MFA for the Designer/Social Entrepreneur

The School of Visual Arts has an MFA program that focuses on developing designers as social entrepreneurs which sounds like the perfect grad program for designers (like me) who want to take their own ideas to market. (Except I do hope NYC's bedbug situation gets resolved soon :0)



Steven Heller and Lita Talarico, SVA's department co-chairs, also authored a book called The Design Entrepreneur: Turning Graphic Design Into Goods That Sell. I'm definitely going to pick up a copy.

Do you know of similar programs or books out there that deal with design and entrepreneurship?

Design Education: What do designers really need to know?

As I consider returning to school for an MFA in graphic design, I have been assessing what I have learned in 13 years as a professional designer as well as what I have yet to learn... and I came across this blog post by David Airey about what design schools can do better.

The client management theme resonated with me the most. Below are some comments I wholeheartedly agree with.

“Students should be given projects where the teacher plays the role of a difficult client — someone without imagination and the ability to articulate what they want. It can be a huge challenge to isolate the core message of a design project, and knowing how to handle those clients, and keep them happy, can be even harder.”
— NEIL KOWALEWSKI

“...there have only been a few courses where the outline simulated a real-world design we might have to do for a client, or the handling of any other sort of client alteration, suggestion, or complaint. Of the few that had done that, I learned the most.”
— CRYSTAL

“If you don’t know how to interact with clients, or even close a sale, your talents are going to be restricted. No clients = no designing.”
— ALAN ANDERSON

What do you think design students need to know? Is this something that can be taught in school?

collage by illustrator Eleanor Wood