Large white gallery space with high ceilings displaying design exhibition. Multiple cork boards mounted in row show project documentation and sketches. White-cloth-covered tables in front display physical prototypes and models. Wooden benches positioned between displays. Black cart visible in center. Concrete floor and natural lighting from right-side windows.

BFAIndustrial Design

Design products, systems, and experiences that transform lives and restore the planet

Overview

Design for a better future

The industrial design program emphasizes human-centered design, focusing on sensory experiences and emotional connections to create innovative products.

Foster a sustainable future

Located in San Francisco’s vibrant design district, CCA thrives at the intersection of craft and creativity technology, innovation, and industry-led experiences. Industrial Design students at CCA are forward thinkers dedicated to fostering a sustainable future. With a commitment to positive social impact, they embrace circular design, which envisions the life cycle of a product across human and natural environments.

Turn curiosity into creative leadership

We nurture your curiosity, push the boundaries of our industry, and align values with your professional goals. The program emphasizes life-centered design, focusing on sensory experiences and emotional connections to create innovative products. Hands-on coursework and cross-disciplinary CoLAB Studios explore how design intersects with culture, inclusion, and equity. You’ll graduate as an adaptable design leader ready to navigate evolving technologies and innovate in the global design landscape.

Studios & Shops

Where your ideas take shape

A student wearing a virtual reality headpiece smiles and holds two control units.

Experiment across disciplines

At CCA, imagination meets execution in dynamic studios, labs, and shops equipped with cutting-edge tools and technologies. You'll work across a wide range of tools and techniques — from generative AI, sensors, and 3D modeling to AR/VR prototyping, CNC machining, 3D printing, laser cutting, vacuum forming, casting, forging, electronics, woodworking, sculpture, textiles, and ceramics — building the skills to innovate across physical and digital design landscapes.

Two people working outdoors using a handheld angle grinder to cut a metal beam, producing sparks. Both wear safety goggles and yellow ear protection, standing near a workbench outside a modern glass building.

Makers Yards and more

Our expanded campus is designed for the exploration of timeless craft and hands-on learning, including in outdoor spaces called Makers Yards. You’ll gain an education rooted in both innovation, modern techniques, and tradition — from woodworking and metalworking to emerging digital fabrication. We’ll help you go from prototypes to finished products as you explore a variety of medium, modern techniques, and experiments, delivering finesse with each design.

Faculty

Learn from Bay Area design leaders

You’ll learn from the Bay Area’s leading industrial designers, who have experience spanning startups to corporations, breakthrough products to enduring brands. They’ve launched products for Apple, Samsung, and Nike, as well as founding their own companies. Their insights give you a front-row seat to how to make your own ideas market-ready.

Portrait of  Shu Bertrand.

Shu Bertrand, Chair of Industrial Design. Photo courtesy of Aplat.

Shujan Bertrand leads a transformative curriculum grounded in life-centered design, the circular economy, and entrepreneurship. With over 25 years of global experience and as founder of zero-waste brand Aplat, she champions regenerative systems, sensory intelligence, and purposeful craft. Her leadership empowers students to become imaginative, hands-on designers shaping a more sustainable future.

Industrial Design faculty

Vision

Design the future, together.
We believe industrial design is a force for good—reshaping systems, products, and experiences that regenerate the planet, improve everyday life, and build a more equitable future.

Mission

CCA Industrial Design prepares the next generation of creative leaders to design with purpose and imagination. Our curriculum blends craft and technology, systems thinking and storytelling, to equip students with the tools to build a circular, connected, and collaborative world. Through hands-on studios, industry coaching, and a future-forward mindset, students learn to prototype ideas that are beautiful and impactful.

Curriculum

Designers in-making

The array of 3D printed models of digital designs included toys, jewelry, desk organizers and scooters.

Build career-crucial skills and networks

As an Industrial Design student, you’ll build strong foundations in design thinking principles, circular systems design, life-centered design, product sketching, full-scale prototyping, and digital renderings. Learn to connect meaning with making by working on product evolutions for global brands and participate in design challenges.

Through hands-on projects, interdisciplinary collaborations (third-year CoLABS), and industry partnerships, you’ll sharpen your communication, user experiences, and entrepreneurial skills while building your portfolio. By fourth year, lead your own thesis journey with professional coaches and alumni mentors, building critical networks and career readiness skills. View sample courses.

Students surround the body of a Lucid Motors car body.

Studio project with names you know

Corporate-sponsored workshops and studios are a cornerstone of CCA’s Industrial Design program. These practical projects give you the opportunity to design solutions for top-tier companies like NASA, Google, Samsung, Adobe, Lenovo, Lucid Motors, Camelbak, Colgate, Logitech, YouTube, Prowl, and Zoox as part of your third-year coursework.

Two-panel image of furniture-making process: Left panel shows person in black tank top sanding unfinished wooden cabinet piece in workshop with glass walls. Right panel shows same person kneeling beside completed modern side table/cabinet featuring curved top surface, vertical wooden slat door panel, and angled legs in modern space with concrete column.

Deepen your practice with a minor

Personalize your Industrial Design journey through one of three embedded minors, seamlessly integrated into the core curriculum:

  • Furniture design emphasizes craftsmanship and fabrication, enabling you to develop hands-on skills through studio work and material exploration.
  • Computational Practices bridges physical and digital design, equipping you with tools to create intelligent, futuristic products.
  • Ecological Practices centers on sustainability and regenerative systems, guiding you to design with environmental impact in mind.

Each minor shapes the curriculum around a focused lens, empowering a deeper practice without adding to your course load.

Person wearing glasses and handmade cardboard helmet with geometric angular design and circular ear pieces. Behind them, wall displays technical sketches showing multiple views and design iterations of the helmet, including assembly diagrams and component details. Person shown in profile, smiling.

Start strong with the First Year Experience

All undergraduates begin with a two-semester First Year Experience, where you’ll explore tools and materials across disciplines. Through studio projects and critiques, you’ll build the creative and conceptual foundation to thrive in your major.

Career development

Launch your career with purpose

Person in beige shirt examining 'podo' Smart Fitness Assistant exhibition display. Display features white fitness equipment handles mounted on orange and white panels, with information sections describing User-Friendly Interface, Core Technology, and Smart Charging. Black display table shows product brochures and materials, with fitness equipment visible in foreground.

Lead the future of design

Our graduates are bold thinkers, skilled makers, and systems-minded problem-solvers. You’ll leave with hands-on experience, a deep understanding of sustainability and the circular economy, and the ability to design for both people and the planet—with real-world projects, industry mentorship, internships, and cross-disciplinary collaboration under your belt. Whatever path you choose, you’ll graduate with the skills, experience, and vision to lead the future of design.

Students surround the body of a Lucid Motors car body.

What careers do Industrial Design students pursue?

A strong foundation in circular design and manufacturing with advanced technical CAD and CRAFT skills prepares our alumni for dynamic careers across industries—from furniture to robotics, and healthcare to lifestyle, entertainment, and emerging technologies. Our students have gone on to work in corporate companies and startups, including Apple, Amazon Lab126, Google, Mattel, Pact, IDEO, Fuseproject, The North Face, and more.

News & Events

Meet and learn from practicing designers

How to Apply

Start your industrial design journey

Close-up of hand carefully placing piece on tall stack of colorful felt or fabric pieces in various colors including gray, blue, orange, yellow, and green.

Reimagine what design can do

CCA’s Industrial Design program is where big ideas meet bold action. You’ll join passionate designers pushing boundaries, building beautiful products, reimagining ecosystems, and improving lives. From your first sketch to your final prototype, you’ll be part of a creative community building what comes next.