The Master’s Program in Product Design is a graduate level laboratory for postProduct design. Students and faculty are actively exploring how to design for new social conditions in which behavioral, material, technological, and natural landscapes are shifting. We are committed to developing new models of design practice that are multidisciplinary, collaborative, and team-based. We stress process, with an emphasis on research, conceptualization, communication, and appropriate form giving. The program itself is a-year-long: curriculum consisting of studio, methods, and seminar course content is integrated around studio-based projects. Projects range from the development of new urban industries to incubating independent publishing labels for hard and soft design. By providing research proposals, future studies, and case studies, we are promoting a new, more pro-active role for design education. Because design is a collaborative profession, most studio projects will be team-based. The final semester of the program is devoted to a master’s thesis in which the candidate will work more independently with a group of internal faculty and/or outside professionals to develop a thesis project that must advance the candidate’s chosen field of study. Like the program itself, the faculty represents a wide range of approaches to the practice of design. This means that students have access to currently practicing design professionals with backgrounds in fields ranging from architecture, graphic design, cultural anthropology, and psychology to Product, systems and environmental design. The Product design department offers a unique faculty who share a common philosophy and commitment to the design process.

Product designers develop a wide spectrum of design solutions that meet current demands and anticipate the future needs of society. Their designs must incorporate the effective use of materials and technology, allow for manufacturing constraints, and provide a clear advantage to existing solutions. One-year program in Product design, which leads to the professional diploma, is noted for combining theory and practice, taking a process-oriented approach, and focusing on social and environmental responsibility. The program consists of courses in design theory and practice, as well as support courses in the humanities, the physical and natural sciences, and the behavioral and social sciences. The responsive curriculum maintains a balance between technical, aesthetic, and humanistic aspects and keeps pace with the leading edge of design technology by anticipating developments in the field. The program participates in collaborative projects with industry challenging students with real life design problems. Product design students have an active chapter, which plans lecture programs, and organizes field trips to corporate design offices.

The Product Design Major provides a professional education for those wishing to bring order, utility, aesthetics, and appropriateness to the products, contents, and processes of our modern global society. The program prepares students for careers in the design of products, integrating the design of communications, furniture, equipment, and interfaces. In addition, issues of human factors research, computer-aided design, product development, manufacturing, business, and a host of other considerations related to the humanistic uses of technology are addressed. The department emphasizes the development of graphic, sculptural and spacial design skills as a complement to creative problem solving, technical innovation, and effective communications during the solution of actual problems of design. After initial coursework introducing basic design, communication, and collaboration processes, including computer-aided design and model making, students develop and apply theory, skill, and knowledge to functional design problems, many of which are brought into the studio by the industry.

Visiting designers also bring knowledge of current design, manufacturing and professional practices into studio and lecture courses, while visits to actual studios provide opportunities for direct observation and firsthand knowledge of design and manufacturing processes. Based on this foundation of skills and experience, emphasis in the final semesters shifts to the integration of the total design process by the individual students on a thesis project prior to graduation.

During the final semester, the instruction focus shifts to career planning, portfolio preparation and the development of information-gathering and business communication skills to better prepare the student to enter the profession.