Product Design (BFA)
Product Design BFA
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Contact Us
thinkparsons@newschool.edu
212.229.5150
Program Contact
Barent Roth, Program Director
The Product Design BFA program cultivates the technical and critical skills you need to design products that enhance human abilities and relationships. You address contemporary realities including sustainability and technological change while exploring materials, fabrication, aesthetics, and social engagement in both local and global contexts. Through your course of study, you develop broadly applicable studio and critical thinking skills, including research, graphic representation, modeling and prototyping, and professional presentation.
Program Highlights
Tools of Design
Enrich your practice through electives in areas such as user-centered design, material innovation, fabrication methods, experimental ceramics, and design for the public realm.Industry Connections
Benefit from partnerships and internships with companies like Roche Bobois, Moroccanoil, and Poltrona Frau that provide real-world experience and career growth.Real-World Insights
Learn from industry professionals in lectures, project consulting, and crits, gaining insights into theoretical issues as well as practical matters like prototyping and manufacturing.Specialized Facilities
Access Parsons’ research resources, including the Angelo Donghia Healthier Materials Library, as well as museums, archives, and organizations like Material ConneXion.Creative Collaboration
Share shops and studio spaces with students in the Architecture, Interior Design, Fine Arts, and Lighting Design programs, fostering interdisciplinary work.
- DegreeBachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
- FormatFull-time, on campus
- Credits120
- Duration4 years
Curriculum
Your BFA begins with Parsons’ first-year curriculum, which serves as the academic foundation for all undergraduate programs at Parsons. From your second year on, you dive into courses in your major field of study. Art and design history and theory courses develop your research, writing, and critical reasoning skills, and university electives broaden your perspectives.
Making Center
The Making Center, a spacious studio bringing together creative tools from around the university, offers students unprecedented opportunities to acquire industry-ready skills, transform how products are made, and upend conventional notions of supply chains, local production, mass customization, and craft.
Career Paths
Graduates of the BFA Product Design pursue careers in industrial design, product development, manufacturing, furniture design, humanitarian and service design, health design, and toy design.
Parsons faculty represent a broad range of expertise and are acknowledged as leading practitioners and scholars in their fields.
Student Work
Product Design (BFA)
Product Design (BFA)
Product Design (BFA)
Product Design (BFA)
Product Design (BFA)
Beyond the Classroom
Internships
New York City’s thriving creative industry and cultural institutions are part of your Parsons education. Our Career Services Office is deeply connected to the art and design industries and can help you advance your career with industry-oriented internships.
Making & Academic Resources
Enjoy access to extensive resources including New School libraries, computer labs, archives, and studios, along with Parsons’ state-of-the-art Making Center, facilities offering a broad array of tools to support your creative and academic growth.
Industry Engagement
Connect to the organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs driving global creativity and commerce. In classes, internships, and extracurricular projects, you gain marketable problem-solving skills in sectors ranging from government and nonprofits to tech and creative industries.
Study Abroad
Enrich your learning and prepare for work in global contexts with study abroad that exposes you to new perspectives and settings in which to apply your creativity. Our study abroad destinations include, Paris, London, Florence, and more.
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