The Graduate Program in Design looks broadly at the discipline of design as a sensibility that permeates and crosses into all fields, beyond an aesthetic that adheres to fixed definitions or stylistic rules. The field of design has been moving conceptually toward an increasingly holistic notion of the designer, independent of any particular field of specialization. Design is increasingly being pushed beyond the traditional creation of objects and messages, and towards the design of processes, services, and systems.

Thesis work is where the student’s philosophy and practice meet. And it is where their work lives and breathes with both. The Graduate Program in Design asks students to evolve and re-construct their notion of what design is, what it does, what it can do or be.

This year’s graduating class has explored multi-disciplinary approaches and perspectives in design that attempt to re-define what design is and can be through works that address issues of ambiguity, scale and consumption. These works constitute provocations through the re-construction of concepts and identities that actively engage in the debate over the innovative and experimental roles of design as a public activity.

Please join us in celebrating the work of the next generation of design leaders.