Industrial Design, Product design

Does Clemson offer Industrial Design? We found it listed on sites like Start Class, but on Clemson’s actual website it is not listed. Did they close the program? Some of the info posted is from 2015. Curious because my daughter was originally looking at them for engineering but now has changed her mind to ID. Thanks for any info!

Civil engineering, industrial design and packaging are all very different areas of study leading to different careers. Might be interesting to see if there are any universities that offer all three. Worst case scenario might be 5 years instead of 4 if it takes him a year to sample some intro classes.

Industrial Design programs differ a lot in how technical they are. They may not directly involve much engineering know-how and math skills. My daughter studied ID at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD): http://www.risd.edu/academics/industrial-design/undergraduate/

Many of the students had limited math background. My daughter had a full HS math curriculum and it worked somewhat to her advantage, even on one of the first projects in foundation ID course. That involved a challenge. Take a large square piece of heavy paper. Fold it into the shape of a musical instrument using a single piece of paper. You can trim or cut the square but still you must use a single sheet for the folded instrument – no stapling, no gluing, just folding. In this little exercise my daughter made a violin. She used some of her knowledge of geometry to calculate where to cut the paper as well as the angles of the folds. Other students used simple trial and error. Her approach worked and was (one of?) the best: once she had cut it out, it folded perfectly the first time as she had planned, with no need to replicate it.

If a student is interested in ID, they should carefully compare the curricula; decide whether a more “art-based” or “engineering-based” degree is what they want. In any case, if someone does ID for a living it’s likely to involve collaborative work with people in related fields including engineering, materials sciences, and so on. At RISD, all students – regardless of major – went through the school’s first-year “foundation program.” So artistic skill is important.

My daughter took full advantage of the chance to take some courses at Brown University, which is adjacent to RISD in Providence, RI. (IIRC, RISD students can take 3 or 4 courses at Brown.) She became interested especially in ecological design, based on a couple of those Brown courses. And as her career evolved, that’s what she does now. Not making objects as such (though she did that for several years) but teaching and producing ecological design. After several years in the economy – heading into the 2008 financial crash – she decided to go back to school and focus on the business side of ecological design. She earned an MS in sustainable systems as well as an MBA. To prepare for the GMAT she took a refresher course in math/statistics at a local college, and got a strong GMAT score. Things are going well. Her design background and experience is foundational to what she does, how she thinks. But she also uses a business head.

The Industrial designers I know went to Otis, CCS and Art Center but that is automotive so I presume industries have their “favorites”.

@momofthreeboys VA Tech is one school that offers Industrial Design (portfolio not required), Packaging science and civil engineering (all in different colleges).

I have a junior with some artistic ability who hasn’t pursued any formal art training, but he is somewhat interested in ID. He’ll need to focus on the few schools that don’t require a portfolio and hope for really high SAT scores, I guess.

Thanks I wondered if any uni had all 3.

RIT offers a BFA in Industrial Design, a BS in Packaging Science, a BS in Civil Engineering Technology and a BS in Civil Engineering. As mentioned previously DD thought of doing ID as a major with Packaging as a minor but has since changed her mind.

I’m late to the game on this discussion but we began to investigate and visit ID schools in earnest a year ago. My son was initially thinking of computer science but because of his artistic/creative ability we encouraged him to look at design fields.

While artistic, he hasn’t done much drawing or taken any art classes during high school. He attended two ID camps - the one at University of Cincinnati and at Iowa State to ensure that is the field he wants to study. We were surprised at how competitive many of the programs become AFTER admission. Typically you need to re-apply after your first and second year usually based on portfolio work. The odds of continuing really weren’t great at a lot of schools - because studio work is involved, they have to limit the number in the program. So essentially, you could easily waste one or two years of college if you don’t get in down the line.

So all of the above concerns narrowed down his list A LOT. He applied to and was accepted into all four of his choices: University of Minnesota - product design, University of Illinois - Chicago, Iowa State, and University of Cincinnati for ID. None of them required portfolios and odds of continuing are very high in all four.

His top choice is the product design program at UMN. It’s different in that it is multi-disciplinary. It’s a BS in Design so he has to take calculus (may be able to bypass with his tow AP calc classes), physics, pscyhology, anthropology, entrepreneurial business, and an engineering class in addition to the design curriculum. There are also two internships required to graduate. He’s still considering Cincinnati but he’s not that keen on the co-op - wants to have a more traditional university experience.