The Class of 2028 is Bringing Back Books

Early this September, the MFA Products of Design department welcomed its newest cohort. Coming from a variety of academic and professional disciplines - including architecture, design, business, and engineering - these students join the department with a common goal to expand their product design practice over the next two years.

Class of 2028 at the Digital Imaging Center

As first-years embark upon their graduate journey, the Products of Design program is beginning an exciting evolution of its own through the launch of a new curriculum. The updated course track builds on the strength of existing courses while placing greater emphasis on physical products and handmaking. Additionally, the new curriculum integrates thesis planning into the very first semester, allowing students to further develop, iterate, and polish their ideas within their next two years of study.

The class of 2028 wasted no time adopting the new curriculum. On the second day of first-year orientation, students continued to get to know peers, faculty, and staff while participating in a bookmaking workshop at SVA’s Digital Imaging Center. Here, they designed and printed original book covers and learned how to use the perfect-binding method to create their own personal sketchbooks.

While the art of bookmaking may not be an obvious skill for a product designer to possess, it reflects updates to the PoD curriculum as well as the department's broader efforts to help designers reconnect with analog practices. As the world has become increasingly digital, many design programs- including PoD- have moved away from the production of physical thesis books. After several years without thesis books in the PoD program, the department has decided to bring them back. With this bookmaking workshop as the cohort’s first step in producing hand-bound thesis books, they will continue to document, write, and design over the next two years. ​

We look forward to seeing what the Class of 2028 creates!