Program Overview

ArtCenter’s master's in Industrial Design degree program (Grad ID) combines the pursuit of extraordinary design and making skills with the knowledge, theories, and methods that are essential for creating new value for business and social innovation in a world facing complex and unstructured challenges. We practice a broadly applicable creative process to produce solutions that are founded on the understanding of human needs and aspirations so that designers and organizations can be resilient and grow.

What You'll Learn

The faculty in our Industrial Design master's program are internationally renowned educators and professionals. Students work in a design studio environment where they’re encouraged to create with a consciousness that their designs will exist and have impact in a larger context. Through a broadly applicable creative process we call strategic innovation, you’ll learn how to analyze complex challenges, discover key insights and envision how people will experience innovative products and services for propelling organizational growth.

ArtCenter’s Industrial Design master’s degree program currently offers two tracks to deepen your expertise and meet your professional goals.

Master of Science Industrial Design (MS) Industrial Design

In this track, students focus on development of creative design skills and the practice of strategic innovation methods that take a systems-level view, and that considers the business, technological and human aspects of any challenge. Students are prepared with visual design skills and the knowledge, theories and methods they’ll need to take on the types of unstructured problems that industry continually faces. In addition to Grad ID studio class work, students in the MS track also take elective classes in the second half of the program to extend their experience and build their portfolio through projects in collaboration with students and faculty in other departments at ArtCenter.

Innovation Systems Design (MS/MBA) Track

Grad ID joined forces with Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker School of Management to offer a dual MS/MBA degree track in Innovation Systems Design (ISD). The two-year, project-based program prepares the innovators of tomorrow by combining business strategy, leadership and management acumen with the rigorous development of creative skills and experience with design innovation methodology. Students in the MS/MBA track complete the first three semesters of the MS degree curriculum at ArtCenter; then spend two semesters to complete an intensive version of the Drucker MBA program while continuing studio project work at ArtCenter. After graduating with the MBA degree, students complete their final semester of the MS degree program.

Careers in Industrial Design

Organizations today must constantly reinvent themselves to remain competitive. Our graduates leave our program with the visual design and making skills, knowledge, theories and methods to take on the types of unstructured problems that industry continually faces.

• Industrial Designer
• Product Designer
• Design Engineer
• User Experience (UX) Designer
• Interaction Designer
• Design Researcher
• Design Strategist
• Design Manager
• Design Consultant
• Design Innovation Specialist
• Design Educator
• Design Director

Notable Alumni

Our alumni are envisioning the new products and services that are defining the successful futures for organizations in growth industries.

Kevin Bethune, Multidisciplinary Design Executive
Neeti Kailas, Brand Manager, Nestlé Purina, North America
Hiroshi Horii, Senior Staff Designer, Samsung
Magdalena Paluch, CEO and Founder, LabTwin
Catalina Johnson, Experience Design Strategist, Ford
De Liu, Co-Founder and Vice-President, Xiaomi