Group of students at a table working together

Faculty of Design

About the Faculty of Design

Designers of everything from products and advertisements to buildings and apps impart their perspective in each of the designs they create, whether consciously or unconsciously. As such, designers must reflect on the potential impact of their designs. At OCAD U, emerging designers learn to design innovative and creative solutions that nurture community, harmonize technology, meet market needs and empower individuals.

As producers of objects, communications and environments, our students define, enhance and transform the world around them. Students choose from six programs: Advertising, Environmental Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, or Material Art and Design.

In the Faculty of Design, this means using a variety of creative approaches to:

Design innovative and sustainable solutions that solve problems and meet market needs.
Centre the voices of those most affected by designs.
Value different cultures and ways of knowing and making.
Embed Indigenous learning and principles into the design process including our relationship to the land.

The Faculty of Design also works closely with OCAD U's graduate design-based programs including Inclusive Design and Design for Health.

Student working on a drawing at a drafting table

Students in a workshop talking in front of a laptop

Undergraduate programs

Advertising, BDes

We foster creative thinkers as changemakers, focusing on critical thinking, alternative design approaches, strategy, copywriting and the art of visual imagery. The power of advertising communication is balanced with the sense of accountability and responsibility towards broader communities.

Environmental Design, BDes

Students learn the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, interior design and urban design. The program focuses on various approaches to designing and planning our build environments through a critical social, cultural and ecological lens.

Environmental Design: Interior Design Specialization

In this specialization, students not only take Environmental Design courses but also complete four specific courses that are tailored to the field of interior design. The curriculum is designed to prepare graduates for their entry into the interior design profession.

Graphic Design, BDes

Students gain a foundational understanding that graphic design is rooted in communication, cultural contexts and technological advancements. We prioritize type, image and various design practices and methods including motion, interaction and information coupled with critical thinking skills development.

Illustration, BDes

Students develop individual artistic expressions to critically reflect on society. The program is centred on building knowledge and skills that create effective, communicative and artful images that function as a complement to the written word.

Industrial Design, BDes

Students learn to design products, processes, services and systems that consider impacts on future generations. Areas of student include furniture, interactive and experience design and strategic foresight.

Material Art & Design, BDes/BFA

In this program, relationships to the materials that connect us to the craft of making are deepened. Concentrations are offered in Jewellery and Textiles, allowing students to work from either an art or design perspective.

Image credits Jessica Sanchez Martinez, Batoll Nassery, Chieng Luphuyong, Yigit Toprak, Nik Clydesdale, Victor Kosic, Kayla Bullen.

Minors

Black Studies Design & Art Minor

The multidisciplinary Black Studies in Design and Art (minor) comprises core courses in Black art and design practices, culture, history, and critical theory to enrich exploration of decolonized futures by bringing in the voices of Black designers and artists. Students from Faculty of Design, Faculty of Art and Faculty of Arts and Science may enroll.

View all Minors

Faculty of Design events

Faculty of Design Meet n' Greet

September 3, 2026 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Main Building & Rosalie Sharp Centre for Design (MCA) Event

Faculty of Design news

Assistant Professor Parantap Bhatt Incorporates AI in his Teaching Methods

With more students experimenting with AI tools and integrating AI into their workflows, OCAD U faculty members are incorporating these tools into studio and classroom settings.

April 14, 2026

FoD: Senate Election Updates

Senate Election Updates

April 14, 2026

Gary Taxali - Ridley College Mural

Professor Taxali has created a mural for Ridley College!

April 13, 2026

Ranee Lee - Blend Conference at University of Waterloo

Ranee Lee gives a talk at Blend Conference at University of Waterloo in Kitchener.

April 8, 2026

Design students using AI to test ideas, identify gaps

In his teaching, Assistant Professor Parantap Bhatt says AI is positioned not simply as a tool for output, but as a cognitive collaborator within the design process.

March 24, 2026

Public talk co-organized with OCAD and UofT - Juliet Kothe

OCAD U is co-organizing a talk with UofT - inviting a collaborator Juliet Kate from Berlin to come and speak here in Toronto.

March 10, 2026

Lesley-Ann Noel

Dean of Design

Lesley-Ann Noel is a designer, researcher, and educator, the author of Design Social Change, and a co-editor of The Black Experience in Design. She has created several design tools for critical reflection, such as The Designer’s Critical Alphabet and the Positionality Wheel. She has a bachelor’s in Industrial Design from Universidade Federal do Paraná in Brazil, a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, and a PhD in Design from North Carolina State University. She was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of the Arts London and the Pacific Northwest College of Art for service to the field of design. She is the Dean of Design at OCAD University. Before OCAD-U, she taught at North Carolina State University, Tulane University, Stanford University, and the University of the West Indies.

Michelle Wyndham-West

Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, Faculty of Design

I am a critically applied anthropologist and design anthropologist, and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the Faculty of Design at OCAD University, where I also hold a tenured Associate Professor appointment in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. I previously served as Graduate Program Director of the Design for Health and Inclusive Design programs at OCAD University and am a recipient of undergraduate and graduate teaching awards from OCAD University. I am also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University. I hold a PhD in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from York University and an MA in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Toronto. My CIHR-, SSHRC-, ORF-, and EU-funded research spans co-design methodologies, health policy, and global health, with projects on dementia strategy development, global health policy, vaccine uptake and hesitancy, and housing instability among low-income older adults, drawing on design anthropology to move between ethnographic inquiry and participatory design. My work has appeared in BMJ Open, Health, Risk & Society, Evidence & Policy, and Design for Health, and my first book, Making Gender: Big Pharma, HPV Vaccine Policy, and Women's Ontological Decision-Making, was published by the University of Toronto Press. I also write and publish on the future of creative education and Canadian AI policy in venues including the Canadian Marketing Association blog and LBB online, in collaboration with a leading practitioner in the Canadian advertising industry. Before graduate school, I worked in the technology sector, including at a medical device start-up developing an artificial heart intended as a bridge to transplant.