Department Blog

Department news, events, and snapshots of student life at SVA in New York City.

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4 New MoMA Products Will Debut in 2018!
News Allan Chochinov News Allan Chochinov

4 New MoMA Products Will Debut in 2018!

Visual Arts Press has just published a feature on the 5 next products to be manufactured and sold by the Museum of Modern Arts Wholesale Division. Now in its 4th year of the partnership, the MFA Products of Design students design products for inclusion in the museums revered catalog—now 6 in all!—selling all over the world. Enjoy these spreads from VAP! In addition to Products of Design graduates Panisa Khumpresert and Oscar de la Hera Gomez, new products debuting next month have been designed by Class of 2017 Alexa Fourney, Josh Corn, and Oscar Pipson!

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A Conversation With Jessica Helfand
Lectures Allan Chochinov Lectures Allan Chochinov

A Conversation With Jessica Helfand

Products of Design welcomed Jessica Helfand—co-founder of Design Observer and Yale Lecturer in Design and Management—as a guest speaker this past Thursday. Rather than lecturing from a podium, she gave symposium-style comments on the state of design, followed by an informal and wide ranging question and answer session, as well as a reading from her new book, Design: The Invention of Desire.

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Enter the Open House Design Challenge 2017!
Events, News Allan Chochinov Events, News Allan Chochinov

Enter the Open House Design Challenge 2017!

We know that lots of you want to come to New York City to attend our November 10th Open House and Info Session, but we also know getting here can be a major expense. So today we’re proud to announce our first-ever “Open House Design Challenge”—a chance to help you out with airfare to New York City, expert portfolio reviews and application coaching from esteemed faculty, along with other surprises while you’re here!

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JUSTICE BY ALL: Revitalizing Civic Engagement in the Judicial System
Student Projects Krithi Rao Student Projects Krithi Rao

JUSTICE BY ALL: Revitalizing Civic Engagement in the Judicial System

Julia Lindpaintner’s thesis work was inspired by her own experience of serving on a grand jury in Manhattan during the summer of 2016. It profoundly changed her understanding of the judicial system, and in particular, the way she saw her role in it. “My mental model shifted,” Julia states. She further explains, “Instead of seeing the judicial system as an autonomous force over which I had no influence, I felt viscerally the way in which we, as citizens, are collectively responsible for the system and the outcomes it produces.”

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SOUL'D: Exploring the Commodification and Appropriation of Black Cool
Student work, Thesis Krithi Rao Student work, Thesis Krithi Rao

SOUL'D: Exploring the Commodification and Appropriation of Black Cool

Hip-hop, basketball and street fashion formed the three pillars of cool for Oscar when he was a child. Common to all these phenomena was the ultimate commodified object of cool—the sneaker. And he loved sneakers. So, it is of no surprise that Oscar’s earliest memory of being or looking cool was attributed to a pair of Nike Air Jordan XI. This childhood photo of him with the Nike Swoosh shaved and dyed into the back of his head can attest to that.

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INSTIGATIONISM: Inciting Activity in a Sedentary Population
Thesis, Student Projects Krithi Rao Thesis, Student Projects Krithi Rao

INSTIGATIONISM: Inciting Activity in a Sedentary Population

Michael Lee Kenney’s master’s thesis Instigationism is built on a foundation of design work that is intended to incite physical activity in sedentary populations. By combining research insights from the fields of psychology, game design, behavioral economics, and immersive media, Kenney pushes us to reexamine our relationship with exercise.

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PYGMALION: Creating systems to empower people with social anxiety disorder
Student work, Thesis Krithi Rao Student work, Thesis Krithi Rao

PYGMALION: Creating systems to empower people with social anxiety disorder

Dayoung’s thesis, Pygmalion, is about creating systems to empower people with social anxiety disorder. She aims to create the Pygmalion effect—also known as the “self-fulfilling prophecy”—to help people with social anxiety. The Pygmalion effect, named after an Ancient Greek myth of a sculptor falling in love with his own works that comes to life, is the phenomenon whereby high expectations and attentions positively affect the outcome of performance.

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