Design

Website: www.design.utah.edu

375 S 1530 E
AAC, Rm 235
Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Phone: 801-581-8254
Instagram: @uofu_design

The undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Design welcomes makers, researchers, and creative practitioners from a range of disciplinary perspectives into a collective environment that prepares students to imagine, develop, and enact design interventions. The program approaches design in three categories: Physical Product, Digital Product, and Open Investigation, and offers students two pathways through the curriculum: Design Studies and Studio Practice.  

Studio Practice foregrounds in-depth making and experiential learning in a studio environment.  Design Studies offers a hands-on platform for the interdisciplinary study of design management and product development, as well as an understanding of material culture through design history, theory, and criticism. Students also pursue a primary focus in methods that pertain to physical and digital products, experiences, and spatial investigations at multiple scales.

Both paths prepare students to leverage design skills and processes for careers in a wide variety of disciplines—in creative fields and beyond. Students in both Design Studies and Studio Practice begin their coursework together in a coordinated Sophomore year with the option of pursuing either a Physical or Digital Product emphasis. Those who wish to craft a course of study that doesn’t fall under the Physical or Digital Product trajectories have the option of curating their own set of courses in the Open Investigation emphasis. 

The MDD program invites students to develop their own practice and approach to design supported by rigorous craft, critical research methods, and ethical framing, reinforced by industry partnerships, community engaged scholarship, and diverse media and fabrication techniques.

Graduates go on to professional careers in a wide variety of design disciplines in the private sector, as well as government or non-profit organizations. Students have also gone on to graduate studies in diverse fields such as interaction design, architecture, landscape architecture, creative writing, systems and service design, business, and entrepreneurship.  

Admissions choice: Major in Design 

1. Prerequisites:  
   Students must complete the following prerequisites in their first year to persist in the MDD program:
   Design Foundations: DES 2630, ARCH 2630 and CMP 2010  

   Design Pre-requisite: DES 2615 

2. Portfolio review and Placement: 
   Students must then submit a digital portfolio and essay of motivation to be reviewed by faculty for placement in either one of the Design programs emphasizes, the minor, or referred to an alternative degree in the college or university. GPA will also be considered for the placement review. 

3. Placement Confirmation: 
   Following the second-year studio sequence, students will have an opportunity to confirm their emphasis or choose an alternative path 

https://advising.utah.edu/majors/quick-look/design.php