Master of Design (MDes) in Industrial Design

University of Illinois Chicago

The Master of Design (MDes) in Industrial Design is a two-year degree program focused on an independent master's research project that offers students the opportunity to identify and explore a topic of inquiry with the potential to contribute to broader disciplinary knowledge. The program is equally concerned with making and thinking. Its curriculum seeks a bold reimagining of the role and capacity of industrial design, and provides a forum for the critical questioning of design theories and methods. Students explore, research, conceptualize, develop, and prototype a product/service/system that breaks new ground within context of industrial design practice. The MDes in Industrial Design engages in four fundamental fields of practice: commercial design, responsible design, experimental design, and discursive design. The program culminates in a public exhibition of the master's research paper and project.

College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts