This advanced studio is a collaborative partnership with the furniture brand Blu Dot. Drawing from Blu Dot’s archives, the course invites students to engage deeply with the brand’s design ethos–clarity, accessibility, and formal innovation–while proposing new work that extends or challenges these principles. Using Blu Dot’s iconic 2D3D Collection as precedent and prompt, students will examine the translation between two-dimensional form and three-dimensional object, exploring structure and fabrication as generative design strategies. Investigations into flatness, line, volume, the history of DIY furniture, and the expressive potential of minimal means will be integral to course content.

Over the course of the semester, students will work with Blu Dot’s senior creative team through critiques, presentations, and a visit to their NYC showroom, receiving direct feedback throughout the design process from the company’s Creative Director. Emphasizing rigor, experimentation, and professional-level output, the studio requires iterative prototyping, material testing, research, and critical reflection. 

This course will be of particular relevance to students interested in design for industry. Students should be prepared for a high level of intensity and independence, producing refined, exhibition-ready work that bridges conceptual inquiry with manufacturable design.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

Learn the theory of Windsor Chairs and how the use of wood in tension can create a chair like no other. This class will cover techniques necessary to the Windsor system of building while working through design decisions that will culminate in a completed chair. Students are encouraged to embrace process and parameters in a direct and hands-on manner. Through small projects, students will learn how to balance wood strength, aesthetics, joint strength and ergonomic considerations. These principles will be applied to a carefully considered, finished chair. Topics covered will include: selection of wood, turning, seat carving, complex radial layout, several types of joinery, and finish techniques.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $200.00

Elective

This course will focus on the art of upholstery design. It will teach the basics of traditional techniques and materials; cover historic influences; and explore methods used in mass production. The course will survey nontraditional materials and review unconventional methods. There will be an emphasis on ergonomics including shaping, angles, and scale and how upholstery impacts comfort. This is a hands-on class where students will gain experience applying the techniques of upholstery.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This course will focus on the art of upholstery design. It will teach the basics of traditional techniques and materials; cover historic influences; and explore methods used in mass production. The course will survey nontraditional materials and review unconventional methods. There will be an emphasis on ergonomics including shaping, angles, and scale and how upholstery impacts comfort. This is a hands-on class where students will gain experience applying the techniques of upholstery.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00

Elective

This course focuses on material and process investigations that lead to a higher degree of technical proficiency providing students with an expanded foundation on which to carry out their ideas. The content of the course emphasizes how exploration and application operate in both pragmatic and unorthodox ways and reinforces ideas of how critical making and material investigation can lead to innovation. The technical aspects of production and outsourcing will also be examined.

Estimated Materials Cost: $150.00

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course concentrates on the exploration of personal design aesthetics and the development of furniture projects that exhibit a high degree of technical proficiency.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course explores advanced design processes and methods of construction. The evolution of a project through a complete design process is required including conceptual and design development phases.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course concentrates on projects that begin the thesis body of work. Advanced design and technical processes are continued as part of this process.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

The graduate seminar is a forum for discussion and research outside of the studio setting. Through a series of topical investigations, lectures and presentations, students will explore current design issues, professional practices, directions, and developments within the field, and other topics that will help to formulate the basis of the graduate thesis work.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. First preference is given to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This graduate seminar is organized in parallel with the Graduate Furniture Design Thesis studio for the purpose of guiding the written thesis document. The goal is to provide students with a focused opportunity to map their thesis projects and to create the document that supports their studio practice and body of work known as the thesis.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This course culminates the completion of the thesis body of works and accompanying written document.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | MFA Furniture Design

This studio course introduces materials commonly used in furniture making and the foundation skills necessary to integrate them into furniture. Emphasis is on techniques, structures and materials properties. These are integrated with theoretical exercises that focus on design.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This studio course introduces materials commonly used in furniture making and the foundation skills necessary to integrate them into furniture. Emphasis is on techniques, structures and materials properties. These are integrated with theoretical exercises that focus on design.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This sophomore studio expands basic principles of furniture design and material skills, exploring how the made objects interact with the human body. Intermediate skills will be demonstrated and practiced as students further explore materials and their applications in design.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This sophomore studio expands basic principles of furniture design and material skills, exploring how the made objects interact with the human body. Intermediate skills will be demonstrated and practiced as students further explore materials and their applications in design.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

CAD Fundamentals I is the first of two required courses in the Furniture Design department’s digital modeling curriculum. With its capacity for rapidly developing and realizing design concepts, 3D CAD modeling has become an indispensable part of contemporary 3D design processes. The goal of this course is for students to develop competency with CAD modeling and a heightened sensitivity to the creative potential that these tools present to designers. Work in the class will center around learning to use two widely adopted, powerful applications: Rhinoceros and Keyshot. A variety of projects will introduce students to essential techniques and knowledge in the realm of CAD modeling, including an understanding of the software’s underlying technologies. Students will develop skills required to model complex forms and to translate these digital models into lifelike renderings, specification drawings, physical models, and additional iterative design variations. This course, along with its sequel, is intended to provide students with a variety of processes and skills that will significantly contribute to their productivity and creativity as designers and makers.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

CAD Fundamentals I is the first of two required courses in the Furniture Design department’s digital modeling curriculum. With its capacity for rapidly developing and realizing design concepts, 3D CAD modeling has become an indispensable part of contemporary 3D design processes. The goal of this course is for students to develop competency with CAD modeling and a heightened sensitivity to the creative potential that these tools present to designers. Work in the class will center around learning to use two widely adopted, powerful applications: Rhinoceros and Keyshot. A variety of projects will introduce students to essential techniques and knowledge in the realm of CAD modeling, including an understanding of the software’s underlying technologies. Students will develop skills required to model complex forms and to translate these digital models into lifelike renderings, specification drawings, physical models, and additional iterative design variations. This course, along with its sequel, is intended to provide students with a variety of processes and skills that will significantly contribute to their productivity and creativity as designers and makers.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This course continues drawing and concept development techniques, sketching with three-dimensional models, mock-ups and prototypes. Working in several scales and levels of articulation, students will expand pre-visualization and detailing skills. Basics of 3-D computer simulation will also be introduced.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

This course continues drawing and concept development techniques, sketching with three-dimensional models, mock-ups and prototypes. Working in several scales and levels of articulation, students will expand pre-visualization and detailing skills. Basics of 3-D computer simulation will also be introduced.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Sophomore Furniture Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design

The junior studio expands and interprets the skills and concepts introduced in the sophomore studios. The primary focus of the semester is an experimentally based investigation of bending and forming techniques - molded plywood, bent lamination, steam bending, and vacuum-formed plastic. While focused on the use of wood and plastic materials, an experimental approach is expected in the studio. Students are encouraged to conceptually explore skills and materials to develop a personal design approach and studio practice. The semester culminates in a final design, in which students utilize learned techniques to create one-offs, objects intended for batch production or prototypes designed for production.

Prerequisite: FD-2502

Major Requirement | BFA Furniture Design