普瑞特艺术学院

The Industrial Design Department at Pratt is united in a common pursuit of creativity, experimentation, and innovation, explored through a series of projects, large and small that translate ideas into a wide variety of new forms, systems, and structures. At the graduate level, our mission extends to bridging human needs with design solutions. Our goal is to develop designers with a deeper understanding of the design process from research through concept creation and design skills. This is achieved through significant research activity and personal engagement (character), while allowing the individual sensibility of the designer to flourish through individual thesis projects.

Ours is a generalist, humanist design program that pays particular attention to students without prior design degrees, helping them to incorporate their previous backgrounds and interests in their work, and to enter the professional sphere with conviction, intelligence, and skill. As such, the Master’s in Industrial Design (MID) program builds skill while it cultivates talent and prepares students for a much wider world of industrial design than ever.

The expertise of the MID faculty spans furniture, lighting, architecture, exhibition, products, visual communication, tabletop, apparel and footwear, video, automotive, medical equipment, packaging, and surface design. While each faculty member within the program has his or her particular path, there is a growing understanding that, in the expanding design profession, disciplines often cross lines. As such, Industrial Design students and faculty share a common goal: to encourage individual growth to its highest potential.

Pratt’s Brooklyn based program also maintains strong ties to industry through corporate-supported programs, bringing essential industry knowledge into the classroom. Internships in design consultancies and corporate offices are encouraged and have proved to be valuable learning experiences that cannot be duplicated in a purely academic setting.

Learning Outcomes

Students will develop an independent masters-level thesis project that reflects the design process according to current professional practice. Above all, emphasis will be placed on addressing human needs from the point of view of interface, ergonomic, social, global, historical, ethical, and commercial issues.

Students will acquire professional-level competence in two- and three-dimensional design, using aesthetic sensibility, digital/analog tools, and critical thinking, combined with a working knowledge of materials and methods in an environmentally responsible context.

Students will hone their writing to complement other presentation skills related to research, design concepts, theory, and development of a persuasive personal viewpoint verbally and in written documentation.

Graduates from the M.I.D. program will have working knowledge of the business aspects of design, with emphasis on entrepreneurship, protection of intellectual property, teamwork, and marketing.