Department Blog

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

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Guest Lecture Video: Cliff Kuang
Lectures Allan Chochinov Lectures Allan Chochinov

Guest Lecture Video: Cliff Kuang

Cliff is a user-experience designer at Google and author of ‘User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play’ which was called a “tour de force” by the New York Times and was also named an Amazon Best Book of 2019. Previously, he was head of UX and product at Fast Company; the founder of Fast Company’s design site, Co.Design; and an editor at Wired. Under his leadership, Co.Design became an award-winning source of insight and inspiration for a generation of designers.

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"Designer Pictionary" with Adam Fujita!
Events Allan Chochinov Events Allan Chochinov

"Designer Pictionary" with Adam Fujita!

PoD alumn Adam Fujita has been experimenting with his Drawing Design course as part of the first-year, first-semester curriculum. Two days ago, Adam tried an experiment—a “Designer Pictionary” as he called it—and the results were wonderful (and raucous!) Here is Adam’s description, along with a handful of snapshots.

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Announcing 10NTH: MFA Products of Design Thesis Presentations are May 5th!
Events, News Allan Chochinov Events, News Allan Chochinov

Announcing 10NTH: MFA Products of Design Thesis Presentations are May 5th!

We invite you to attend the 10th Annual Master’s Thesis Presentations—of the 2023 graduating class of the MFA in Products of Design program—live at the SVA Theatre on Friday, May 5th from 1:00pm - 6:00pm (EDT, GMT-4). Fourteen graduating master’s students will each present their year-long thesis work, comprised of research, artifacts, services, experiences, and platforms.

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Guest Lecture Video: Cameron Tonkinwise
Lectures Allan Chochinov Lectures Allan Chochinov

Guest Lecture Video: Cameron Tonkinwise

To kick off our Spring Lecture series for 2023, Products of Design was delighted to welcome Cameron Tonkinwise, who gives an annual lecture to our students and guests. This year's lecture is entitled "All Care, No Responsibility: Everything Service Designers Need to Know About Politics But Were Afraid to Ask."

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Guest Lecture Video: Chloé Cooper Jones
Lectures Allan Chochinov Lectures Allan Chochinov

Guest Lecture Video: Chloé Cooper Jones

Chloé Cooper Jones is a writer based in New York City. In 2020, Chloé was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in Feature Writing for “Fearing for His Life,” a profile of Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed the killing of Eric Garner. She was the recipient of the 2020 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant and the 2021 Howard Foundation Grant from Brown University. Both grants supported her latest book, Easy Beauty, a memoir which finds the author—after unexpectedly becoming a mother—embarking on a journey across the globe to reclaim the spaces, both physical and emotional, that she’d been denied and denied herself.

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What is an Interaction Designer?
Allan Chochinov Allan Chochinov

What is an Interaction Designer?

Interaction designers create the user's experience with a product—for example, interaction design principles apply to building digital interfaces, as designers must focus on improving how individuals engage with technology. Interaction designers work with the appearance and functionality of an application or software to get users to respond in a certain way—subscribing, signing up for an account, or posting on the platform, to name a few.

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What is a Social Innovation Designer?
Allan Chochinov Allan Chochinov

What is a Social Innovation Designer?

Social innovation design is still developing as a field, but the concept isn't new. Like interaction design, social innovation looks at what drives human behavior and how these drives interact with one another. It's about using these interactions to draw meaning and create designs that attract and impact the social climate.

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