If you're thinking about grad school, you might spend some of your holiday time sparkling up that portfolio as the application deadline is soon approaching for SVA's MFA in Products of Design program in NYC.Natya.AI is an app designed specifically for Bharatanatyam dancers, offering real-time voice and visual feedback during practice sessions. Developed by Yukti Arora as part of her thesis, Democratizing Bharatnatyam: Investigating the Interplay Between Dance and AI. The department teaches Industrial Design, Interaction & Service Design, Social Innovation Design, Leadership and Strategic Management, and Business. Why all these disciplines at the same time? Department chair Allan Chochinov argues that "to design anything requires the design of everything. If you talk to anyone who is actually deep into the lived experience of practicing design, they will acknowledge that they are doing everything all at once: While designing a physical product for example, they are looking at what digital components and apps might be for that product. They are also looking at the product as a "service platform" and are constantly measuring the business risks and business value of any idea while they are prototyping. If they are an admirable organization, they are looking at the social value of an idea from the inception of a design project all the way through the narratives through which they market the idea."Chochinov adds, "We need designers to have skills and to be comfortable in all of these facets of design because if they don't, they will not be in the meetings where decisions get made. Particularly around finance. If you are a designer who does not understand finance, you will for sure not be in the meetings where strategic decisions get madeyou will just be 'handed a decision' of what the leadership team has decided to make, and told to 'make it.' We don't want our designers in jobs where they get handed a decision; we want our graduates to be active members of teams that make those decisions.We don't want our designers in jobs where they get handed a decision; we want our graduates to be active members of teams that make those decisions.RE:ACTORS, which won best student booth at NYCxDESIGN's Javits Center, encourages "re-physicalizing in a pandemic world." Every year, students of the program design products for manufacture and sales at MoMA as part of its ongoing partnership. Here, a top product is Hui Zheng's Roller Coasters."Our program also features a no-grade policysomething that both the students and faculty appreciate. Not having grades encourages maximum risk from the students, and fosters a collegial relationship with the faculty (as opposed to a hierarchical one where teachers are 'measuring' you.)"Like a metaphor of a relationship, Crystal Lo's Kuddle Charging Stand will only charge if both of a couple's phones are close together on the dock. You can see what the department is looking for in a candidate in Core77's article, Getting Accepted: How to Be a Standout Applicant to SVA's Products of Design MFA Program, and learn much more about the program at https://productsofdesign.sva.edu/Ready to apply? Get all the details at their Apply Page.Dana Krouham created a public intervention as part of her thesis, CHRONIC: How Understanding Your "In our program, you are not forced to choose one discipline of designyou get to experience and build marketable skills in all of them.This vastly increases the potential breadth of practice in your career, and provides a broader portfolio of work to share in job interviews."