If you're thinking about grad school, you might spend some of your holiday time sparkling up that portfolio as the application deadline is approaching for SVA's MFA in Products of Design program in NYC.

She Ventures Club—part of Alexia Cohen's thesis DARE + DEFY: A Woman's Place in the Great Outdoors

The 2-year master's program provides coursework on just about every critical facet of design we can think of: physical product design, interaction design, service design, business design, social innovation, policy design, designing justice, disability studies, design and politics, systems design, futuring, and leadership and strategic management. Phew!

MoMA has an annual partnership with the students of MFA Products of Design—the only one of its kind—to create products for their wholesale line.

The latest product to launch from the partnership, Hui Zheng's Roller Coasters.

Department chair Allan Chochinov boils it down just a little: "This year we are featuring 3 Open House events, each focusing on a particular convergence of the program: How do you deal with the title of "Product Designer" when it applies to both physical and digital product designers? How do you navigate the seemingly dichotomous worlds of business and justice? And how do you reconcile a personal 'design life'—knowing that design is a team sport? These are three central questions in the program, and, I believe, central questions in the larger world of design."

Protest?Arrest Temporary Tattoos—part of Julia Lindpaintner's thesis JUSTICE BY ALL: Revitalizing Civic Engagement in the Judicial System

Frei—a speculative product that mixes menstrual blood and water for fertilizing plants, as part of Pantea Parsa's Thesis By Choice: Designing the Abortion Journey

CleanCath Sterilizer—form studies from Souvik Paul's thesis UNBOUND: Design for Paralysis and Disability

You can see what the department is looking for in a candidate in Core77's Getting Accepted: How to Be a Standout Applicant to SVA's Products of Design MFA Program from a couple months back, and learn much more about the program at https://productsofdesign.sva.edu/

Finally, on those convergences? They got videos up of their first 2 open houses here, so you can check those out while you're fussing with the font pairings on your CV!

"We're urging people to 'not put their dreams on hold' right now. Whatever happens in the world, it's going to be design-driven entrepreneurs, policy-makers, and activists who accelerate change. We want our graduates to have all of those levers in their hands, and we're not letting up on the educational outcomes during the pandemic. If anything, we're doubling down."

Get all the application info here at SVA's Apply Page.

Alexia Cohen prototyping Cara—part of Alexia Cohen's thesis DARE + DEFY: A Woman's Place in the Great Outdoors

Title image: Panisa Khumprasert building Allusion Alter—part of her thesis HEREAFTER: Remapping the Landscape of Death and the Way it is Remembered