Industrial Design
In the last few years, the field of industrial design has gone through dramatic changes.
We have seen the revolution in digital technology, which allowed billions of people around the globe to connect, communicate, and share information.
We have witnessed a wave of mass creativity, which started to erase the old distinctions among consumers, producers, and designers by allowing wider audiences to participate in the creative process.
We have observed the convergence of industrial design with scientific research—from biology and genetics to artificial intelligence and robotics—allowing things from the realm of science fiction to take shape in real life.
We have at last begun to address problems of the “other 90 percent” of the world, trying to solve poverty, hunger, energy, health, and other troubling issues of the disadvantaged world population by design.
We have come to realize our responsibility for the planet’s climate and limited resources, and for our handling of the environment, industry, and agriculture.
The MID program is set to prepare students to become industry leaders capable of tackling the complexity of design problems in the 21st century. Whether working in corporations or acting as entrepreneurs, students will be able to create products, systems, and environments that help to innovate and improve everyday objects and situations.
Our program welcomes students without previous professional training in industrial design. Students come from the fields of art, architecture, or interior design, and often with degrees in business, engineering, law, or sociology. Industrial design graduate students are typically looking to deepen their knowledge and creative outlook. We select a diverse group from an international pool of students and encourage them to exploit their previous professional pursuits in this new context. In the process, students gain a solid understanding of design fundamentals, from aesthetic values of three-dimensional form to critical design thinking. In accordance with national accreditation standards, we structure our program to address design complexity, innovation, technology, and sustainable future planning, all in an interconnected global context.
MID faculty members are professional educators and designers. Many of them are principals of their own successful businesses and recipients of prestigious industry awards. Throughout their years of study, students are exposed to the cultural richness and diversity of New York City, with its world-class museums, galleries, and art and design events. Brooklyn, in particular, has recently become a hot spot for entrepreneurial craft and design culture, and students can learn a great deal from immersing themselves in the activities of this bustling contemporary design scene.
In 2015, Pratt’s graduate program in Industrial Design was ranked in the top five international programs by both U.S. News & World Report and QS World University Ranking.
GID: Global Innovation Design Study Abroad
Pratt MID students can choose the exciting option of spending their entire second year abroad for full credit. The second year at Pratt’s graduate program is dedicated to research, and students opting for GID are committed to doing their research abroad. The GID program starts in the fall semester at the Royal College of Art (RCA) and Imperial College in London and continues through the spring semester at Keio University in Tokyo. Simultaneously, this groundbreaking international study partnership allows students from London and Tokyo to spend a semester at Pratt. A one-semester option of the GID program is also available.
Pratt GID students return to New York to complete their final two semesters of thesis work and required courses. In addition to their local studies, students at each location will collaborate on a large-scale international project. By capitalizing on the expertise of each school and the distinct cultures of the three locations, the GID program provides students a rich academic experience and a unique perspective on global design and entrepreneurship that no single institution could provide. Applicants are expected to indicate their interest in the GID at the time of entering the MID program.
Acting Chair
Ignacio Urbina Polo
iurbina2@pratt.edu
Assistant Chair
Matte Nyberg
Assistant to the Chair
Marcia Brown
Office
Tel: 718.636.3631
midasst@pratt.edu
www.pratt.edu/grad-industrial-design
Faculty Bios
www.pratt.edu/industrial-design-grad/faculty
A thorough overview of Computer-Aided Industrial Design (CAID), from simple software programs for PC-type hardware to high-end, state-of-the-art workstations. Field trips and guest lecturers provide in-depth presentations about this newly developing area of industrial design. CAID is evaluated in relation to traditional industrial design methodologies. Students are introduced to desktop CAID with PC-type hardware and a product-drafting program.
Students learn an advanced, two-dimensional drafting software program running on high-end, PC-type equipment. Differences between product and environmental drafting are reviewed. Students learn to develop a library of component parts and patterns which are used as standard symbols for material specification. In addition to producing a complete set of product drawings, text formatting, specification layout, technical documentation, and presentation manuals relating to the draftings are covered.
Graduate Design Studio is a theoretical and practical course that addresses real-world problems of considerable complexity. Students are expected to push the limits of design to realize projects that are of professional quality and scope. All students are required to present their projects to an external professional audience for critique and defense.
Graduate Design Studio is a theoretical and practical course that addresses real-world problems of considerable complexity. Students are expected to push the limits of design to realize projects that are of professional quality and scope. All students are required to present their projects to an external professional audience for critique and defense.
The objective of this course is to convey the information required in the design of products. A manufacturing process is analyzed and used as the basis of design. During the semester, students review specific materials and processes. Course includes guest lectures, field trips, and video presentations. A project report will be required.
The objective of this course is to convey the information required in the design of plastic products. A plastic product is analyzed and designed. During the semester project, students review specific materials and processes related to the development of a design; assess alternative processes; and discuss a number of topics related to industrial design through guest lectures, field trips, and video presentations. A project report will be required.
This course is an analysis of human perception and the modes and attributes of light and color. The study of simultaneous contrast, or the way we perceive color changes as a continuous physical and psychological process, will be the key to the controlled experimental studies. Various media will be used in the process of developing creative methods for exploring ways we can manipulate the various aspects of color and light that affect our psycho-physiological equilibrium in challenging ways. Color vocabulary and glossary will accompany stages in development.
This is an accelerated design shop course presenting the use of tools and the processes of forming, cutting, joining, and finishing. Subjects covered will also include the description of models - soft, presentation, and working. The student will be expected to work on group and individual projects, utilizing appropriate tools, materials, and processes. All work will be photographed, and a presentation document of all projects will be required.
The course explores color and light phenomenology in the three-dimensional world. Relationships between color and light as they affect our visual perception of size, shape, and proportion are explored from both practical and aesthetic perspectives. Projects examine color and light on forms such as product and packaging as well as in space, as in display and interiors.
This course deals with design techniques related to toy design, encompassing building, color, graphics, simple mechanics, and drafting. These will be applied through use of plastic, wood, foam, wire, paint, pencils, markers and vacuum forming. Special consideration is given to the understanding of the child. The safety concerns as well as the educational and fun value of the toy will be considered. Children will judge the student's toy at the end of the semester.
Digital Ideation provides students with theoretical principles and practical examples of a wide variety of digital technology, tools, software and methods which designers are likely to encounter in current practice. These include solid and surface modeling, 3-D rendering, animation, and output for rapid prototyping. This course will afford students the ability to make the best use of digital tools and methods suited to a particular project. Emphasis is places on ideation skill in the digital environment, bringing initial concepts to sophisticated realization.
This course is offered to seniors who wish to pursue their own special talents or inventive faculties. The resulting forms must be designed and built as complete, full-size, and useful prototypes - that is, the first of a series. The only restrictions on form are simple and logical: to be able to execute the project with available materials, tools and personal finance. Furniture, mass production ceramics, lighting, portable structures, and textiles are potential projects.
This course is offered to seniors who wish to pursue their own special talents or inventive faculties. The resulting forms must be designed and built as complete, full-size, and useful prototypes - that is, the first of a series. The only restrictions on form are simple and logical: to be able to execute the project with available materials, tools and personal finance. Furniture, mass production ceramics, lighting, portable structures, and textiles are potential projects.
Course work and/or special projects are assigned on an individual basis. A variety of topics are offered. Refer to specific registration schedule of courses for offerings and to appropriate bulletins for descriptions.
Course work and/or special projects are assigned on an individual basis. A variety of topics are offered. Refer to specific registration schedule of courses for offerings and to appropriate bulletins for descriptions.
Course work and/or special projects are assigned on an individual basis. A variety of topics are offered. Refer to specific registration schedule of courses for offerings and to appropriate bulletins for descriptions.
Course work and/or special projects are assigned on an individual basis. A variety of topics are offered. Refer to specific registration schedule of courses for offerings and to appropriate bulletins for descriptions.
Individual or team investigations are conducted and related to selected topics under faculty direction. Students develop thesis proposals in second semester.
Individual or team investigations are conducted and related to selected topics under faculty direction. Students develop thesis proposals in second semester.
This is part one of a seminar that serves the crucial function of positioning industrial design in a global context. The course will address the expansion of the field to encompass new areas of design not previously considered \"industrial\" in terms of professional practice, such as globalization, culture, branding, and research.
This is part two and a continuation of IND 667A, building on the necessity of positioning industrial design in a global context. This course will consider the field in terms of professional practice and interdisciplinary research, taking into account the diverse backgrounds and skills of the students.
Entrepreneurship is a complex process that requires broad knowledge and detailed planning. This course will provide the information and resources concerning protection of intellectual property and business structures that are common to new ventures that seek to bring innovative consumer products to market.
The seminar course aims towards a re-thinking, re-making, and re-designing a future concerned for collective survival and well-being, a renewal of culture in a larger anthropological context. The course explores the future responsibilities and meanings of designers as humanists.
Students are introduced to an ordered sequence of purely visual experiences to develop a recognition of the abstract elements in any design situation. The goal is to become so familiar with the principles of abstraction that one automatically thinks of a visual problem in terms of organized relationships.
Students are introduced to an ordered sequence of purely visual experiences to develop a recognition of the abstract elements in any design situation. The goal is to become so familiar with the principles of abstraction that one automatically thinks of a visual problem in terms of organized relationships.
This course explores issues of sustainability and social responsibility in product design with an emphasis on materials and supply chain flows. The importance of the designer's role in understanding the environmental and social consequences of creating and producing products will be emphasized. Studies on the impacts of production and consumption will be covered through readings, class discussions, and lecture materials. Student's critical, analytical, and research skills will be developed by evaluating the environmental impacts of various materials and processes. Coupled with an advanced academic rigor and contemporary dialogue, these evaluations will be used to create baseline models; their findings will be used to develop alternative concepts that reduce environmental impacts of products .
Workshops are offered in two distinct areas: process and concept. Both strive to develop one's individual vision as a designer and enhance problem-solving abilities. Process workshops focus on research, priorities, and understanding context and dialogue as a part of the design process. Students step through project development, including sketching, model making, fabrication, and formal presentations. Concept workshops follow an abstract and often lateral creative process designed to expand the students' visual, aesthetic, and conceptual framework. Resulting projects are typically sculptural in nature and become expressions of the relationship between the individual, the artist, and the designer.
This seminar is a forum for students to present and critique each other's thesis work in progress, with particular emphasis on integration design knowledge, professional practice, entrepreneurship, presentation, and the broadest possible perspective of industrial design.
The seminar course will be devoted to planning, researching, and implementing the applied aspects of student's thesis project, with a particular emphasis on written thesis book and on visualization and presentation of the project to a wider pubic audience. Instructors of this course will work with students in small groups or on an individual basis, and in close communication with student's Thesis Advisors.
General drawing is based on perception of form in natural growth: cellular, geometric, and organic. In the analytical learning process, drawing as a thinking tool serves to reveal the dynamic relationships between natural and manmade systems. Exercises in drawing stress the intuitive, visual, and analytical learning processes.
Intensified drawing studies in natural and manmade forms, including the figure, still-life, and structures. Advanced techniques involving concepts of mechanical objects rendering, delineation, and graphics are covered. Employment of different drawing media encourages professional flexibility.
This course refines and extends the scope of the students' design drawing skills through demanding skill-building exercises, the repetition of drawings, the use of the human figure in design drawings, and intensive classroom drawing sessions. A complete set of concept, development and presentation drawings for a new or existing student design is executed and developed. Drawing techniques for the design of portfolio layouts are introduced, resulting in a developed portfolio design for a project previously done by each student.
Independent problems based on individual thesis proposals, submitted by the candidate and approved by the thesis advisor. Projects must represent a meaningful contribution to the field of design and must show mature correlation between all phases of design and construction based on supportive research.
Independent problems based on individual thesis proposals, submitted by the candidate and approved by the thesis advisor. Projects must represent a meaningful contribution to the field of design and must show mature correlation between all phases of design and construction based on supportive research.
If the thesis course is not completed in the initial semesters, students can continue working in IND-700 for no more than five semesters.
The internship is a learning experiences at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience.
The internship is a learning experiences at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience.
The internship is a learning experiences at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience.
The internship is a learning experiences at a discipline-related professional site. It provides students with an opportunity to apply academic knowledge and skills in a practical setting, while obtaining new knowledge and skills in preparation for professional work or graduate school. Students experience the application of coursework lessons into a real-life context, thus enriching their education. They deepen their knowledge about important applied aspects of their discipline, enhance their professional skills in a real-world context, build their professional network, and inform their career choices. Additional faculty-supervised activities provide the opportunity for an in-depth reflection on the internship experience.