading SCADpro studios with Apple and previously collaborating with Colgate-Palmolive. Under his leadership, these studios operate as translational research incubators where academically framed design inquiries are tested against professional validation parameters.

Beyond academia, Songwe is Founder and President of Joneso Design & Consulting, an innovation consultancy providing early-stage new product development services across research strategy, industrial design, and UX/UI systems. His most notable professional project, Bríjo, a comprehensive redesign of law-enforcement patrol vehicles for the Providence Police Department and Rhode Island State Police Department, addressed critical safety, ergonomic, and operational challenges. The multi-year initiative resulted in four USPTO utility patents and national media coverage across CNN Money, NBC, ABC6, and the Providence Journal, producing measurable improvements in workplace safety and fleet infrastructure planning.

Songwe is the author of An Industrial Design Guide, Vol. 01 – Understanding the Science of Product Design, named by BookAuthority as the 2nd Best New Industrial Design Book of 2023 and ranked among the Top 20 all-time industrial design books worldwide. He published his second book in January 2026, An Industrial Design Guide Vol. 02 – Understanding the Science of Design Research, advancing comprehensive frameworks for academic design inquiry. Songwe holds an MID from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BA from ISIA Rome and has served on economic development and education boards supporting innovation and workforce development initiatives.