UIC Bachelor Design (BDes)
in Industrial Design

The UIC BDes is an intensive four-year degree program that provides a professional education centered on a specific design practice. Balancing the practical and the visionary, the UIC BDes focuses on the expertise of design making as it seeks to advance the strategic role of skilled designers through design thinking. Deeply engaged in the human experience and grounded in studio culture, undergraduate students are taught to  engage with Industrial Design as a creative discipline that makes ideas tangible and as a complex practice that involves conceptual and material articulation of objects and processes.

Felicia Ferrone currently serves as Director of the Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design. 

Undergraduate Course Development

DES 230 Industrial Design II

This studio furthers the knowledge of the design process through focused exercises emphasizing formal aspects of design, product semantics, and understanding design through making and specific fabrication materials and methods. This studio focuses on the object itself: What does it do? What does it communicate? How do objects convey ideas? The shape, volume, surface, and color of an object constitute its overall visual aesthetic and can communicate its use, utility, significance, meaning, and value. Studio projects focus heavily on the analysis, study, exploration, and refinement of 3D form, and engage students in a variety of methods for producing iterative 2D and 3D study models and prototypes. In parallel to this practical work, students are introduced to relevant theoretical approaches through reading and group discussions.

DES 318 Typography III: Dimension

This course is the third in a required disciplinary sequence for graphic design students. It explores physical dimensions of typography as a medium and resource for graphic design applications. Three dimensional objects and environments are constructed, then translated into two dimensions.

Felicia Ferrone was invited by the Director to work in collaboration with Sharon Oiga, Professor of Graphic Design, to advance the unique material-based components of Type III. The resulting interdisciplinary approach integrates advanced 2D and 3D design methods. The students employ both analog and digital methods for design development in the classroom and in the Fabrication Laboratories, which include laser cutting and 3D printing technologies. The course culminates with a student-designed exhibition.

Work by Undergraduate Students