courses 267
develops students’ designing and process skills. Stu-
dents will decide if they wish to complete one of several
in-depth projects for the semester. They will produce
portfolio-quality appearance models and drawings. The
creative brain is like a muscle; it needs exercise to work
well. A primary goal of this course is to practice using
this resource to enhance students’ inventive, creative,
and critical thinking abilities. Students will learn and
practice some traditional and novel ideation process
“movement” techniques and apply them to creating
project-appropriate research, concepts, solutions, and
presentations. They will become more comfortable
working with design program complexity and ambiguity
and will improve their self-esteem. The course will
encourage questioning, divergent thinking, and daring.
The class will help them become better self-directed
conceptual learners and allow their left logical judging
brain and their right creative artist brain to work better
together. A designer plays in a world of information and
ideas. Collecting, organizing, understanding, manipulat-
ing, and applying the results of this play is the work.
Demonstrations, examples, and studio projects will
emphasize the duel role of sequential linear thinking as
well as non-linear thinking and how both are necessary
tools of the designer. The class syllabus will include
project defining, programming, and information gather-
ing and analysis as well as strategies using intuition,
inspiration, and other inventive stimulations. Students
will use “ideatoons” to help process a design concept
and will produce finished models and or drawings of
their projects. Prerequisites: take IND-612A.
Interdepartmental Studio
INDC-622 | 3 CR This class teams students from
Architecture, Industrial Design, Interior Design, ComD,
and other departments. Final, semester-long team proj-
ects will include the analysis and design of an imagined
or existing company as well as its products, packaging,
inventions, and interior environments. Students from
different departments will become part of a cross-
disciplined team and will develop a group-chosen
comprehensive design program for their projects,
working electronically and in studio. They will explore
different ways of thinking for product, environmental,
and graphic design, marketing and branding, and other
solutions; new presentation techniques will also be
explored. Students can take this class with permission
from the Industrial Design Department.
Design Methodology
INDC-624 | 3 CR The class will investigate creative
processes and methodologies for designing, commu-
nicating, and manufacturing products. The focus will be
on three different products through which students will
explore design considerations, and visual communica-
tion and analysis tools. The results will be implemented
in their final designs. Prerequisites: take IND-612A.
Design Strategies
INDC-626 | 3 CR This class helps students
understand: A) business bottom lines and objectives;
B) how to establish the business strategies to achieve
the bottom lines; and C) how to combine design skills
with branding/marketing tools. This class will discuss
topics such as market size, penetration rate, market
share, market segmentation, competitive analysis,
product lineup, differentiation, and design language.
The above topics will be applied to products chosen
by the instructor or individual student, which will result
in a set of marketing strategies and design skills. The
final deliverables will include marketing/branding
plans, concept sketches, presentation renderings, and
prototypes of three products chosen from their product
lineup. Prerequisites: take IND-612A.Furniture Design
INDC-628 | 3 CR This course presents several
fundamental areas of furniture design in the form of
lectures, class discussions, and studio assignments,
with the goal of exploring furniture design through
participation in a major project. This studio stresses
active education through design work and conceptual
development. Models and sketches are used to explore
design options, followed by fabrication of a full-size
working prototype. A well-considered written proposal
describing the proposed project is also required. Pre-
requisites: take IND-612A.Exhibit Design
INDC-630 | 3 CR This course explores exhibit
design as it applies to museum (institutional) and
commercial installations as a major discipline in the
arts. Students study unique expressions of content and
media that can be used to create exciting environmen-
tal spaces, focusing on the design of special places
made for the celebration of the human spirit and on
how three-dimensional design principals relate to
architectural scaled space and human behavior. Visits
to museums, commercial installations, and exhibit
manufacturers act as points of departure for the study
of contemporary space design issues, exhibit content
development, environmental graphic design, and
exhibit production techniques. The semester concludes
with a team-based project guided by a sponsor from
a museum of commercial organization. Prerequisites:
take IND-612A.Tabletop Design
INDC-632 | 3 CR Students research the cuisine of
a country other than their own and choose a specific
location in New York where a restaurant would be
opened serving the students ethnic choice. The
interior concept is presented in written form, based
on researching the cultural and social aspects of food
preparation and consumption in and outside the home,
its icons, colors, and visual language, geography and
climate, history and economic and political structure.
With this information students design six tabletop
pieces for their restaurant, considering function,
aesthetics of the tabletop landscape, and the cultural
relationship to the venue. Finally, a record of the pro-
cess, developmental sketches, mechanical drawings,
computer renderings, and the research are assembled
into a book, presented along with the six finished
models. Prerequisites: take IND-612A.INT/Interior Design
NEOCON Intensive (Chicago)
INT-501 | 3 CR This course begins with a three-
hour lecture/orientation session at Pratt. Students then
spend seven days in Chicago at NEOCON, the contract
design industry’s most important event, where new
furniture and products are exhibited. During this time,
students will meet and hear some of the world’s top
designers discuss their work. The week culminates with
tours of Chicago’s architecture and interiors, and the
buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright. A three-hour session at
Pratt concludes the course.Furniture Design
INT-517 | 2 CR This is an introduction to the con-
cepts, functions, materials, and construction techniques
of furniture design. It also is a review of design theory
development in two- and three-dimensional forms of
a basic furniture concept or design. Lectures and field
trips prepare students to solve furniture design prob-
lems in drawing and model techniques.Lighting Design II
INT-522 | 2 CR This course covers additional areas
and topics not included in the basic lighting design
course. Emphasis will be on designing illumination for
complex project types, including analysis of lighting
criteria, development of design concepts, and complete
documentation requirements. This course is designed
for the student who wants to utilize light as a major fea-
ture of their design projects and requires more in-depth
information and understanding.