Graduating Student Exhibition

Pomerantz Center – Back Lobby

The next creative revolution is upon us, and its fuel is technology. The digital era has transformed the way we connect and communicate. The demand for bright minds and innovative ideas that grab our attention, is greater than ever. These are ideas that don’t just mirror culture, but actively shape it, sparking meaningful conversations and driving change. The Advertising and Digital Design BFA curriculum equips our students to excel in this dynamic new landscape. And the Graduating Student Exhibition showcases the skills of our future art directors, writers, and brand experience designers.

John E. Reeves Great Hall – Room #3

Animation and interaction design were once two separate but related disciplines. Now, they are integrated and used together to transform static environments into interactive experiences. Our students tap their core skills and employ new technologies to design in ways that enable audience participation on various platforms, such as apps, games, and environments. Each year, graduates of the Animation, Interactive Media, and Game Design BFA program complete a thesis project that represents an aspect of their studies that is of particular interest. Students make use of the many disciplines they have been exposed to throughout their two years in the program. The projects often reflect their backgrounds, cultures, beliefs, and dreams, all of which will inform their development in their chosen fields.

Pomerantz Center, Art and Design Gallery

The Fabric Styling major provides students with a strong foundation in styling, concept development, and trend forecasting. Targeting specific markets, students develop their design skills to create strong presentations based on a variety of references that range from historical and cultural trends to the current socioeconomic climate. The program emphasizes interdisciplinary learning, with courses in fashion and prop-styling, art history, and digital design, as well as in the related areas of photography, business development, and marketing. This exhibition showcases the collaborative work done by senior BFA students in their thesis capstone course.

Goodman Resource Center Lobby

This showcase of visionary design illustrations and meticulously constructed garments represents the accomplishments of graduating Fashion Design BFA students. These budding designers have taken what they’ve learned from FIT’s distinguished professors and the dynamic Fashion Design curriculum and employed it to fully realize their designs, from initial concept to execution. During their four years in the program, the students developed their individual styles and gained superb construction skills. To produce the exceptional work on display, students received guidance and critique from fashion industry leaders working alongside the dedicated faculty. These awe-inspiring looks and illustrations were selected by a panel of industry judges and faculty from the Sportswear, Special Occasion, Knitwear, Children’s Wear, and Intimate Apparel specializations.

John E. Reeves Great Hall

How does a young artist create work that is relevant in our contemporary culture? In the context of an ever-changing, interconnected society–still reeling from the interruption of the pandemic–students considered how multiple social, cultural, and political factors influence their creative practices, while forging a formal visual language that’s uniquely their own. This year, FIT’s Fine Arts thesis students grappled with important issues and responded with works that reflect a range of expanded perspectives. Cultural themes of heritage and identity, personal versus public persona, and race relations are on the minds of many FIT seniors. Students examined our reliance on technology and the expanding role it plays in our lives, as well as ecological issues and the impact of society on nature and climate change. The creativity of our talented students manifested in myriad ways, from paintings to mixed-media works, book arts, and freestanding and wall-mounted sculptures. FIT’s proximity to New York’s art galleries and museums gave these students the unique opportunity to develop an awareness of how their own work relates to their creative predecessors and to the contemporary dialogue. 

Feldman Center, Lobby Showcase and Balcony

Graduating Footwear and Accessories Design AAS and BFA students designed their collections around a theme: Into The Vortex. They were encouraged to do in-depth research before producing their collections, fully exploring their designs through their inspiration, customers, and seasons. The students’ designs feature a wide variety of materials, including leather, wood, textiles, glass, and metals. Each student had the choice to specialize in footwear, handbags, or art specialization. The works on display were conceived and created entirely by the students and were selected for this exhibition by faculty members and industry critics.

Art and Design Gallery Studio – D223

Graphic designers are active participants in the public discourse. They offer thoughtful perspectives in this globalized and technologically advanced society. Students of our program focus on the study of intercultural issues. They explore the shifting practice of receiving word and image on screen and in print; and in turn, they immerse themselves in research that leads to new insights. In their final semester, students engage in the robust conceptual development of a chosen subject and apply rigorous experimentation in diverse graphic media. Graduates of our program find a vast range of professional opportunities, from working for cultural institutions and global corporations to political organizations, the entertainment industry, niche studios, and more. Our alumni are influential in shaping the visual voice of our society.

John E. Reeves Great Hall

Illustration students at FIT learn the application of art, technology, and entrepreneurship. The program prepares students for careers in the competitive field of graphic arts. Students integrate traditional and digital techniques and engage in creative problem-solving processes to produce imagery that effectively communicates information and targets specific commercial markets. During their time at FIT, students develop their personal style, technique, and expression, creating a strong body of work that culminates in the end-of-year exhibition. The high quality of our graduates’ work reflects their talent, persistence, and experience, and represents the initial step for each artist in their career endeavor.

Pomerantz Center, Art and Design Gallery

The mission of the Interior Design program at FIT is to educate the next generation of environmentally and socially responsible, creative, and globally relevant interior design professionals. To achieve this mission, the two-year AAS and two-year BFA degree programs nurture students’ artistic potential and facilitate the development of an aesthetic sense. Students are challenged to use evidence-based design and to innovate, collaborate, and experiment in an effort to transform the built environments in which we live, work, learn, and play. We strive to empower students with the sound design methodologies needed for success and leadership positions in their profession.

Goodman Resource Center Lobby

FIT’s Jewelry Design students will enter an industry that requires them to strike a dynamic balance between product design, craft, business savvy, sustainability practice, and social responsibility. The 2024 Graduating Student Exhibition presents students’ visions as they balance these factors and find their distinctive style. The unspoken statement of ornament is a powerful one, and this power is explored, harnessed, and released by our students. This exhibition has been curated to demonstrate the range of talent in each student. The ideas expressed, the materials used, and the construction methods employed are both ancient and modern. Our students’ creative voices make a powerful comment on their moment in time.

Goodman Resource Center Lobby

The Fashion Design department proudly showcases these garments created by Menswear students in their fourth-semester capstone classes. All graduating student garments are first designed in their third-semester portfolio presentation class. Students construct their muslin prototypes, conduct fittings, and refine their garments prior to making final patterns. Once these fully sewn muslin prototypes, or “toiles,” have been perfected, students then cut each item using their finalfabrications. Every original garment incorporates construction details as well as tailoring techniques that these students refined and perfected throughout the entire Menswear program. A recognized and respected professional designer critiques each student’s design and selects the best of these original submissions for display in this exhibition. Past critics have includedRobert Stock (founder of Chaps), Ben Stubbington of Theory, Italo Zucchelli for Calvin Klein, Doug and Ben Burkman, John Bartlett, Tim Hamilton, David Hart, Abasi and Rosborough, and John Varvatos.

Goodman Resource Center Lobby

FIT’s Packaging Design BFA program is the only undergraduate degree of its kind in the U.S. Through an intellectually rigorous, comprehensive, state-of-the-art curriculum, the program prepares students to be collaborative designers, informed global citizens, and effective communicators who can exceed expectations in the profession of brand packaging design. The program emphasizes that brand packaging design is integral to business strategy: a key component of marketing objectives and an essential vehicle for communicating a consumer-product company’s value, character, and core. Through packaging, companies create meaningful relationships between consumers and products. By focusing on brand development and application across an array of product categories, students learn what it takes to meet package-design challenges in the omni-channel world of traditional retail and e-commerce. The complex societal factors that influence shopping patterns have a great impact on brand packaging design. The graduates of our program are prepared to adapt and address the packaging challenges they will surely encounter in our ever-changing world.

The Museum at FIT, Special Exhibitions Gallery

The students of Photography and Related Media bring together a wide range of photographic approaches and subjects. Working with imaging technologies from silver gelatin prints to video to augmented reality, graduates develop the skills necessary to engage within all areas of the field. The Graduating Student Exhibition showcases these abilities, as the students spend two semesters researching and producing a distinct body of work, pushing themselves both conceptually and aesthetically. In the constantly changing world of photography, our graduates can be found at the leading edge, shaping the future of visual imagery.

Pomerantz Center, Art and Design Gallery, Back Gallery

Explorable experiences that combine storytelling and worldbuilding are transforming the world of design. With an extraordinary combination of visual display, interactive design, environmental graphics, architecture, and digital technology, experience design is reshaping brand activations, exhibitions, events, and pop-ups. And graduates of FIT’s Spatial Experience Design BFA program are poised to lead the way. Our students create experiences and activations: Experiences that can richly convey stories about a brand or a cause. Places that can improve how we learn or reinforce activities that enhance lives. The capstone design project is the culmination of a two-year journey. Students find their voices through research, concept design, advanced visualization, and physical construction. Then, they take ownership of their ideas by interviewing leaders, developing their own storytelling approach, and fabricating an inspiring design in a public space.

Pomerantz Center, Art and Design Gallery

The Textile/Surface Design major provides students with the aesthetic, intellectual, analytical, and technological tools to become innovative textile designers. Students develop their skills through hands-on exploration of painting, weaving, and printing techniques, while also learning to use emerging technologies in their work. They gain a solid understanding of design principles and methods and apply them to translate their ideas into products. Students research historical and contemporary sources for inspiration and establish their personal artistic style through exploration and experimentation. The projects in this exhibition showcase the synergy of creativity, technical skill, and market understanding that these young designers use to push design boundaries within the commercial realities of the textile industry.

Pomerantz Center – Art and Design Gallery

This year, the Toy Design Graduating Student Exhibition focuses on the importance of a mindful design process to guide the journey of toy development from a spark of imagination, through manufacture, and into the enthusiastic grasp of a child. Toy Design students recognize imagination’s role in the development of self-image, and they prize play as a precious and vital part of childhood. Toys allow children to trust their abilities and develop the critical-thinking skills that lead to positive life choices. Students in our program invent toys and games that provide open-ended exploration and play, giving children room to think and breathe and connect with nature and the world around them. Some products and concepts in this exhibition encourage positive communication between children through their social networks. All graduating Toy Design students write and illustrate storybooks that celebrate the power of creativity. Some student projects use the imagination to creatively problem-solve real-world issues. Other projects address matters of community and cultural heritage.