RIT Industrial Design MFA Thesis

The Industrial Design MFA at the Rochester Institute of Technology is an interdisciplinary, multinational program focused on design foundations and guided exploration. The faculty represent a diverse range of industry and academic backgrounds, providing students balanced exposure to applied research and human-centered processes. The course of study emphasizes progressive skill sets, a rich variety of projects, and design with meaningful intent. MFA candidates are challenged to develop individualized approaches to design through collaboration with students and faculty across the university. Industry partnerships factor heavily into coursework, grounding conceptual design in production-oriented outcomes. Recent and ongoing partnerships include the Corning Museum of Glass, Arc of Monroe, Loll, Autodesk, GE, Herman Miller, and Fabrica. Aesthetic sensitivity, technical competence, social and environmental awareness, and analytical thought are developed and applied to meet the challenge of designing products, packaging and systems for human needs. Through hands-on experience in graphic visualization, technical drawing, model making and prototype development, graduates emerge with the skills needed to conceptualize, design, and develop new and improved products for mass production.  Through collaborative projects with industry sponsors, students work on actual product designs and develop skills in specialized areas including electronic product design, toy and game design, furniture design, exhibit and display design, and package design. This exhibition is the culmination of design work by eleven Masters of Fine Arts candidates.