Cowhide shoes by Pratt industrial design student Kate Tsyrlin. All student project photos courtesy Pratt Industrial Design

This is the latest installment of D-School Futures, our interview series on the evolution of industrial design education. Today we have answers from Scott Lundberg, acting chair of industrial design at Pratt Institute.

How different is industrial design education today than it was ten years ago? Will it look very different ten years from now?

Industrial design education is no longer understood in craft-based paradigms, segregated and tracked by predetermined outcomes like automotive, furniture or tabletop. This is in part because change is a constant in our field.

An industrial design education at Pratt prepares students to be skillful at responding to and often instigating change. Since the issues that we consider will always be changing, design is understood and taught as a way to think and act with change. The goal of a Pratt design education is to prepare our students for the unknown opportunities they will face as they mature professionally.

One way we prepare for change is our leadership in teaching visual literacy, which is a valuable tool that will always be important to the profession. Our alumni have recognized this as one of their uniquely Pratt competitive advantages for decades. We will be expanding this emphasis in our teaching as the pace of technology, economy and cultural change increases.

Another way we prepare our students for unknown futures is by offering a variety of opportunities to apply and adapt their design talents. Doing this reinforces the message that design is the way we think about things and not a definition of the things we think about. Many of the opportunities have very familiar contexts like furniture or medical equipment, but just as many are fantastical. One of our professors insists that designers get out on thin ice with their ideas—that where it starts to get dangerous is where it gets interesting.

Technology is the most obvious place people go when thinking about educational shifts, and it is important. Every program worth considering acquires the latest technological tools, so it is a difficult competitive advantage to maintain. At Pratt, we help students understand how to design and think like a designer—whether it be mastering the latest technology, dance or the oldest craft.

Scott Lundberg. Photo by Peter Tannenbaum/Pratt Institute

What would you say to a prospective student who worries about the relevance of an ID education in an increasingly digital world?

Technology has made it easier to realize entrepreneurial projects and get them to market. This ability alone has transformed the way that our graduates practice design. Many practice in a hybrid way—learning from experienced designers by freelancing with established studios on corporate projects, collaborating and co-creating with friends for their own clients, and building their reputations through marketing their own designs.

In these ways a designer has the ability to react to change but also the power to direct change. I would advise students not to worry about what they are learning to design and encourage them to focus on learning design. When students understand design processes and begin to think like a designer, they will know what to do with new design opportunities. The first apps were not created by people who had taken an app class in college—they were created by people who saw a design opportunity.

This backpack for the visually impaired by Sean Fogarty uses contrast, sonar sensors, texture and accessibility for an easier user experience.

Dillon Chen's Flux brings life to a still canvas with fluid motion and gesture.

What sets Pratt's industrial design program apart from ID programs at other schools?

Pratt's Industrial Design Department differs from other programs because of the size and diversity of our faculty. The faculty comprises practicing design professionals whose areas of expertise range from interface, experience and exhibition design to product, furniture, lighting and medical design. If a student has an idea or area of interest he or she would like to explore, chances are someone on faculty has direct experience and knowledge that can help to fuel the student's explorations.

Pratt is the master of teaching its students visual literacy, which fosters the ability to compose, deconstruct and control formal relationships that result in the human responses required for a design to succeed. It is difficult to imagine a challenge where possessing the ability to control the visual experience will not be a competitive advantage for our students throughout their careers.

The Institute also actively engages its students in corporate-sponsored projects, giving them real-world experience and direct feedback on their work from respected national and international companies. The projects showcase student design expertise and problem-solving abilities, often resulting in top-selling products and solutions to major global challenges.

Another area that sets us apart is our Global Innovation Design (GID) option for graduate students in their second year of study. After two semesters at Pratt learning what we believe to be the fundamentals of being a designer, the student travels to Kieo Media Design in Tokyo to learn storytelling and media technology for a semester. In the following semester the student travels to London to study Innovation Design Engineering at Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. Students work collaboratively across programs on an international project, participating on a globally-distributed team to research and develop new design concepts and prototypes around a central theme—food, the future of retail or health. Overall, the GID combines three design programs from four great schools while providing students with the unique opportunity to experience life in three centers of culture and innovation. This fall marks the second year of the program, and we're excited to see where this education experience takes our students as they enter their thesis year.

What's the job market like for recent graduates of your program? Is now a good time to embark on an ID career?

It is a good time to embark on a career in industrial design if the prospective student is a creative problem-solver who is motivated by the challenges of our present and future society. Despite the competitive job market, there is always a demand for people who think this way. In addition to seeing our graduates go on to work for top companies, we are seeing an increasing number of alumni go on to start their own businesses. It is an exciting time to be a designer, especially in New York where we're seeing recent graduates make their own opportunities.

If you had to give just one piece of advice to an incoming student in your program, what would it be?

Find a sketchbook that you like and draw every future you see. Drawing is still the best brain game ever invented.