• Product Design BFA

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    thinkparsons@newschool.edu
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    Barent Roth, Program Director

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  • The Product Design BFA program cultivates the technical and critical skills you need to design products that enhance human abilities and relationships. You address contemporary realities including sustainability and technological change while exploring materials, fabrication, aesthetics, and social engagement in both local and global contexts. Through your course of study, you develop broadly applicable studio and critical thinking skills, including research, graphic representation, modeling and prototyping, and professional presentation.

    Program Highlights

    • Tools of Design

      Enrich your practice through electives in areas such as user-centered design, material innovation, fabrication methods, experimental ceramics, and design for the public realm.

    • Industry Connections

      Benefit from partnerships and internships with companies like Roche Bobois, Moroccanoil, and Poltrona Frau that provide real-world experience and career growth.

    • Real-World Insights

      Learn from industry professionals in lectures, project consulting, and crits, gaining insights into theoretical issues as well as practical matters like prototyping and manufacturing.

    • Specialized Facilities

      Access Parsons’ research resources, including the Angelo Donghia Healthier Materials Library, as well as museums, archives, and organizations like Material ConneXion.

    • Creative Collaboration

      Share shops and studio spaces with students in the Architecture, Interior Design, Fine Arts, and Lighting Design programs, fostering interdisciplinary work.

    • Degree Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
    • Format Full-time, on campus
    • Credits 120
    • Duration 4 years
  • Curriculum

    Your BFA begins with Parsons’ first-year curriculum, which serves as the academic foundation for all undergraduate programs at Parsons. From your second year on, you dive into courses in your major field of study. Art and design history and theory courses develop your research, writing, and critical reasoning skills, and university electives broaden your perspectives.

    Explore the curriculum

  • Career Paths

    Graduates of the BFA Product Design pursue careers in industrial design, product development, manufacturing, furniture design, humanitarian and service design, health design, and toy design.

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    Explore Our Community

    Discover what our students, alumni, and faculty are doing in NYC and worldwide.

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  • Parsons faculty represent a broad range of expertise and are acknowledged as leading practitioners and scholars in their fields. 

  • Student Work

  • Beyond the Classroom

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      Internships

      New York City’s thriving creative industry and cultural institutions are part of your Parsons education. Our Career Services Office is enmeshed in the art and design industries and can help you advance your career with industry-oriented internships.

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      Study Abroad

      Enrich your learning and prepare for work in global contexts with study abroad that exposes you to new perspectives and settings in which to apply your creativity. Our study abroad destinations include, Paris, London, Florence, and more.

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      Industry Engagement

      Parsons’ courses, projects, and faculty are closely integrated with industry and external partners, enabling you to apply what you’ve learned in the classroom to real-world challenges in creative business, nonprofit, government, and technology sectors.

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      Facilities

      Parsons has extensive making resources for product design students. Students are exposed to product fabrication while professional faculty and technical staff assist them in producing full-scale prototypes and presentation-scale models. 

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    Undergraduates

    To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

    Undergraduate Adult Learners

    To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

    Graduates

    To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

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