'The School of Visual Arts MFA Design Program launched in 1998 as an alternative to traditional masters programs that emphasize form over content. Our students are encouraged to create their own content using new media and develop a thesis aimed directly for a marketplace of goods and ideas.
Entrepreneurship has become more significant throughout the contemporary design scene. MFA Design students work individually and collaboratively during two intensive years to develop objects of value through electronic and handcrafted means. They network with visiting and full-time faculty, who are all professionals, to insure that their intellectual properties are aesthetically sound and conceptually viable.
As alumni become productive members of the larger media world, the community of creative and business people comprising the MFA Design program grows more influential each year. MFA Design provides the education, inspiration, and experience to insure students transcend the common definition of designers as service providers into individual and collaborative authors.
We require that students be fluent in the languages of graphic design and typography. In addition we welcome those who have backgrounds (and interest) in motion, sound, writing, and editing. Students must be able to convey ideas verbally and visually. We do not teach a student how to design but rather how to marshal their abilities to rise to the next creative level.
We believe it is important for the designer of the future to be thoroughly integrated into numerous communication platforms. Our students are, therefore, encouraged to draw inspiration from other visual and communications artists who share authorial aspirations. And in this way, the program is not restricted to a conventional curriculum. Instead we embrace a broad set of visual languages as the foundation for all creative activity.
Students are afforded a beautiful, professional environment in which to work. Our Studio is accessible 24 hours a day, and is designed to simulate a real media firm, with spacious individual workstations. In addition to our classrooms, students have unlimited access to our high-end editing rooms, conference room, library, and exhibition gallery. Through this space, we offer an opportunity to stay connected to the professional world, while partaking in an academic one.
The program is designed for students from graphic design, product design, environmental design, film, photography, and computer backgrounds as well as professionals who are interested in moving on to an advanced level.'
I was very interested to learn that the School of Visual Arts in New York run a program called MFA Design Authorship and Entrepreneurship. This seems to confirm the theory of authorship and reinforces the statement in my essay that this is a progressive mode of practice for the future. Surely an academic course like this one, sets a precedent for the future of graphic design orientated education, and in result, the theory. The curriculum looks great, and there are many famous graphic designers who have endorsed the program by teaching on it. Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, Louise Fili all teach on the course, and Steven Heller is the co-chair. The course seems to be directing the design discipline into new untouched areas, which extremely helpful in the writing of my essay.
The work produced on the course on Sagmeister’s module ‘Can Design Touch Someone’s Heart’. The module focuses on elevating design to a similar importance to art, music, and film. Design seems to take a more functional role in touching someone’s heart. Giving them a tangible product as opposed to film and music that is a visual and audio based stimulus. Giving workers personalised gloves may touch the heart, but it is through a tangible outcome. Music can not be touched, but it is heard, and a cathartic experience is the result in some cases. It is interesting to see if design can work in this way as I do not think the glove project works in quite the same way. However, this is still extremely progressive way to look and implement design, and the outcome is a brilliant response to the brief set my Sagmeister.
I ordered a prospectus in order to see if there would be any more information about the course. Unfortunately, everything is available on the website, and in a significant great depth. However, the prospectus itself is an incredible effort!
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