/ Majors / Industrial Design
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Major Industrial Design

I visualize and execute designs for the most essential products that all of us use every day.

TACKLE COMPLEX PROBLEMS

Industrial designers create consumer products. You’ll blend your love of art, business and problem solving to create products that are user-friendly, beautiful and sustainable. Think cars, furniture, appliances, medical devices and more.

Why ID at CIA?

Focus your career and education on meeting the ever-changing needs of transportation companies. You will work with designers directly from GM, Stellantis and other manufacturers through sponsored projects.

As a transportation designer, you can specialize in exteriors, interiors, lighting, clay modeling and more. As new technology creates new possibilities, designers of all kinds will be called upon to rethink how exterior and interior spaces are used.

This week-long event is a celebration of your hard work. You’ll have a chance to showcase your latest and greatest work. At the core, you’ll network with a wide variety of professional designers looking to hire and gain constructive feedback from professionals in the field.

You’ll focus on research, conceptualization, and refinement. This approach provides you with a strong understanding of the innovation process, users, market forces, manufacturing, sustainability, and business practices. You will also learn the skills to develop and communicate your ideas through drawing, modeling, and computer-aided design.

Explore the full curriculum

Professor Dan Cuffaro is working with a student in their individual studio.

m.power Project

You’ll be empowered to design a product in the fall and launch a crowdfunding campaign in the spring. Throughout this two semester senior project, you will learn about marketing, building a potential customer base, budgeting and costs and filing for a provisional patent. You will gain experience at all parts throughout the product design process.

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Student Experience

Studying design has been revolutionary for me. We are not just learning how to design products but learning how to change the way we think about the world around us, learning how to be a designer in every aspect of our lives and positively impact the world at large. Because of Industrial Design I love coming to school every day.

— Josh Litton ’26

CIA Design gives me the opportunity to work with real world professionals on a weekly basis, something that is an incredible opportunity and paramount to student success.”

— Agent Dunstone '25

One of my favorite parts about CIA is having such a diverse group people with different skills, ideas and perspectives. Being in one building, working together and collaborating has been my favorite.

— Cordelia Wright '24

Cassandra Cebull ’22 is an Associate Designer at iDesign, a housewares design company started and based in Solon, OH. 

Jason Taft ’20 is a design researcher at Sylver Consulting, an international innovation, research and strategy firm.

Quan Jasinski ’09 is the Senior Designer, Surface Color Material (CMF) Portfolio Strategy & Brand at Microsoft. 

Madeline Hoyle ’09 is the Senior Lead of User Experience Design at Thunder::Tech. She was the lead UX designer for this website.

Michel Alverez ’05 is the Design Sr. Manager for Gatorade. He works on the Gatorade Athletic Equipment team.

Ryan Nagode ’03 is the Vice President – Head of Interior Design at Stellantis. He leads the interior design direction for Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram Truck and Wagoneer by Jeep brand vehicles.

Irina Zavatski ’01 is the Vice President of Chrysler Design with Stellantis.

MEET FACULTY

Dan Cuffaro

Dan Cuffaro

Associate Professor

Dan Cuffaro is a designer, educator, and entrepreneur. He consults in the area of industrial design, design strategy and user experience, and is an expert witness in IP litigation. He…

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Jason Tilk

Professor of Practice

Jason Tilk is a passionately creative, multi-talented, educator, designer, and leader listed as inventor on 66 patents and counting. Focusing on team driven work to lead the process of innovation,…

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Carla Blackman headshot.

Carla J. Blackman

Adjunct Faculty

MBA, Cleveland State UniversityBA in Industrial Design, Central St. Martins, London, UK Carla Blackman is a designer, artist and adjunct faculty at CIA. She is the founder and principal partner…

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Dennis Futo

Adjunct Faculty

Dennis is an educator, designer and founder of InsightDesign, LLC, a full-service product design consultancy developing consumer products, medical devices and industrial equipment for Fortune 500 Companies and Entrepreneurial startups.…

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