Minor in...?

I’m a 2nd year ID student and because of some nice transfer credits from AP courses and high school classes, I have some wiggle room in my schedual. I’m planning ahead for the next few years trying to figure out how to use this time in the most judicious and exciting way. I’ve been thinking that I’d like to take a minor, but I haven’t nailed down what I want to minor in! My school (Philadelphia University) is known for their Textile Design and Textile Engineering programs and that is something I’m interested in, but I’m not sure it would benefit my career in the long run. I could also go for a Graphic Design major which may be more useful for learning to communicate my ideas in a compelling way. There are plenty of other options and even the ability to make a “custom” minor out of a set of classes in one major. I’m just not sure how to decide what will be the most worth while in the long run!

Thanks for the feedback.

Graphic design would be very useful as a lot of design work blends the discipline of ID and GD with interaction design and user experience design.

But what interests you?

I agree that the biggest question is what interests you. ID can be taken many different directions and for each one there’s probably a minor that could help.

Textile design certainly could be a practical choice if you were interested in softgoods (bags, cases, shoes, various gear) or furniture design. As mentioned above, graphic is good if you may veer towards interaction design or possibly some ID that is a bit more “graphical” or communicative. If you’re just trying to up your presentation game I’d just take one graphic design basics course and choose another minor. I got minors in Sociology/Anthropology and Mechanical Engineering Technology and enjoyed both. Sociology/Anthropology is less directly applicable unless you’re going towards design research (then it’s practically required), but it does help with understanding people a bit. Mechanical Engineering Technology (a more practical, less theoretical variant of Mechanical Engineering) is useful daily for me in building strong structures, creating mechanisms, and understanding manufacturing processes.

There are lots of others as well. Ceramics, jewelry, sculpture, electrical engineering, computer science, business, and probably others could all be useful depending on your design sensibilities and intended career path.