Environmental Product Design (EPOD)
Hands-On Learning
Environmental Design Core
Anchored through a combination of lecture courses and studio instruction, our core curriculum builds upon studios where students solve design problems at interrelated scales of the built environment: buildings, landscapes and urban systems.
- Intro to environmental product of design, 8-week studio
- Intro to architecture, 8-week studio
- Core technology 1
- ENVD Colloquium
- Core lecture: Design Theory & Thinking
- Intro to landscape architecture, 8-week studio
- Intro to sustainable planning & urban design, 8-week studio
- Core technology 2
- Core lecture: History of the Built Environment
- Choice of core design studio, 8-week studio
- Choice of core design studio, 8-week studio
- Core technology 3
- Core lecture: Ecology & Design
- Core lecture: Planning & Implementation
Students pursue in-depth projects and gain specialized skills necessary for pre-professional work or graduate study through upper-division course work.
Intro to Product of Design
ENVD Core 8-week design studio
The first of four introductory studios introduces students to concepts and techniques related to the design of products at a human scale. In an immersive project-based studio environment students develop the foundation of design communication and thinking through a series of hands-on projects with physical outcomes.
Fundamentals of Product of Design
ENVD Core 8-week design studio
Building on the foundation introduced in EPoD Studio 1, this studio introduces students to more advanced methodologies and techniques related to the design of products at a human scale while considering the interdisciplinary nature of the other specializations. Using complementary skills in 3D modeling, drawing, diagramming, and through physical making and fabrication, students explore imaginative and innovative design solutions of small-scale products.
Foundations of Product Design
ENVD major 16-week design studio
Immersive, project-based studio environment where students focus on the design of products at a human scale with an emphasis on more advanced 3D modeling, parametric design, advanced visualization, and file-to-factory fabrication methods.
ENVD major 16-week design studio
Introduces students to innovative emerging technologies and techniques in digital fabrication and design through a project-based studio environment. Students will be asked to develop design solutions that could be leveraged to benefit humanity through material investigations, cradle-to-cradle methodology, and more advanced methods in design optimization. Repeatable for up to 12 total credit hours.
Capstone in Product of Design
ENVD major 16-week design studio
As a culmination of the students learning and interests within the EPOD major, students use a Design Thinking Process to identify, design, and manifest a physical prototype which addresses a specific need, opportunity or problem.
ENVD Core
3 semesters of ENVD core
Interdisciplinary
six eight-week design studios
5-credit
technology course sequence
4
sixteen-week major design studios
Be visionary.
Experiential learning is a core component of design education with students engaging in design, build and fabrication activities.
Major Objectives
Problem Solving through User Centered Design Methodology and Ideology
Critical Thinking and Ethical Concerns
Verbal, Visual and Written Communication
Self-Teaching and Efficacy
Prototyping, Fabrication and Craft
Visualization using Analog and Digital Tools
Materials Usage and Impact
Entrepreneurship in Product Design
Personal and Professional Accountability
B.EnvD Objectives
Critical Thinking
Students will use creative, critical, and convergent thinking to address social and environmental issues through precedents, theory, research, and problem‐defining techniques in order to analyze the need for and impact of design solutions.
ʰDz‐SDZԲ
Through iterative design students will develop conceptual or material solutions to socio‐environmental issues by synthesizing critical feedback and collaborative findings with their peers and the communities that they engage.
Communication & Representation
Students will employ graphic, verbal, written, spatial, and other communication strategies in order to organize, demonstrate and argue for design concepts and proposals.
Stewardship & Sustainability
Students will apply tenets of social and environmental justice through design stewardship and sustainability to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of all project constituents.
Technical Skills & Methodologies
Students will develop the foundational technical skills and learn to apply the methodologies necessary to enter the academic and professional disciplines of environmental design.
Meet Current Students
Liana Bradley
Liana Bradley loves seeing the relationship of people to products and what makes them loved or hated.
Nate Kingdom
Nate Kingdom hopes to design products that can help everyone and be used all over the world.
Andrew Song
Andrew Song has always loved creating and loves being in a creatively enriched environment.
Ainsley Watkins
For Ainsley Watkins the hands-on problem solving and material studies was appealing and helped solidify her choice in product design.
2+
internships completed on average by
ENVD students before graduation
80%
of students were hired in design fields
within three months of graduation*
Most
environmental design
grads in the U.S.
Beyond Graduation
Careers in Product Design
Product design majors might work in the following positions:
Product Designer
Furniture Designer
Packaging Designer
Environmental Designer
Graphic Designer
Outdoor Product Designer
Interaction Designer
Exhibit Designer
Maker/Fabricator
Design Entrepreneur
Meet our Alumni
Founder/CEO
Hammerly Ceramics
Broomfield, Colorado
Lead Designer
Studio Giancarlo Valle
Brooklyn, New York
Founder/CEO
Campworks
Hygiene, Colorado
Product Manager
HiveTech Solutions
Boulder
Co-Founder & CEO
simplo
Mexico City