01/15/2025
Applications are due TODAY! 🔥✨
Are you (or someone you know) wanting to develop a research project, review your writing and presentation skills, or develop your voice as a thought leader? Untangle your thoughts and develop tools for communicating complex ideas clearly and effectively with D-Crit's one (or two) year MA!
Our master’s degree in Design Research, Writing & Criticism (aka D-Crit) is designed to elevate critical thinking and journalistic skills to create industry leaders at all levels, enriching your understanding of design in all its forms while giving you the tools to write and think critically about design's contexts and consequences.
Be sure to start your application by 11:59pm EST TODAY, January 15!
01/09/2025
Untangle your thoughts and develop tools for communicating complex ideas clearly and effectively with D-Crit's one-year MA!
Our master’s degree in Design Research, Writing & Criticism (aka D-Crit) enriches your understanding of design in all its forms while giving you the tools to write and think critically about design's contexts and consequences. If your 2025 resolutions include challenging yourself to grow intellectually and professional, transform your career with D-Crit!
Start your application by January 15, 2025, for consideration for the full time Class of 2026 or part-time Class of 2027!
01/03/2025
Ready to submit your application for D-Crit? We're less than two weeks away from the deadline to apply for the Class of 2026! 🔥✨
Are you (or someone you know) wanting to develop a research project, evolve your writing and presentation skills, or develop your voice as a thought leader? Our master’s degree in Design Research, Writing & Criticism (aka D-Crit) enriches your understanding of design in all its forms while giving you the tools to write and think critically about design's contexts and consequences. If your 2025 resolutions include challenging yourself to grow intellectually and professional, transform your career with D-Crit!
⏰ FINAL VIRTUAL INFO SESSION – Tuesday, January 7 at 12pm ET🔻 Attendees also receive an application fee waiver for the Class of 2026.
Swipe through to review your application checklist. We can't wait to see your materials!! 🔥✨
01/03/2025
✨ What's on your desk? ✨ As we gear up for another exciting semester, we’re taking a peek at the creative chaos and inspiration fueling our student's individual in-studio workspaces! From stacks of books to experimental prototypes, each desk tells a story of curiosity, exploration, and innovation. 🖋️📚
Swipe through the carousel to see what our students are diving into, and let’s get the conversation started—what’s inspiring you this year? Drop a comment below to share what’s on your desk or what’s sparking your design research! 🗒️🔍✨
We can’t wait to see how your ideas take shape this year. Let’s make it one for the books! 🚀💡
01/02/2025
Untangle your thoughts and develop tools for communicating complex ideas clearly and effectively with D-Crit's one-year MA! 🔥✨
Our master’s degree in Design Research, Writing & Criticism (aka D-Crit) enriches your understanding of design in all its forms while giving you the tools to write and think critically about design's contexts and consequences.
Join our final January info session to hear first-hand from faculty and alumni (now esteemed strategists, editors, authors, curators, and design studio leaders) about their MA experience, how D-Crit supports a variety of career pathways, and about a new new part-time track launching Fall 2025. RSVP in our bio! ✨
⏰ FINAL VIRTUAL INFO SESSION – Tuesday, January 7 at 12pm ET🔻 Attendees also receive an application fee waiver for the Class of 2026.
01/02/2025
For this week's Lit Review🔥, we’re diving into edition #1 of OFFAL, found on the desk of Kale Seikkula!
How can creative limitations spark innovation? Curated by editors Mark Blacklock and Rod Stanley, OFFAL is a bold exploration of ‘leftovers and experiments,’ re-presenting overlooked works through a surprising mix of poetry, prose, AI fiction, and unexpected collaborations. Designed entirely in Microsoft Word, its red-and-black palette and stripped-back layouts challenge the norms of magazine design while celebrating the beauty of constraints.
With its eclectic content and unconventional approach, OFFAL invites us to rethink how we create and curate—and what it means to embrace the fragmented and the imperfect. A must-read for design researchers exploring the intersections of experimentation, identity, and culture. 🖋️🔴⚫
12/18/2024
Humanities Critical Thinking + Journalistic Tools > Design Topics = Your MA in Design Research, Writing and Criticism! ✨💡
Are you (or someone you know) wanting to develop a research project, review your writing and presentation skills, or develop your voice as a thought leader? Our two-semester MA is designed to elevate critical thinking and journalistic skills to create industry leaders at all levels. If your 2025 resolutions include challenging yourself to grow intellectually and professional, transform your career with D-Crit!
Apply by January 15, 2025!
12/17/2024
Look who's shaping design discourse! ✨💡
Last week, our students presented their thesis works-in-progress presentations to a collection of guest critics, alumni, and prospective students! From the cultural influence of brat to ASMR and the experience economy, belonging and the immigrant experience, gender identity and power in digital spaces, commodification of reproductive organs, navigational tech and memory, phenomenology and space, and postage stamps and ideology. These presentations highlighted the depth and creativity the students bring to shaping design discourse. Congratulations! We can't wait to see where your research ends up.
12/16/2024
Is your application ready?? We're one month away from the deadline to apply to D-Crit's Class of 2026! 🔥✨
Are you (or someone you know) wanting to develop a research project, evolve your writing and presentation skills, or develop your voice as a thought leader? Our master’s degree in Design Research, Writing & Criticism (aka D-Crit) enriches your understanding of design in all its forms while giving you the tools to write and think critically about design's contexts and consequences. If your 2025 resolutions include challenging yourself to grow intellectually and professional, transform your career with D-Crit!
Swipe through to review your application checklist. We can't wait to see your materials!! 🔥✨
12/13/2024
Untangle your thoughts and develop tools for communicating complex ideas clearly and effectively with D-Crit's one-year MA! 🔥✨
Our master’s degree in Design Research, Writing & Criticism (aka D-Crit) enriches your understanding of design in all its forms while giving you the tools to write and think critically about design's contexts and consequences.
Join our final info session for 2024 to hear first-hand from faculty and alumni (now esteemed strategists, editors, authors, curators, and design studio leaders) about their MA experience, how D-Crit supports a variety of career pathways, and about a new new part-time track launching Fall 2025. RSVP in our bio! ✨
⏰ FINAL 2024 VIRTUAL INFO SESSION – Monday, December 16 at 12pm ET🔻 Attendees also receive an application fee waiver for the Class of 2026.
12/12/2024
For this week's Lit Review🔥, we're featuring Cassim Shepard's Citymakers and Subculture by Dick Hebdige on the desk of current student Jyothi Hiremath!
How do we design spaces where people truly belong? Citymakers explores the power of collaboration in city-building, while the seminal Subculture: The Meaning of Style dives into how identity and belonging emerge through style and resistance. Both are invaluable resources for uncovering how we create and navigate spaces of belonging.
Exploring the intersections of transient spaces, immigrant experiences, and third places, Jyothi's research dives into the psychology of belonging and the blurred lines between 'space' and 'place.' A critical take on designing with communities rather than for them. 🏙👨👨👧👧✨
12/11/2024
"Today, Ukrainian graphic design is rooted in national identification, in search of future needs, and in understanding the cultural influence of a painful past on a, once again, painful present." – El. Stern
Congratulations to alum El. Stern on this new piece for PRINT Magazine exploring the past and future of Ukrainian design and identity in a war-torn world. History matters, and how we organize it shapes our understanding of the world. These hidden stories of Ukrainian graphic design, its roots overshadowed by colonial narratives, and its powerful resurgence amid war. A must-read for anyone curious about the intersection of art, identity, and decolonization. 🌻📖
👉 Read more and join the conversation!
12/04/2024
❗️LAST CALL for 2024 Virtual Info Sessions for D-Crit!
Are you (or someone you know) wanting to develop a research project, review your writing and presentation skills, or develop your voice as a thought leader? Our two-semester MA is designed to elevate critical thinking and journalistic skills to create industry leaders at all levels. If your 2024 resolutions include challenging yourself to grow intellectually and professional, transform your career with D-Crit!
Join tomorrow’s online info session at 9am ET, or December 16 at 12pm ET (link in bio) to learn more and receive an application fee waiver.
Apply by January 15! ✨
11/27/2024
“To this day, Ulysses S. Grant’s co***ne precipitates remain sealed in a jar in a lodge atop Mount McGregor, some ten miles northeast of Saratoga Springs.”
D-Crit alum visited in NYRA's issue no. 42. Visit our publication-in-residence's website to read the full piece!
“The Union general and eighteenth US president died aged sixty-three in 1885 of throat cancer, without a greenback to his name. (Pensions did not yet exist for presidents. Before Grant, most had simply come from wealth.)...
The co***ne was to alleviate his excruciating pain and may also have provided some pep for the completion of his memoirs, finished only three days before his passing and published soon after by Mark Twain. But the jarred dregs aren’t the only thing preserved inside the home—a national historic landmark offering tours for twelve dollars. Our guide, who turned out to be a student of horology, explained that a clock on the mantle was stopped by an attendant minutes after Grant breathed his last. A portrait of Lincoln hangs now, as then, above the deathbed, where Grant’s body lay for public viewing for weeks after. In an adjoining parlor, our helpful horologist flicked on the lights to illuminate what appeared in the dark like a mass of calcified corals: ghostly, desiccated, 140-year-old floral arrangements resembling a garden gate, a pillow, and a cross.
In the twentieth century a tuberculosis sanitarium that was constructed on Mount McGregor’s peak went through numerous institutional incarnations before assuming its final function as a prison. The now-fenced-up facility (it closed in 2014) is a ghoulish monument to unfreedom just downhill from the charming yellow cottage where Grant recollected his victorious fight to end slavery and his defeated attempts to see Reconstruction through. Perhaps it is a hopeful sign that the cottage, not the prison, survives.”
11/26/2024
❓❓How do you turn design concepts into tangible change?
Perhaps with D-Crit's one-year MA! Join our upcoming info session series to hear first-hand from faculty and alumni (now esteemed strategists, editors, authors, curators, and design studio leaders) about their MA experience, how D-Crit supports a variety of career pathways, and about a new new part-time track launching Fall 2025. RSVP in our bio! ✨
⏰ VIRTUAL INFO SESSION – Thursday, December 5, at 9:00am ET!
🔻 Attendees also receive an application fee waiver for the Class of 2026.
Our master’s degree in Design Research, Writing & Criticism (aka D-Crit) enriches your understanding of design in all its forms while giving you the tools to write and think critically about design's contexts and consequences.
11/22/2024
Design research in the wild! This week, we took a deep dive into the iconic NYPL Picture Collection during Contemporary Issues in Design, exploring one of the world’s most storied image archives. ✨ Tasked with selecting images and weaving playful, inventive narratives, our students are working toward an archival project exploring visual storytelling, imagination, and creative interpretation for class with Adam Harrison Levy!
From historical treasures to unexpected gems, the archive offers endless inspiration for anyone who loves storytelling through images. Have you visited this legendary collection? Let us know your favorite discoveries—or plan your own visit and see where the pictures take you! 📸✨
11/21/2024
Ready to grow your design practice, but unsure how?? SVA is hosting a combined Info Session with 16 different programs in our brand-new Graduate Center! ✨
Join us Saturday, December 7th at the 136 W 21 Street building to learn all about the SVA Graduate Programs! This information session and open house will provide prospective students with valuable insights into the diverse array of graduate programs that the School of Visual Arts offers, including our MA in Design Research, Writing and Criticism!
During this event, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the various programs, meet the department chairs, and receive program brochures and materials. Several programs will also provide tours of their state-of-the-art studios.
RSVP now at the link in our bio to reserve your spot. We're so excited to meet you!
11/19/2024
D-Crit students dove into design history at the Lubalin Archive, uncovering Herb Lubalin’s trailblazing legacy with curator Alexander Tochilovsky! ✨ Highlights from the visit included a deep dive into Eros magazine, a bold and controversial publication that explored love, s*x, politics, and art through provocative design. From JFK features to Marilyn Monroe’s last photos, and even the infamous “Black and White in Color” series, Eros challenged norms and redefined graphic storytelling.
Students also explored post-WWII advertisements, historic bus tickets, and works from Fact and Avant Garde, uncovering the fascinating intersections of design, culture, and politics; just what Jon Key's Approaches to Design History curriculum ordered!
Which piece of work inspires you the most? Let us know in the comments! ⬇️