Industrial Design Overview

Whether inventing a product to help people with disabilities or redesigning the common coffee maker to look like high art, industrial designers use innovation, imagination, and technical skills to make things better.

An industrial design education begins with a grounding in design fundamentals and an understanding of aesthetics, along with knowledge about the selection and use of materials and engineering needs. In this program, you'll look to the principles of art to design products that are functional and aesthetically pleasing.

Industrial Design students can learn through a series of creative experiences, including participation in international competitions, as they prepare for a constantly changing professional environment.

Analyzing and solving diverse design problems from technical, artistic, social, and ecological viewpoints is core to this program. Your projects will begin with initial developmental drawings and progress through three-dimensional drawings, to models, to working drawings and finally prototype creation (all along considering manufacturing logistics).

Industrial Design students develop specialized skills through courses and specific projects relating to design of furniture, retail pieces, packaging, transportation, display, exhibition, environmental, or even toys. Prepared for diverse opportunities, many graduates find positions in major corporations such as Disney, Nike, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Rubbermaid, Mattel, Target, Hasbro, Mead, Tandy Corporation, and Motorola.

Statement of Philosophy

The department of Industrial Design prepares and educates individuals for a creative and ever changing field that fulfills the needs and desires of an expanding technological world. Our students are instructed on how to analyze, define, conceptualize and implement the design process towards its most appropriate solution.

Due to the wide variety of design opportunities available in the profession today, a major objective of the department has been to afford our students a broad range of design experiences. Such courses as furniture, packaging, display, transportation, exhibit, retail, environmental graphics, and toy design add a wide variety of industrial design experiences to our curriculum. Prepared for diverse opportunities, many graduates find positions in major corporations and consulting firms, as well as establishing their own design practice.

Industrial Design FAQ (pdf)