Design and Innovation at MICA

Apply Now Visit MICA Request Info Connect Explore

Design & Innovation (Major)

Design touches everything — and its ability to solve complex problems has never been more relevant.

It brings together areas of objects, spaces, visuals, and systems to shape how we design experiences and signal intentions in the world around us.

As a Design and Innovation major at MICA, you’ll build essential design skills, learning to think across disciplines through a focused yet flexible curriculum with tailored tracks in Graphic Design, Product Design, and Architectural Design. Along the way, you’ll explore big ideas like sustainability, entrepreneurship, and design for social good while working on hands-on projects with community and industry partners.

You’ll graduate as a confident, adaptable designer — ready for today’s creative careers and tomorrow’s emerging ones.

personalize your degree

Build Your Own Creative Blueprint

As a Design + Innovation major, you’ll start with a strong foundation in design thinking and creative problem-solving. From there, you can choose a focused track:

You can pursue a co-major in a number of specialized areas.
Or you can follow a transdisciplinary path that combines multiple areas of interest, allowing you to explore how different subjects and mediums connect.

Either way, you’ll apply what you learn to real-world projects with industry partners and community organizations. This hands-on approach will help you build a creative practice grounded in collaboration, impact, and innovation.

Co-majors for Design and Innovation

Co-majors provide additional depth in a specialized area without the full credit load of a double major. You can pursue a co-major in:

Architectural Design

Graphic Design

Product Design

WHY DESIGN AND INNOVATION AT MICA?

Choose Your Path

The BFA in Design + Innovation prepares students to navigate complexity, collaborate across boundaries, and invent new pathways forward. With a flexible curriculum and multiple focused tracks to choose from, you can tailor your degree to your creative goals and interests.

Learn by Doing

You’ll engage with real-world design problems through project-based learning with industry partners, nonprofits, and community organizations. These practical experiences connect your creative work to real impact — and help you develop a client-ready portfolio.

Develop In-Demand Skills

Employers today see value in hiring designers who can think creatively across multiple disciplines. The BFA in Design and Innovation allows students to build job-ready skills in a range of emerging fields, from UX and exhibit design to product development and climate-focused innovation.

Study in Cutting-Edge Facilities

You’ll have access to industry-standard equipment in state-of-the-art fabrication labs, including those in the Dolphin Design Center and Mount Royal Station. Facilities include laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC routers, 3D scanners, and a suite of tools for wood, plastic, and metal fabrication.

Benefit From MICA’s Design Legacy

The BFA in Design and Innovation builds on MICA’s decades-long legacy of educating leaders in Graphic Design, Product Design, and Architectural Design. This new major draws on that expertise to offer a transdisciplinary education — one that’s rooted in our strengths and designed for the future.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Kristian Bjørnard ’09

“MICA has a special atmosphere that fosters creativity and personal transformation. Students actively use design for cognitive inquiry and self-expression with an awareness of how politics, economics, and social systems relate to their work.”

Benjamin Luzzatto

Ben is the Department Chair for Material and Sculptural Studies, including Architectural Design. As an interdisciplinary artist, his work includes sculpture, architecture, engineering, and object design. His pedagogy is informed by his writing on the philosophy of language. Intimate relationships with timeless, natural systems and individual agency in the face of larger existential threats, like climate change, are at the center of Ben’s practice.

Michael Maggio

Michael serves as Area Head of Architectural Design at MICA. A part of Ralph Appelbaum Associates since 2004, he directs and manages national and international cultural and corporate center projects. Michael is currently directing the design effort for the Orientalist Museum, in Doha, Qatar, and the National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland.

Karl Williamson

Karl serves as Area Head of MICA’s Product Design program. In his teaching, Karl supports developing designers engaging in a plurality of roles that product design students may find themselves; from consumer products to speculative futures, responsible user-centered design to experimental work with materials and process.

GET IN TOUCH
Connect with an Admission Counselor

As one of the most influential art and design hubs in the U.S., MICA immerses you in a vibrant, supportive community. You’ll learn from expert faculty, collaborate with peers, and hone your skills in state-of-the-art facilities, preparing you to thrive in the creative economy — and shape what’s next.

Have questions or want to learn more?
Connect with an admission counselor here.