What isDSIDesign for Social Innovation

In the past decade, the number of designers working in Social Innovation has grown exponentially. Creative firms of every type include social design in their core offerings. Meet-ups and accelerators pop up everywhere. Business schools incorporate design thinking into their curricula. AIGA, the professional association for design, has created a signature national program dedicated to it. Countless non-profits are founded for the sole purpose of pursuing it. New businesses are launched on its principles. Mature companies include it in their strategies for the future. And design is needed everywhere.

Design for Social Innovation at SVA is the first MFA program for people who want to lead this essential new movement.

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The traditional designer is an individual creator – with a singular vision and expertise. Raymond Loewy, Frank Lloyd Wright, Paul Rand are examples, each with their own vision of what the world needed. Experts play this role in many fields – engineers, scientists, academics, inventors like Henry Ford, Margaret Mead, E.O.Wilson or Steve Jobs.

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While this individual visionary role will always be a component of what design is, we have reached the point where the power of single individuals to solve the complex problems humanity faces, regardless of how brilliant they are, is unrealistic. To make cities vibrant places for all citizens, to help multi-national corporations be a force for good, and to create for-profit businesses built on products and services for a sustainable future requires adapting the traditional skills of experts to the transformation of complex systems at great scale.

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Designers are evolving from creators to creative transformers, from authors to partners. For our students, DSI is the map, the tool kit and the community of mentors and partners – the doorway into a life of purpose, impact and fulfillment. Our graduates will lead transformation in industry, government, creative services, philanthropy, non-profits and as entrepreneurs.

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DSI at SVA is a model and resource for how design can solve human problems, and a source for the next leaders in design for social innovation.

Students immerse in all complex systems that affect the future:FoodEquality and JusticePovertyEnvironmentHealthEconomyEducation

Graduates work wherever transformation is needed:BusinessGovernmentPhilanthropySocial SectorEntrepreneurship

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Our faculty are professionals from business, technology, research, game design, transmedia, ethics, design research, entrepreneurship, development, big data, science, museums, grant making, leadership coaching.

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Cheryl Heller, Chair Rachel Abrams John Bielenberg Maggie Breslin Schuyler Brown Asi Burak

Jamie Cloud Archie Lee Coates IV Patricia Dandanoli Steve Daniels Hannah du Plessis Julie Engel

Jeffrey Franklin Bill Gordon DK Holland Lee-Sean Huang Despina Papadapoulos Tina Park

Karen Proctor Marc Rettig Lina Srivastava Julie Steele

Design for Social Innovation at SVA prepares students to extend the roles that design plays in larger engagements and complex systems, beginning with the invisible systems of beliefs and mental models that drive behavior, and extending to more traditional forms of visual design. We build on core traditional design skills, adding tools and experiences that are relevant at larger scales.

DSIDesign for Social Innovation

Traditional design skills:

Visualizing CritiqueForm givingDesign applicationsProject management (individual or small team)Identity Development (visual)

Social design skills:

MappingStorytellingIteration/PrototypingCommunication DesignResearch, ethnographic methodsInnovationCritical thinkingWritingCross-disciplinary problem solvingIdentity Development (systemic)Synthesis/analysisFacilitationProject Management (large scale)Presentation/Persuasion

Skills common to all effective social impact participants

Relationship buildingSympathy (listening)HumilityPartneringCollaboration EntrepreneurshipExplain a Theory of ChangeNegotiationLeadershipSystems thinkingContextualizingPrioritizationHabitsFinancial management

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We work in teams with client partners on real world problems. Graduates will not only be prepared to play transformative roles in business and society, they will already be skilled and experienced in doing so.

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Sara and Sebastian, Class of 2014

Sara focuses on corporate social innovation, creating impact-driven strategies for cross-sector communication and partnerships. Sara worked on the Communications and Partnerships team at United Nations Global Pulse, a UN research and innovation lab exploring how to use Big Data for development, and also worked with NYC agencies in account management and design strategy developing brand identities for global healthcare clients including Pfizer, Lilly, Nestlé, and Medtronic. 

Sebastian is a born and raised Colombian and through DSI, works as an Innovation Intern at the Rockefeller Foundation. Sebastian’s research interests include technology and new media to promote economic opportunities, migration as a cultural and historical phenomenon and collaboration between diasporas and their countries of origin.

Students come from diverse backgrounds, and each has unique plans.

Renzo and Haya, Class of 2015

Renzo is a product designer and design researcher. He has designed sustainable products, services and tools that facilitate daily living skills for the disabled. Renzo is interested in strategies to inspire through dialogical objects/products and participatory and public-engaging business realms. He earned his undergraduate degree in Product Design and Development at Parsons.

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Haya is a Saudi with Palestinian heritage who has conducted research projects in India and Saudi Arabia on the formation of communities and gender roles. Haya previously worked with Edge of Arabia, an arts initiative promoting contemporary art in the Arabian Gulf and has a Bachelors of Arts degree in Geography at King’s College London.  

DSI connects students to the most important people and organizations in social innovation.

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A public exhibit of student work at theWinter Show x2

Putting It All on the Table, an art for social innovation exhibit reviewed by the New York Times

Design for 100%, with Marfa Dialogs and the Bucky Fuller Institute

DSI hosted a TEDx event on Cities:TEDxSVA

Executives from IBM came to meet ourstudents at a Speed Networking event

In collaboration with NYU Wagner and ColumbiaSIPA, DSI hosts a Social Enterprise Bootcamp

DSI guest speakers are pioneers in creating a economy and society.

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Jeffrey Hollender - Founder, Seventh Generation on What Business Needs to BeDr. Upmanu Lall - Director, International Water Center, Earth Institute, Columbia UniversityErica Block - Founder of Local Orbit on Fixing the Food ChainBill Browning - Founder, Terrapin on Designing Environments that Enhance Nature and HumansDr. Joel Cohen - Professor, Rockefeller University, Author of Book, "How Many People Can The Earth Support?"Jen Cohen - Music producer and Principal, SongMastersSusan Davis - BRAC founder and author of "Social Entrepreneurship, What Everyone Needs to Know."Jane Diplock - Former President, SEC of New Zealand discusses Integrative Corporate Reporting: Why the Triple Bottom Line is Good for CompaniesAmy Hall - Director of Social Consciousness at Eileen FisherEmily Jacobi - Co-founder of Digital Democracy on using Technology for Human RightsDr. Tish Jennings - Research scientist at Penn State and an authority on social-emotional learningJorge Just - RapidFTR Founder/Project Lead at UNICEFYolanda Kakabadse - President, World Wildlife Fund, former Minister of Environment for the Government of EquadorMatt Klein - Executive Director, Blue Ridge Foundation, on Life as a FunderNathaniel Koloc - Co-Founder and CEO, ReWork Jobs on Finding Work with PurposeDr. Roberta Lee - Integrative HealthLance Lindblom - Foundation leader with Nathan Cummings Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute, and MacArthur FoundationNancy Lublin - Founder of Do SomethingDr. Don Melnick - Director, Center for Environment, Economy, and Society, and Director of the Miches ProjectAimee Morgana - Founder, N'Kisi ProjectMichael Murphy - CEO, MASS Design GroupDr. Suzana Padua Machado - President, IPE Brazil, Ashoka Fellow, and environmental entrepreneur and social innovatorDr. Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez - Director of International Programs, Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, and native Amazonian villagerDr. Paul Polak - Founder, IDE and Design for the Other 90% on The Business Solution to PovertyJason Rzepka - VP of Public Affairs, MTVJonah Sachs - The Power of StorytellingZainab Salbi - Founder, Women for Women, InternationalRaj Sisodia - Co-Author, Conscious CapitalismMarguerite Smith - Chief Counsel and tribal member, Shinnecock NationWilliam Spear - Founder of Second Response, feng-shui masterJulie Steele - DSI Faculty and Author, "Beautiful Visualization"Loree Sutton and Laurie Leitch - Embodied LeadershipAnn Veneman - Former Secretary of Agriculture and former Director of UNICEFDarryl Young - Program Director, Summit Foundation

Read what others say:

DSIDesign for Social Innovation

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MFA DSI is for:

Designers seeking relevance in the future of design, not the past, and looking for professional work that matters.

Graduates in other disciplines who want to learn to harness the power of design to create positive impact.

Social Entrepreneurs who want the skills and knowledge to achieve their mission more quickly and fully.

Professionals who have been working in business and want to play a more central, strategic role in their industry.

We are looking for visual thinkers with passion, ethics, creativity, broad curiosity, perseverance and a desire for a life with purpose.

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If you want a better future, design it.

Apply: dsi.sva.edu/apply

We accept applications on a rolling basis for Fall 2014.

dsiinfo@sva.edu 212.592.2205

136 West 21st Street, Fifth Floor, New York, New York

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