DSI students learn the practice of Social Design not only by theory, but through practice, working with exciting organizations, on the most important issues. This year, teams in the Communication Design class are working with Dr. Ruth Gates, a marine biologist who is selectively breeding corals to withstand the effects of climate change in the…
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Program
Why DSI? Mari Nakano. That’s Why.
This year, our amazing group of thesis advisors has been led by Mari Nakano, who joined the DSI team in 2018. What is design for social innovation to you? For me, design for social innovation means using design tools and strategies for the purposes of creating a resilient planet, where all people can share power…
Announcing the first Fast Track Winners
Fast Track is a new DSI initiative intended to take students’ bold ideas to the real world. DSI faculty Asi Burak and Maggie Breslin are leading the program, and will mentor the winners and get them the help they need to realize their ideas. The first winners are Catalina Cipri, who is developing a Facebook…
Kartik Krishnan on Taking DSI’s Learnings Back Home
Since graduating last Spring, Kartik Krishnan (‘20) has begun sharing his passion for social design with clients and corporations back home in India. As visiting faculty for B-Schools and a Design Researcher for design innovation consultancy firm TinkerLabs, Kartik works with students and clients to implement design thinking into their day-to-day practices across an array…
New Start Date: September 28th!
In accordance with SVA’s reopening plan, DSI will be beginning the fall semester on September 28th in the studio. We are taking great care to develop contingency plans for various scenarios, and establish a system that will keep our students and faculty as safe as possible while in the space. We are excited to open…
Fall 2021 Applications Now Open!
We are excited to announce that our applications for Fall 2021 are now officially open! Our MFA candidates are designing for challenging issues faced by communities in government, sustainability, education, health, art and culture, gender, equity, and immigration, to name a few. If these are issues that interest you, we want you here: learning, growing,…
Why DSI? Corwin Green. That’s Why.
Why DSI? Corwin Green. That’s Why. Last spring, we were lucky enough to welcome Corwin Green to our DSI family. Corwin is an educator and communications designer, whose focus lies in investigating how collective power is created in design and art. A generalist, he works in print, environmental and digital platforms. He is fascinated by…
Announcing the 2021 Paul Polak Scholarship
DSI is excited to announce that we will once again be granting our annual Paul Polak scholarship to an incoming student. Now in its 7th year, this $10,000 a year scholarship will be awarded to one student in the class of 2023. In light of his passing in 2019, we hope that this award will…
Announcing the 2021 Equity in Design Scholarship
To support underrepresented communities in design, we are offering a new Equity in Design Scholarship to address intersectional oppressions and promote equitable opportunities starting with our own student community. This year, the award will grant $10,000 to one incoming student. This scholarship will be offered for the first time in 2021, and we seek to…
A Definition Five Years in the Making
Social innovation design is the creation and propagation of healthy, mutually beneficial relationships between humans, technology and the earth. It has the potential to impact every business, government, city, neighborhood and individual. This is what our program is about, what we teach and what our graduates are out in the world doing. To put it more succinctly, it’s the design of the relationships between people and things instead of only the things themselves.
