MFA Products of Design

At the heart of our program is the mastering of the three fields crucial to the future of design: making, structures and narratives. Making grounds design and designers: students investigate multiple dimensions of physical design practice, its processes and the tools that enable it. Structures inform practice: students learn the information and business structures that make effective design possible including research, systems thinking, sustainability, strategy, user experience and interaction/information design. Narratives demand a compelling point of view: students hone their ability to communicate and persuade through personal and passionate storytelling and learn to develop and support their narratives through graphic representation, prototyping, drawing, writing and videography.

Our curriculum acknowledges the radical shifts taking place in the design professions themselves. We recognize a great expansion in the participants of design—from anthropologists, behavioral psychologists and economists, to materials experts and systems specialists—tailoring our curriculum with these professionals (and ultimately, our future collaborators) in mind. Students are immersed in the rigorous discourse, assignments and self-directed projects that challenge the conventions of traditional design disciplines that define products as either “industrial products” or “digital products.”

Lastly, the Products of Design department acknowledges the increased interest—from both the mainstream as well as business press, around the power of design—to fix problems, create value, reinvent businesses and to address vital social and environmental challenges. In their courses, our faculty address the urgent need to reconcile the material, energy, environmental and cultural consequences of design inherent within user production and consumption.