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Requirements

Industrial design programs Visual Communication design programs Collaborative Innovation Minor

Industrial design programs

B.A. in Design, Industrial Design Concentration B.A. Professional Track in Design, Industrial Design Concentration BFA in Design, Industrial Design Concentration

Bachelor of Arts, design — industrial design concentration

Design student working on design project in West Lake Hall.

The Bachelor of Arts degree program in industrial design is defined as a general liberal arts degree. The B.A. degree is ideal for the student who desires a liberal arts education with a strong emphasis in industrial design. Students enrolling in the B.A. degree program are required to complete a three-course core curriculum during their first three semesters. These courses are Design Matters, 2-D Foundations, and Rapid Ideation and Visualization.

The B.A. degree consists of 12 courses or 36 hours with 27 hours (9 courses) in design, 6 hours (2 courses) in studio art and 3 hours (1 course) in critical studies.

Requirements vary slightly for students who enrolled in Notre Dame prior to fall 2018. Please contact the DUS for details.

Course requirements (12 courses/36 hours)

  • 3 Design Fundamental Courses (co-reqs)
    • Design Matters
    • 2D Foundations
    • Rapid Ideation & Visualization
  • 4 Design Studio Courses
    • ID 1: ID Process & Prototyping
    • Digital Modeling
    • ID 2: Human Centered Design
    • ID 3: Advanced Product Development
  • 4 Supplemental Studio Courses
    • Digital Visualization
    • Design Research
    • Design Elective (select from options below)
      • ID 4: Design Strategy & User Experience
      • ID 5: Professional Practices
      • Service Design
      • Sustainability of Designed Objects
      • Introduction to Visual Communication Design
      • Interaction Design
    • Studio Art Elective (any ARST course)
  • 1 Critical Studies Course (select from options below)
    • ARHI XXXX–Any art history course
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • AMST 30105–Sustainable America
    • AMST 30150–Decolonizing Gaming: Critical Engagement through Design
    • AMST 30183–Applied Multimedia Through Journalism
    • ANTH 10210–The Anthropology of Your Stuff
    • ANTH 33210–The Anthropology of Everyday Life
    • ANTH 33208– Global Visual Culture
    • ENGL 40196–Theories of Media and Technology
    • HIST 30644–Consuming America
    • HIST 30616–History of American Capitalism
    • CSEM 23101–Objects Matter: The Power, Politics, and Promise of Things

Download the ID - B. A. Curriculum (enrolled 2024 and beyond)
Download the ID - B.A. Curriculum/Suggested Schedule (enrolled 2019–2023)

Bachelor of Arts Professional Track, design — industrial design concentration

With similar requirements to the general B.A. degree, the Bachelor of Arts–Professional Track in industrial design is a liberal arts degree comprised of 48 credit hours. The curriculum focuses on helping students build their portfolio in pursuit of a design position immediately after graduation.

Course requirements (16 courses, 48 hours)

  • 3 Design Fundamental Courses (co-reqs)
    • Design Matters
    • 2D Foundations
    • Rapid Ideation & Visualization
  • 6 Design Studio Courses
    • ID 1: ID Process & Prototyping
    • Digital Modeling
    • ID 2: Human Centered Design
    • ID 3: Advanced Product Development
    • ID 4: Design Strategy & User Experience
    • ID 5: Professional Practices
  • 6 Supplemental Studio Courses
    • Digital Visualization
    • Design Research
    • Sustainability of Designed Objects
    • 2 Design Electives (select from options below)
      • Service Design
      • Introduction to Visual Communication Design
      • Interaction Design
      • Motion Design
      • Community-Based Design
      • Packaging Design
    • Studio Art Elective (any ARST course)
  • 1 Critical Studies Course (select from options below)
    • ARHI XXXX–Any art history course
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • AMST 30105–Sustainable America
    • AMST 30150–Decolonizing Gaming: Critical Engagement through Design
    • AMST 30183–Applied Multimedia Through Journalism
    • ANTH 10210–The Anthropology of Your Stuff
    • ANTH 33210–The Anthropology of Everyday Life
    • ANTH 33208– Global Visual Culture
    • ENGL 40196–Theories of Media and Technology
    • HIST 30644–Consuming America
    • HIST 30616–History of American Capitalism
    • CSEM 23101–Objects Matter: The Power, Politics, and Promise of Things


Download the ID -  B.A.P. Curriculum (enrolled 2024 and beyond)
Download the ID - B.A. Honors Curriculum/Suggested Schedule (enrolled 2019–2023)

Bachelor of Fine Arts, design — industrial design concentration

BFA freshman and sophomore years

Jim Rudolph Teaching Industrial Design Students

Students beginning the program must complete a three-course studio core curriculum during their first year.

Three design fundamental courses:

  • Design Matters
  • 2-D Foundations
  • Rapid Visualization & Ideation

This intensive curriculum establishes a base for the design practices and principles for all visual art expression. At the end of the fourth semester, students who have earned a minimum 3.25 grade point average in their design and studio courses will be accepted as candidates for the BFA degree. Students who do not qualify are eligible for the B.A. degree.

BFA junior and senior years

By the beginning of junior year, BFA candidates must have completed the majority of the program's core requirements while maintaining the minimum grade point average of 3.25 in all art department courses. Each semester, the entire studio and design faculty reviews all BFA students' work, and thesis directors share the feedback with their advisees.

Seniors meet regularly with their thesis director throughout the year and enroll in the BFA Thesis-Product Design for the fall and spring semesters. Each student is required to write a design statement on his or her thesis project. The thesis project is exhibited in the AAHD Gallery (214 Riley Hall). Each student has a thesis defense with the entire studio/design faculty and a vote is taken on whether the thesis project passes.

Full BFA requirements  (22 courses, 66 hours)

  • 3 Design Fundamental Courses (co-reqs)
    • Design Matters
    • 2D Foundations
    • Rapid Ideation & Visualization
  • 6 Design Studio Courses
    • ID 1: ID Process & Prototyping
    • Digital Modeling
    • ID 2: Human Centered Design
    • ID 3: Advanced Product Development
    • ID 4: Design Strategy & User Experience
    • ID 5: Professional Practices
  • 9 Supplemental Studio Courses
    • Digital Visualization
    • Design Research
    • Sustainability of Designed Objects
    • Service Design or Interaction Design
    • 3 Design Electives (select from options below)
      • Service Design
      • Introduction to Visual Communication Design
      • Interaction Design
      • Motion Design
      • Community-Based Design
      • Packaging Design
    • 2 Studio Art Electives (any ARST course)
  • 2 Critical Studies Courses (select from options below)
    • ARHI XXXX–Any art history course
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • AMST 30105–Sustainable America
    • AMST 30150–Decolonizing Gaming: Critical Engagement through Design
    • AMST 30183–Applied Multimedia Through Journalism
    • ANTH 10210–The Anthropology of Your Stuff
    • ANTH 33210–The Anthropology of Everyday Life
    • ANTH 33208– Global Visual Culture
    • ENGL 40196–Theories of Media and Technology
    • HIST 30644–Consuming America
    • HIST 30616–History of American Capitalism
    • CSEM 23101–Objects Matter: The Power, Politics, and Promise of Things
  • 2 Thesis Courses
    • BFA Thesis–Product Design (fall)
    • BFA Thesis–Product Design (spring)

Download the ID - B.F.A. Curriculum (enrolled 2024 and beyond)
Download the ID - B.F.A. Curriculum/Suggested Schedule (enrolled 2019–2023)

Download the BFA Handbook

Visual communication design programs

B.A. in Design, Visual Communication Design Concentration B.A. Professional Track in Design, Visual Communication Design Concentration BFA in Design, Visual Communication Design Concentration

Bachelor of Arts, design — visual communication design concentration

Julianna Meyer Ba 22 Design Work Vcd 4
Visual communication design project by Julianna Meyer, '22

The Bachelor of Arts degree program in visual communication design is defined as a general liberal arts degree. The B.A. degree is ideal for the student who desires a liberal arts education with a strong emphasis in visual communication design. Students enrolling in the B.A. degree program are required to complete a three-course core curriculum during their first year. These courses are Design Matters, 2-D Foundations, Rapid Ideation & Visualiation (or Drawing I).

The B.A. degree consists of 12 courses or 36 hours with 27 hours (9 courses) in design, 6 hours (2 courses) in studio art and 3 hours (1 course) in critical studies.

Course requirements (12 courses, 36 hours)

  • 3 Design Fundamental Courses (co-reqs)
    • Design Matters
    • 2D Foundations
    • Rapid Ideation & Visualization OR Drawing I
  • 4 Design Studio Courses
    • Introduction to Visual Communication Design
    • Typography
    • Visual Communication Design Studio
    • Brand & Identity Systems
  • 4 Supplemental Studio Courses
    • 3 Design Electives (select from options below)
      • UI/UX Design
      • Motion Design
      • Interaction Design
      • Community-Based Design
      • Packaging Design
      • Rapid Ideation & Visualization
      • Digital Modeling
      • Design Research
      • Service Design
      • Professional Practices
      • Sustainability of Designed Objects
    • Studio Art Elective (any ARST course)
  • 1 Critical Studies Course (select from options below)
    • ARHI XXXX–Any art history course
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • AMST 30105–Sustainable America
    • AMST 30150–Decolonizing Gaming: Critical Engagement through Design
    • AMST 30183–Applied Multimedia Through Journalism
    • ANTH 10210–The Anthropology of Your Stuff
    • ANTH 33210–The Anthropology of Everyday Life
    • ANTH 33208– Global Visual Culture
    • ENGL 40196–Theories of Media and Technology
    • HIST 30644–Consuming America
    • HIST 30616–History of American Capitalism
    • CSEM 23101–Objects Matter: The Power, Politics, and Promise of Things

Download the VCD - B.A. Curriculum (enrolled 2024 and beyond)
Download the VCD - B.A. Curriculum/Suggested Schedule (enrolled 2019–2023)

Bachelor of Arts Professional Track, design — visual communication design concentration

With similar requirements to the general B.A. degree, the Bachelor of Arts–Professional Track in visual communication design is a liberal arts degree comprised of 48 credit hours. The curriculum focuses on helping students build their portfolio in pursuit of a design position immediately after graduation.

Course requirements (16 courses, 38 hours)

  • 3 Design Fundamental Courses (co-reqs)
    • Design Matters
    • 2D Foundations
    • Rapid Ideation & Visualization OR Drawing I
  • 6 Design Studio Courses
    • Introduction to Visual Communication Design
    • Typography
    • Visual Communication Design Studio
    • Brand & Identity Systems
    • UI/UX Design
    • Professional Practices
  • 6 Supplemental Studio Courses
    • 5 Design Electives (select from options below)
      • Motion Design
      • Interaction Design
      • Community-Based Design
      • Packaging Design
      • Rapid Ideation & Visualization
      • Digital Modeling
      • Design Research
      • Service Design
      • Sustainability of Designed Objects
    • Studio Art Elective (any ARST course)
  • 1 Critical Studies Course (select from options below)
    • ARHI XXXX–Any art history course
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • AMST 30105–Sustainable America
    • AMST 30150–Decolonizing Gaming: Critical Engagement through Design
    • AMST 30183–Applied Multimedia Through Journalism
    • ANTH 10210–The Anthropology of Your Stuff
    • ANTH 33210–The Anthropology of Everyday Life
    • ANTH 33208– Global Visual Culture
    • ENGL 40196–Theories of Media and Technology
    • HIST 30644–Consuming America
    • HIST 30616–History of American Capitalism
    • CSEM 23101–Objects Matter: The Power, Politics, and Promise of Things

Download the VCD - B.A.P. Curriculum (enrolled 2024 and beyond)
Download the VCD - B.A. Honors Curriculum/Suggested Schedule (enrolled 2019-2023)

Bachelor of Fine Arts, design — visual communication design concentration

BFA freshman and sophomore years

Students beginning the program must complete a three-course studio core curriculum during their first year.

Three design fundamental courses:

  • Design Matters
  • 2-D Foundations
  • Rapid Visualization & Ideation OR Drawing I

This intensive curriculum establishes a base for the design practices and principles for all visual art expression. At the end of the fourth semester, students who have earned a minimum 3.25 grade point average in their design and studio courses will be accepted as candidates for the BFA degree. Students who do not qualify are eligible for the B.A. degree.

BFA junior and senior years

By the beginning of junior year, BFA candidates must have completed the majority of the program's core requirements while maintaining the minimum grade point average of 3.25 in all art department courses. Each semester, the entire studio and design faculty reviews all BFA students' work, and thesis directors share the feedback with their advisees.

Seniors meet regularly with their thesis director throughout the year and enroll in the VCD 15–BFA Thesis for the fall and spring semesters. Each student is required to write a design statement on his or her thesis project. The thesis project is exhibited in the AAHD Gallery (214 Riley Hall). Each student has a thesis defense with the entire studio/design faculty and a vote is taken on whether the thesis project passes.

Full BFA requirements  (22 courses, 66 hours)

  • 3 Design Fundamental Courses (co-reqs)
    • Design Matters
    • 2D Foundations
    • Rapid Ideation & Visualization OR Drawing I
  • 6 Design Studio Courses
    • Introduction to Visual Communication Design
    • Typography
    • Visual Communication Design Studio
    • Brand & Identity Systems
    • UI/UX Design
    • Professional Practices
  • 9 Supplemental Studio Courses
    • 7 Design Electives (select from options below)
      • Motion Design
      • Interaction Design
      • Community-Based Design
      • Packaging Design
      • Rapid Ideation & Visualization
      • Digital Modeling
      • Design Research
      • Service Design
      • Sustainability of Designed Objects
    • 2 Studio Art Elective (any ARST course)
  • 2 Critical Studies Course (select from options below)
    • ARHI XXXX–Any art history course
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • ARCH 43711–Figurative Design Systems
    • AMST 30105–Sustainable America
    • AMST 30150–Decolonizing Gaming: Critical Engagement through Design
    • AMST 30183–Applied Multimedia Through Journalism
    • ANTH 10210–The Anthropology of Your Stuff
    • ANTH 33210–The Anthropology of Everyday Life
    • ANTH 33208– Global Visual Culture
    • ENGL 40196–Theories of Media and Technology
    • HIST 30644–Consuming America
    • HIST 30616–History of American Capitalism
    • CSEM 23101–Objects Matter: The Power, Politics, and Promise of Things
  • 2 Thesis Courses
    • VCD 15–BFA Thesis (fall)
    • VCD 15–BFA Thesis (spring)

Download the VCD B.F.A. Curriculum (enrolled 2024 and beyond)
Download the VCD - B.F.A. Curriculum/Suggested Schedule (enrolled 2019-2023)

Download the BFA Handbook

Collaborative innovation minor

The collaborative innovation minor offers a five-course sequence starting with Design Matters, a large, introductory, lecture-based design-thinking class. Declared minors will then cycle through a series of four additional courses introducing students to the various skillsets implicated in design thinking including research methods, visualization, and entrepreneurship.

The minor culminates in the capstone course Service Design: Strategies for Social Systems, which brings students with first majors in a variety of disciplines together in fruitful collaboration with design majors to take on industry-sponsored projects addressing real-world questions. Working in teams with corporate partners, students will get a chance to solve a variety of problems—from global distribution to product innovation to community outreach.

Design thinking is a dynamic, iterative, and deeply human process that prepares students for the type of collaborative, cross-disciplinary work they will encounter after graduation—no matter what career paths they pursue. Established companies and entrepreneurs in fields as diverse as healthcare, sustainability, education, urban planning, and economic development are increasingly employing design thinking methodology to produce innovative results.
 
The gateway course, Design Matters: Introduction to Design Thinking, features a hybrid seminar format with lectures and case studies followed by hands-on exercises and practical applications of design thinking methodology in the form of team projects. Notre Dame's collaborative innovation program welcomes a broad and diverse group of students, from within the College of Arts and Letters, as well as from business, science, engineering, and architecture—all of whom play a vital role in bringing successful solutions to fruition.

Declaration of the minor requires enrollment in or completion of any design course. Students may contact the department Director of Undergraduate Studies or the Director of Collaborative Innovation Minor for information, or declare the minor in the departmental office. Design majors will not be permitted to declare a collaborative innovation minor.

Course requirements (5 courses, 15 hours)​​​​​

  1. Gateway — introduction
    DESN 20203 — Design Matters
    Introduction to Design Thinking
    Articulate the tenets of the design thinking methods and apply methodologies to identify problems and develop service, product, and experience solutions
     
  2. Inspiration — research, discovery, reframing
    Select one of the following:

    DESN 20204 – Design Research: From Insight to Innovation
    Principles of user-centered research
    Overview of design research methodologies, planning strategies, interviewing, observing and participatory techniques, and data analysis and synthesis for the development of insights and implications informing the development process.

    DESN 20205 – The Anthropology of Your Stuff
    Explore the nature and breadth of peoples' relationships with their things. Learn why and how people make and use different types of objects, and how the use of these material goods resonates with peoples' identities in the past, recent history, and today. What new stuff will people invent and sell next?
     
  3. Ideation — design, brainstorming
    Select one of the following:

    DESN 20200 — Rapid Ideation and Visualization
    Principles of visual ideation
    A studio course introducing rapid sketching, rendering, and presentation techniques as a tool for development, refinement, and tangible communication of concepts, ideas, objects, and stories to others.

    DESN 20101 — Introduction to Visual Communication Design
    Principles of visual expression
    Creating, planning, and executing ideas and experiences with visual and textual content, physical or virtual, including images, words, or graphic forms.
    *Rapid Visualization is a prerequisite for ID1: Intro to Product Development and suggested for Digital Solid Modeling
    **Intro to VCD is a prerequisite for Interaction Design, Community-Based Design, and Information Design
     
  4. Implementation — prototyping, delivery
    Select one of the following:

    DESN 20201 — ID1: Industrial Design Process and Prototyping
    Forms & Physical Model Development

    DESN 30209 — Digital Modeling: 3D Form and Fabrication
    3D CAD Modeling and Rapid Prototyping

    DESN 40121 — Interaction Design
    User Interface and Interaction

    DESN 40100 — Community-Based Design
    Visual communication for change


    DESN 30120 — Information Design
    How data is used to tell a story

  5. Capstone — Putting it all together
    DESN 40201 — Service Design: Strategies for Social Systems
    Cross-disciplinary problem solving
    Industry-sponsored design briefs to challenge interdisciplinary teams to deploy design thinking for successful innovation and implementation.