Industrial Designer-Year In Industry

Work Mode: Onsite

Are you looking for an exciting and challenging placement opportunity where you can experience the design process on all levels?

The Kohler Mira Design Team based in Cheltenham (UK), is looking for its next ID intern! The successful candidate will be part of the ID team for a 12-month paid internship (commencing September 2025).

This year, the job is open to all students enrolled with a UK-based university (BSc/BA Industrial Design, Product Design or equivalent). The successful candidate will be selected via an online competition in collaboration with Design Truth. Please check Design Truth’s social media for more insight about the competition.

If you are enthusiastic, ambitious, and driven about design then this is your opportunity!

Who You Are?

The successful candidate will be an exceptionally creative thinker with a personal commitment to quality and attention to detail. The successful candidate will report directly to a Sr. Designer in the team and will be closely coached and mentored for the duration of the internship.

Kohler Mira Ltd is part of Kohler Co. A global company working in 52 countries and with 40,000 employees. Kohler Mira Ltd has been redefining showering in the UK for over 100 years.

As a member of a highly creative team, it is important that the successful candidate is continually pushing the boundaries of ID to ensure that the company stays at the forefront of product development. The ID team has been around for over 55 years and has been awarded 40+ International design awards and is part of a global design team that counts more than 100+ designers.

• Currently studying at a UK University with a 12-month placement requirement starting in September 2025 and ending in September 2026.
• Applicants should be studying a degree in BSc/BA Industrial Design, Product Design (or equivalent).
• Willingness and eagerness to learn with a proactive ‘can do’ attitude.
• Good interpersonal skills and a team player.
• Good organisation and time management skills.
• Strong multi-tasking skills and ability to work to tight deadlines.

Skills/Requirements

Skills & Responsibilities

• The ability to quickly communicate your thoughts and ideas, whether it be through sketching, physical model making or other mediums.
• A proficient user of 2D design visualisation tools (e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign).
• A good capability of 3D modelling & visualisation software (e.g. NX, Rhino, Keyshot).
• Evidence of prototyping abilities.
• Excellent creative problem-solving skills.
• Ability to compile research and create impactful trends/mood boards and presentations.
• Maintain design intention from concept generation to final implementation.
• A thorough understanding of design principles.
• Ensure innovation by actively researching, sharing and implementing new trends and materials.
• Excellent time management, organisation & prioritisation skills required to handle multiple projects simultaneously within tight timelines and meet deadlines.
• Effective, articulate design communication and decision-making skills.

What We Have To Offer

• The opportunity to work on real live projects on a range of categories across our three brands Mira Showers, Rada and Kohler UK.
• The opportunity to learn from and work with our team of award-winning creatives in our open-plan studio space.
• The opportunity to understand the product design and development process, and how these build into the wider multi-functional product development process.
• £20,000 gross salary + 25 days of paid leave (not including bank holidays).
• A flexible working environment with in-studio as well as WFH time.

How do I apply?

If you are interested, please submit your CV, Portfolio and project design submission. Please limit each file to 5MB max. Students that don’t submit an entry to the brief won’t be considered for this position.

What do I need to design?

We are calling for entries from the next generation of designers to rethink one of the products we use the most daily: the water bottle.

• Please pick a persona and scenario for your water bottle. Some non-exhaustive examples of persona are commuter, traveller, athlete, hiker, and office worker…)
• Once you have picked your persona and scenario, please identify what are the top three needs and base your concept around them.
• Include one add-on with your product (the add-on could answer one of the top 3 needs you have identified). This could be for example a feature to transport the bottle, store it, drink from it and so on.

We would like you to design a physical product, that:

• Is not just a styling exercise but responds to tangible user needs.
• Considers manufacturability.
• Takes sustainability into account.
• Reflects the Mira’s brand visual design language.

How do I start?

• What is already out there in terms of water bottles? How are they manufactured? What works and what doesn’t in terms of usability? What are the materials used?
• Think about how your persona interacts with the water bottle and what are the key needs and opportunities.
• What are the key needs for your persona and scenario? Is there any problem you could solve?

What are the criteria used to judge your concept?

The concepts will be judged by the Kohler Mira Design Team. The criteria used will be: creativity, originality, output quality, differentiation, problem-solving, design sensibility, sustainability, manufacturability and brand awareness.

The ID team will award extra points to the concepts that reflect the most Kohler Mira’s Design DNA.

What is the timeline?

• Competition goes live on KCM, Design Truth and is advertised on social media on the 6th of February.
• The competition closes on the 27th of February.
• A number of semi-finalists will be selected and invited to send a short one-minute video describing their ideas. 3rd of March.
• A number of finalists will be selected and invited over to Cheltenham for an interview (travelling expenses will be covered) 10th of March.

What do I need to submit? (A3 landscape format)

• Opportunity board: describe your idea, background and insights. Give us an idea of the problem you want to solve and how you want to tackle the brief. This can be done via storyboarding, sketching, and photos. What’s the problem you want to solve? How does this answer the brief? How is this different from existing products on the market?
• Ideation board: show us your design process and how you got to the final design. On this board, we are very interested to see your design-thinking process and how you can come up with a concept proposal and create iterations. This can be communicated via sketches (digital or non), and sketch models. What we are interested to see here is how you got to the final design and why.
• Hero board: This is the board that is selling your product idea. Show us the best views of your products, show how the user interacts with it, how the concept lives in the environment it is designed for and so on. This can be done via CAD renderings, photorealistic sketches or a mix of the two.

What are the awards?

• 1st place: 12 months paid internship + featured on Design Truth and Mira’s LinkedIn + Design Truth event ticket.
• 2nd place: 1 Year Visune Lite Annual Subscription (worth £270 can be used on Visune.io) + £500 + featured on Design Truth and Mira’s LinkedIn + Design Truth event ticket.
• 3rd place (Design Truth honourable mention): £500 + featured on Design Truth and Mira’s LinkedIn + Design Truth event ticket.

Intellectual Property (IP)

• Mira Showers Ltd. Won’t own any of the IPs produced by the students. The students will keep the IP of their work and will be able to post it on social media and include it in their portfolio.
• Please, include the hashtag #DesignTruthXMira when sharing on social media.

Terms and conditions

• The cash price/prices are not conditional on taking up the internship.
• No personal tax advice is given to the winner/winners about the taxability of the award. Please, seek advice if needed.

It is Kohler Mira’s policy to recruit, hire, and promote qualified people in all job classifications without prejudice. If, as an individual with a disability, you require adjustments during the recruitment process, please contact Kohler Mira is an equal opportunities employer.

Why Choose Kohler?

We empower each associate to #BecomeMoreAtKohler with a competitive total rewards package to support your health and wellbeing, access to career growth and development opportunities, a diverse and inclusive workplace, and a strong culture of innovation. With more than 30,000 bold leaders across the globe, we’re driving meaningful change in our mission to help people live gracious, healthy, and sustainable lives.

About Us

It is Kohler’s policy to recruit, hire, and promote qualified applicants without regard to race, creed, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, national origin, disability or status as a protected veteran. If, as an individual with a disability, you need reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process, please contact Kohler Co. is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

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