Master of Design in Industrial Design
The Master of Design (MDes) in Industrial Design is a two- and three-year degree program focused on an independent master’s research project that offers students the opportunity to identify and explore a topic of inquiry with the potential to contribute to broader disciplinary knowledge.
The program’s mission is to create dynamic thinkers/makers who view design holistically in terms of objects, systems, and services and can simultaneously bridge the gap between each speculative outcome and its broader context. While able to create highly-resolved formal design, students arrive at their well-crafted, considered solutions through a process of deep research and critical thinking. Students are challenged to define new grounds within the context of industrial design practice that contribute to the betterment of society through design proposals. The program culminates in a public exhibition of the master’s research paper and project.
Pathway for Non-Design Students
The field of design continues to expand in exciting and unprecedented ways. The increasingly complex challenges designers embrace are not only changing the nature of what designers do but how disciplinary knowledge in design is understood. The MDes Preliminary Year embraces this evolving reality by welcoming applicants without traditional design backgrounds and considering areas of post-secondary study, non-academic activities, professional experience, and stated aims alongside evidence of visual production and critical cultural engagement.
Motivated applicants who do not hold a bachelor’s degree in design or a related discipline should plan for three years of study that begin with the MDes Preliminary Year, which is structured as an inquiry- based immersion in studio practices. In the interdisciplinary MDes Preliminary Year Studio, students are introduced to various design methodologies as they conduct basic investigations into cultural and disciplinary contexts. Simultaneously, MDes Preliminary Year students enroll in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses that introduce fundamental technical approaches, research strategies, special topics in design, and more.
Year 1
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Year 2
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