Industrial Design
The Industrial Design Program prepares students to be creative, practical, user-centered, aesthetics-focused, problem-solving, and opportunity-exploring designers, design strategists, or design leaders.
The NC State University Industrial Design Program is one of the top professional programs in this discipline in the country. The program offers Bachelor of Industrial Design (BID) and Master of Industrial Design (MID) degrees, both accredited by The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).
Students learn and practice design in a studio environment very similar to that of professional design offices. Students methodically study human physical and cognitive interaction with artifacts and services in order to discover user experience insights and then create innovative solutions to design problems. The dynamic and sophisticated balance of form, function, innovation, and practicality are constantly debated and articulated throughout the journey to better design.
Finally, a Home
The Industrial Design faculty have joined NC State University from prestigious institutions around the world, each bringing years of experience in design, research, innovation, and education. The graduates from the program are enhancing the quality of life experiences with the creative design of products, services, branding, and communication systems for companies such as IDEO, Nike, Volvo, IBM, Toshiba, Dell, Pentagram, PepsiCo, RKS Design, Microsoft, The Smithsonian, Adidas, Hasbro, Target, and Bosch.
What is Industrial Design?
Industrial design is the professional service of creating and developing concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value, and appearance of products and systems for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer. Industrial designers develop these concepts and specifications for the user and manufacturer through the collection, analysis, and synthesis of data, often within the context of cooperative working relationships with other members of a development group such as management, marketing, engineering, and manufacturing specialists. They then communicate their clear and concise recommendations through drawings, models, and verbal descriptions that embody all relevant design criteria determined by the group.
The industrial designer’s unique contribution emphasizes those aspects of the product or system that relate most directly to human characteristics, needs, experiences, and interests. This contribution requires specialized understanding of visual, spatial, and tactile senses as well as product safety and convenience criteria. Industrial designers are experts in anticipating psychological, physiological and sociological factors and perceptions that influence users of products and services. Industrial designers also maintain a practical concern for the technical processes and requirements for manufacturing; marketing opportunities and economic constraints; and regulatory requirements relevant to good design.
In addition to supplying concepts for products and systems, industrial designers are often retained for consultation on a variety of problems that have to do with product and organization identity systems, development of communication systems, interior and exhibit design, advertising devices and packaging, and other related services. Their expertise is often sought in a wide variety of administrative arenas to assist in developing industry standards, regulatory guidelines, and quality control procedures to improve manufacturing operations and products. Industrial designers are guided by a professional obligation to protect the public safety and well-being, to respect the environment, and to observe contractual and ethical business practices.
See Student Work
See more examples of student work here: Department of Industrial Design Student Work
Home stretch. You got this, designers. 📐✍️🐺
🎉🐠 Dive into the holiday season with something fin-tastic! 🐠✨ We’re celebrating 20 years of Fish Market Student Gallery! 🥂🎊
📅 Friday, December 6th
🕕 6–11 PM
📍 133 Fayetteville Street
Come explore 20 years of creative history with archived photos and an interactive gallery experience you won’t want to miss. See you there!
Design is everywhere. All you have to do is look for it. 🔎🐺
Happy #LDOC, designers!
We’re thankful for you and everything you create. Have a lovely holiday, designers. 🐺💛
Grad season is the best season — and it’s almost time for the designers of #NCState24 to join the Alumni Pack! 🐺🎓
📸 Show us how you’re celebrating commencement — from rocking your cap and gown to showing off your favorite design — by tagging @NCStateAlumni and adding the hashtag #HowlBack to your graduation photos on X and Instagram for the chance to win prizes.
To Lauren Miller, design is a deeply intentional and human-centered practice. ✍️🎞️💜
Lauren (@laurlines), has always been drawn to creative pursuits, from crafting music to exploring the art of storytelling. As an alumna of the Media Arts, Design, and Technology (MADTech) program, Lauren’s passion for empathy-driven design and storytelling has guided her work, culminating in her award-winning animated short “Touch,” which was recognized as “Best of the Fest” at Queer Expression Film Festival and “Official Selection” at Awareness Film Festival.
“I see design as crafting narratives that connect with people on a shared human experience,” she shares. As a queer woman, Lauren is especially driven to create stories that amplify underrepresented voices and reflect lived experiences not often seen in mainstream media.
“I want to create the kind of work I wish I’d seen when I was younger,” she says. Lauren credits her time at the College of Design with shaping her as both a designer and a person. The collaborative studio environment, supportive faculty, and diverse perspectives helped her discover and express her unique vision. “College is such a pivotal time for discovering who you are, and that was reflected in my design practice. It was all so intertwined,” she recalls.
Now, as she balances running a small business in Raleigh and continuing her work in animation and illustration, Lauren’s goal is simple yet profound: to bring joy and uplift people through her art. Whether it’s connecting with local communities or crafting animations that resonate on a global scale, Lauren’s work embodies the power of storytelling to inspire and connect.
Her advice to future designers? “Make each project your own—not just to solve the problem or get the grade, but to align with your goals and passion. That’s where the real growth happens.”
🌱🚜 “I wanted to help more young people think differently about agriculture. Educating them on the distinctions between being a farmer and being a farm owner, and all the responsibilities that come with land stewardship and brand building.” - Cee Stanley
Most students in Erin White‘s design thinking course, better known as D101, aren’t design majors. They come from all across campus with aspirations in marketing, computer science, horticulture, psychology, crop science and other disciplines. They’ve all made it from across @ncstate’s campus for one purpose – to solve wicked problems through design.
In the spring of 2024, White and his students collaborated with Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley of @greenheffafarm in Chatham County. Together, they spent the semester designing for challenges faced by the farm such as storage issues, workflow efficiency and social media strategy.
However, as one of the country’s few Black-woman-owned farms, Farmer Cee had the opportunity to help students navigate the intricacies of designing for her unique brand, as well as her values of environmental stewardship, equity and wellness.
Learn more about how the hands-on experience gave students the technical knowledge to devise unique solutions, and a deeper appreciation for the complexities of running a small agricultural business with a strong ethical foundation.
📰 Full story in bio.
📸: courtesy Cee Stanley
📰 🌊 Memorializing Flooding: How a Chance Collaboration Led to a Landmark Public Art Project
In the world of design and public art, serendipity often plays a pivotal role.
This was certainly the case for a group of designers and artists who, after initially crossing paths in the College of Design, found themselves working together years later on a significant public art project in Raleigh.
Alumni William H. Dodge [M.Arch. ‘12] and Lincoln Hancock [MGD ‘10] were selected for an opportunity to design a display about the floodplain at Crabtree Creek. The resulting award-winning project, “Alluvial Decoder,” tells the story of fifty years of flooding at the site.
This project, which began as an educational initiative, ultimately evolved into a large-scale installation that engages the community on multiple levels.
Read the full story about the collaboration in our bio!
📸 Photo credits: Jordan Gray (1 and 5), Keith Isaacs (2 and 4), Negin Naseri (3)
🐺🌓🍁
We draw. We design. We draw some more. ✍️🐺
The Brian Shawcroft Prize is awarded every year to an architecture student nominated by a faculty member for their excellent hand-drawing skills. This year marks the 30th year of the competition.
Four students were awarded prizes for their work. Submissions are judged based on students’ use of hand drawing skills in the categories of the design process, documentation and analysis, and presentation.
This year, Vallery Gore [B.Arch] was awarded first prize and senior Elizabeth Elder claimed second. Caroline Coyle [B.Arch] and Debashri Kedar [M.Arch] both tied for third. Maggie Overton was awarded an honorable mention.
See the award-winning work in our bio!
Fold it, twist it, cut it, stitch it, glue it, wear it. Welcome to Constructing Relationships - the first step to great design @ncstate.💡✂️📄
This exhibition showcases the first design project freshmen tackle when joining the College of Design. Students take a subject matter that they have intimately known for their entire life: their body and their relationships with the people around them, and they make them the sites of design interventions.
Students observe and document these “sites” with intent and purpose, creating a new and deeper understanding of otherwise familiar subjects.
Methods of abstraction and translation are integral to the design process, giving students the ability to take in familiar objects, situations, and contexts and output novel and poignant design interventions.
In this assignment students create a wearable/inhabitable structure that examines how we relate to one another. The primary material of construction must be paper. The pieces should raise the viewer’s awareness of interpersonal relationships in profound and nuanced ways.
How students choose to highlight concepts on connection/ interaction/similarity vs difference/ interdependence depends a great deal on what aspects they deem important and what they would like to communicate to you, their audience.
To conceive, develop, and materialize this project students have worked in groups of 2-3 over 4 1/2 weeks. Their concepts grew from the unique attributes of their group and their relationships, the context they find themselves in (i.e. joining a new community here at the College of Design in the midst of a society-wide loneliness epidemic), and their material research into paper.
Across this project students worked iteratively and non-linearly, exploring a variety of strategies that are commonly utilized in the design process.
Be sure to check out the exhibition in Brooks Hall whenever you’re on campus to get the full experience!
Designers aren’t *that* scary. Right?
Happy Halloween! 🐈⬛🎃🕯️