I’m an Engineering and Studio Art undergrad. I’ve only been able to take classes in architecture so far, but I want to end up in industrial design after I graduate.
Until this point, the only summer program I knew about was Harvard GSD’s (and I know the general opinion of that program). But I just found out that RISD offers the summer courses “Intro to Industrial Design” and “Sketching & Rendering for Industrial Design” - anyone taken these courses before? Comments/thoughts?
I’m looking for ways to add material to my portfolio to apply to ID firms post-graduation.
I’m Engineering and Art because that’s the closest thing to a design major my school offers! Also, I originally thought I wanted more of an engineering background, but I’m starting to figure out that’s not quite where my interests lie.
I think it will be difficult to get a position as an industrial designer in a known firm (frog, IDEO, Smart, Continuum, Ziba, RKS, Lunar, Astro, ELEVEN, Ecco, Evo, and so on) or a major corporation (Samsung, LG, Nike, Steelcase, Nokia, Microsoft, and the like) when you will be competing with fresh ID grads that have devoted 4-5 years and multiple internships to learning their craft.
At this point, no - I’ll be graduating next year. I have the option to stay and do a BE in a specific engineering concentration, but I’ll most likely just leave with my BA in Engineering Sciences/Studio Art.
Honestly, I’m interested in everything: products, apparel, transportation, architecture, graphics. My background (strangely enough) is in emergency response: firefighting, police, medical evacuations, and security extraction. I’ve found there’s a severe lack of good, forward-thinking design in emergency response (outside of new blood like Carbon Motors). Of course, there’s the old paradigm “200 years of tradition impeded by progress” that’s hard to get around.
Hey I’m at a liberal arts college trying to get into design, so I’m looking for summer programs too, mostly introductory. I was wondering what you meant by the “general opinion” of the Harvard GSD program because I’ve been looking into that. It’s been hard given the limited resources of people who know about design at my school. And let me know if you hear anything more about the RISD programs / if you know of any other intro programs. I know the Massachusetts College of Art and Design has a summer program but I don’t know where to look to find the opinions / standing of the programs.
The GSD Summer program is known as “bootcamp” for wannabe architects. It’s 8am-midnight 5 days a week when you include the time you spend in the studios. It’s also extremely structured, even on weekends, ie lectures, tours, etc. I’ve even heard of people dropping out from the stress! The program is really aimed at people with no architecture experience whatsoever who want a shot at getting into the GSD.
It looks like the MassArt ID classes are all nighttime - maybe less intense than the RISD courses?