Master of Design Fine Arts in Studio
Designed Objects saic.edu/desob The Master of Design in Designed Objects program encourages practitioners to challenge the boundaries of design and explore new territory. Students gain the critical skills to translate new ideas into meaningful objects, systems, environments, and experiences. Exploration and experimentation
Professional experience and outcomes External partnerships and course offerings like Whatnot Studio, SAIC Design & Homan Square, and Emerging Worlds Studio—year-long thematic courses in which students design, prototype and bring relevant work for public exhibition to venues such as SxSW, The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), and public engagements in Chicago— provide extensive professional experience. Program alums have attained success in a diverse range of careers, including industrial and furniture design, user experience design, design futures, design research and strategy, design education, emerging technologies, and independent design practice.
The carefully sequenced, course-based curriculum immerses students in both critical and technical skills, challenging them to invent, experiment and reimagine as they develop their individual voices as designers. By providing open platforms for rigorous thinking and making, the program presents students with a creative and intellectual context in which the materiality, agency, utility, and poetic potential of objects are studied and explored. A series of core studios, supported by seminars and technical labs, conclude with the public presentation of a year-long thesis project.
Multi-dimensional approach Throughout the program, the focus is on reimagining the objects and systems that populate our daily lives. The program fosters an expansive understanding of the object, drawing from product, industrial, experience, and systems design and design futures. Students are encouraged to pursue classes in other disciplines across SAIC, as well as Designed Objects external partnerships.
For more information on the program and application requirements, please visit:
saic.edu/desob
Abdullah Al Salem Essence, 2023