Disruptive Design Summer Class

This six week evening course uses the concept of informal economies as a sandbox for urban innovations. The most transformative new ideas often come from the economic fringes. In this course, students gain a macro perspective in informal economies, learn their properties and principles, study models of urban economic development and innovation accelerators, and experience using ethnographic research methods to identify unique cultural practices in New York City. Sign up here. 

DSI is the first MFA program to prepare graduates to use design for social innovation. While ours is far beyond the traditional definition of design, it is proving to be of interest to pioneering designers and non-designers alike who see the potential to use the design process and methodologies to engage people in co-creating their own new future. We focus on changing human systems instead of physical ones, working on the invisible beliefs and potential within organizations, communities and individuals, exploding traditional definitions of design, and working at great scale. Learn more.