Product and Furniture Design | Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Product and Furniture Design: Degree Information

MCAD emphasizes a collaborative process and working with students from all majors. For this Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, you will take courses in several different areas, including a core focus, adding up to 120 total credits required for graduation.

Core Required Courses - These are the core courses that every Product and Furniture Design student takes.

Foundation Studies - These classes help you build a solid art background to become a well rounded student.

Studio Electives - Throughout your studies you can choose from several studio electives that will give you hands on time.

Humanities and Sciences Electives - These classes round out your experience at MCAD, deepen your creative practice, and fulfill non-studio requirements for a degree.

Learning Outcomes

  • Utilize research methods to understand market sectors, client briefs and parameters, and evaluate design viability including trend, history, context, materials, ecological impact, ergonomics etc.
  • Use two-dimensional media (drawings, renderings, etc.) and three-dimensional models, prototypes and other visual and spatial representations to develop and explore design ideation and intent.
  • Confidently perform the designer’s core function as form-giver, creating fully-resolved, inspired, context-appropriate form, shape, texture and color.
  • Develop designs that exemplify individual authorship and creative problem solving using industry-standard digital tools, platforms, and processes for limited and mass production.
  • Produce fabrications and prototypes that demonstrate proof of concept, material knowledge, and manufacturing feasibility using traditional and experimental techniques.
  • Present work visually and verbally in a manner that is compelling to the intended audience.
  • Document the design development process and deliverables for portfolio and/or marketing use.

Core Required Courses

36 credits

PD 2000 Introduction to Product and Furniture Design
3 credits

This studio course introduces modes of thinking and practices employed by product and furniture designers. Through a series of hands-on projects and research assignments, students use product design methodology to identify and define problems, then develop solutions with real-world applications. Using a variety of materials and techniques, students explore ideation, iteration, model making, and form development. Faculty provides an overview of topics such as ergonomics, sustainable design, user interface/experience design, manufacturing processes, and design in social context.

Prerequisites: Completion of 12 credits, Foundations 3D

PD 2300 Design Drawing: 2D Drawing for 3D Design
3 credits

Designed objects begin with ideas, which have long been visually initiated and communicated through quick, expressive sketches. Subtle changes to the emphasis or quality of line, shape, and/or value can be the difference between a successful takeoff or a failed launch. This course introduces techniques used by product designers that are useful to a broad range of creative professionals. Manual drawing and rendering techniques enable students to effectively and efficiently communicate design ideas, convey context and operation of a product, develop form, iterate, and present design intent. This approach prizes clear, compelling communication intended to represent objects that do not yet exist.

Prerequisites: Completion of 12 credits; Foundations 2D

PD 2600 Digital Visualization and Fabrication
3 credits

This course introduces digital visualization techniques employed by product designers. Students will learn to use industry-standard parametric CAD software (Fusion360) and digital rendering to create and render three-dimensional models. Exercises will teach students to use the tools to explore form and mechanisms, build physical models and prototypes using digital fabrication techniques, communicate detailed specifications, and create photo-realistic images of a design. No prior CAD experience is required.

Prerequisites: Completion of 12 credits; Foundations 3D; Foundations Media 1

PD 3010 Models, Prototypes, Fabrication
3 credits

Products can be made of just about any material, from textiles to ceramics to circuit boards—so product designers have developed numerous techniques for making physical models and prototypes to develop, test, and communicate their ideas. Students will learn these techniques—and when to deploy which ones—as they design a series of simple, everyday products. Using the models and prototypes they build, students evaluate their design solutions on the basis of function, performance, mechanical feasibility, appearance, usability, and context-appropriateness.

Prerequisites: Foundation: 3D, Introduction to Product and Furniture Design, or faculty permission

FURN 3020 Lighting / Accessories / Housewares
3 credits

This course introduces students to a mix of real-world products, such as tableware, home decor, personal accessories, lighting, etc., in which appearance is a primary consideration. Assignments will focus on developing appropriate expressive qualities, techniques for form generation and development, iterative refinement of form, appearance models, and attractive presentation of work. Students will integrate new sketching, model-making, and prototyping materials and techniques. Students are encouraged to incorporate a broad spectrum of materials such as plastics, metals, woods, castables, glass, and stone.The class includes studio experiments with light (including lamps and atypical light sources), wiring, and electrical safety. Lectures and demonstrations support class activities.

Prerequisites: Introduction to Product and Furniture Design; or faculty permission

PD 3030 Textile, Surface and Design for the Human Body
3 credits

This studio course is about designing products that require significant physical interaction with users’ bodies, and addresses topics including ergonomics, accessibility, body-fit, and fashion. This class conceptualizes textiles and surfaces as skin or wrapped objects and delves into the relationship of products, including furniture, with the human body. Students explore a variety of fabrication techniques including but not limited to sewing, adhesives, traditional and nontraditional surface application methods. Topics include a range of materials. Each project incorporates lectures, demonstrations, and critiques.

Prerequisites: Models, Prototypes, Fabrication; Digital Visualization and Fabrication

FURN 3070 Environment and Retail Design
3 credits

This studio course examines the combination of multiple design disciplines including interior design, architecture, graphic design, furniture design and product design. Projects include commercial, hospitality and retail environments as it pertains to human scale. In a studio setting, designs are created with an application of anthropometrics, social responsibilities, accessibility accommodations and environmentally responsible design. Projects focus on critical ideation and are evaluated by faculty and peers through group discussions and critiques.

Prerequisites: Introduction to Product and Furniture Design; Design Drawing: 2D Drawing for 3D Design; Digital Visualization and Fabrication; Graphic Design 1

PD 3340 Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Processes
3 credits

In spite of the many products, services, and experiences now provided via digital devices, product designers still require fundamental knowledge of tangible materials and the means to shape them. From raw materials to finished products, students will learn to identify and understand the materials and processes used to make familiar products and where to source them. The manufacturing portion introduces students to the materials and processes used in mass production. In particular, the course will focus on how to design for each material and manufacturing processes (design for manufacturability). This course discusses sustainability, defined as the economic, ecological, social, and political impacts of their production, processing, use, transportation, and disposal. The class includes field trips to local manufacturers, and independent research.

Prerequisites: Introduction to Product and Furniture Design; Design Drawing: 2D Drawing for 3D Design; Digital Visualization and Fabrication

PD 4010 Internship and/or Studio Elective: Product and Furniture Design
3 credits

PD/FURN 5100 Senior Project 1: Product and Furniture Design
3 credits

Product Design Senior Project consists of two sequential studios. It is the culmination of the program and a requisite for graduation. Each student works with a departmental advisor and a number of in-house or external advisors to develop a project resulting from a self-generated investigation. Results are broad and far-ranging, from products to furniture, services, culture-driven explorations, products for social impact, etc. This is an independent endeavor to demonstrate that students have acquired the fluency necessary to join the professional world of product design. The emphasis during this first semester is on research and ideation to develop an original and innovative solution to a real-world problem.

Prerequisites: Digital Visualization (PD 2600)

PD/FURN 5101 Senior Project 2: Product and Furniture Design
3 credits

This studio is the continuation of Product Design Senior Project 1. Although the structure of this studio is similar to Senior Project 1, the emphasis in this course is in iterative development the design concept, through the use, testing, and revision of sketches, models, and prototypes. Students will research and make a compelling case for the strategic, economic, social, and environmental appropriateness of their design solutions, culminating in a fully-staged senior exhibition.

Prerequisites: Product Design Senior Project 1 (PD 5100); Advanced Digital Visualization (PD 3600)

Foundation Studies

16 credits

FDN 1111 Foundation: 2D
3 credits

Foundation: 2D is an introduction to creative thinking that develops students’ skills in research, observation, interpretation, and self-expression. An emphasis is placed on exploring new ways to read and see the world, as well as new ways to report on it. Students learn basic two-dimensional principles through the use of various media, tools, materials, and processes. As a result, students develop a visual and verbal language for analyzing, organizing, shaping, and communicating two-dimensional form and meaning.

FDN 1112 Foundation: 3D
3 credits

This course is an introduction to understanding of visual creation for the development of knowledge, imagination, and perception. Students are introduced to basic three-dimensional concepts as well as materials and technical production processes. Classroom activities include shop demonstrations of tools and techniques, information, lectures, and discussions appropriate to promote the balanced fusion of practice and theory.

FDN 1211 Foundation: Drawing 1
3 credits

Foundation: Drawing 1 is an introductory drawing course designed to prepare students for study in all majors of the college. Students develop basic drawing skills, including the ability to perceive and express visual relationships, organize a two-dimensional composition, and depict and manipulate form, space, and light. Students work from direct observation of still life, interior space, and landscape.

FDN 1311 Foundation: Media 1
3 credits

Students are introduced to digital resources at MCAD while exploring digital media. Areas covered include the Service Bureau, Gray Studio, and Media Center, along with other digital resources. Students use a variety of software and hardware to learn the basics of working with recorded media, including video, sound, and photography, as well as developing critical language for discussing media and media artists.

FDN 1411 Ideation and Process
3 credits

Everything we make has its beginning as an idea, which takes form as an artist/designer makes a series of decisions to guide its creative evolution. This course is designed to help students explore the development of new ideas and their own process of making. Students also create visual tools to track their creative process from idea through construction and then to post production analysis. The course consists of discussions, critiques, exercises, and visual logs.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

FDN 1412 Sophomore Seminar: Contemporary Practice
1 credits

Practice is more than working methods: it’s the context, marketing, and creative space that maintain creative work. Contemporary Practice introduces students to the foundations, variety, and tools of a professional practice. Students upgrade websites and documentation, enter contests, and create professional presentations of their work. Classes consist of lectures, student presentations, and guest speakers from a wide range of disciplines.

Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

Studio Electives

29 credits

varying BFA Studio Electives

Students in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program take studio courses as electives; amount determined by your major.

Humanities and Sciences

39 credits

varying Liberal Arts Electives: Product and Furniture Design
24 credits

Product and Furniture Design majors take Liberal Arts electives in the following distribution: Art History (6 credits), Writing and Inquiry (3 credits), Creative and Professional Writing (3 credits), Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning (3 credits), Humanities Elective (3 credits), Social Sciences Elective (3 credits), Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar (3 credits), and Liberal Arts Elective (3 credits).

Total Credit Hours
120