The goal of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Product Design is to train professional-level product designers to enter professional practice as industrial designers and to be creative problem solvers with an integrated skill set of researching, rapid ideation, model making/prototyping, computer-aided design, and professional presentation.

The overall curricular structure is best described as a tree. The central trunk consists of a series of design studios (Product I–V) and covers everything from technical issues (Product Design I: Materials and Techniques) to conceptual issues (Product Design II: Design Paradigms and Product Design II: Product Semantics), with an emphasis on interacting with industry or real-world problems in Product IV and V. Branching off from this core series of design studios is a series dealing with technical issues: three computer-aided design courses, technical illustration, a manufacturing course, and a course devoted to ergonomics and form. The other branch is devoted to capstone issues like portfolio, professional practices, internships, presentation techniques, and a year-long thesis project. Students are given the opportunity to explore their personal interests through four product design electives dispersed throughout the program.

The student experiences range from blue-sky conceptual exploration to very critical issues requiring sophisticated research to propose realistic solutions to actual problems. Students engage in social, cultural, and economic issues in the various projects they undertake over the course of their study.

Students enter the world as in-house designers working for manufacturers, consultant designers dealing with a range of clients, or as freelance consultants or entrepreneurs developing and licensing their own products or services.

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