EDPA Designer Certification

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If you have any questions please reach out to: Dasher Lowe [email protected] or [email protected].

The Experiential Designers and Producers Association (EDPA), in partnership with the Fashion Institute of Technology's (FIT) Graduate Studies, is excited to now offer you the first Designer’s Certification program created by industry experts specifically for individual designers in the customer experience industry.

The certification is a globally recognized designation that demonstrates the highest professional standards in experiential, exhibition and event design. Individual designers at any level in their careers can leverage this advanced training to further their skills. With the EDPA Designer’s Certification program, you will walk away with immediately applicable knowledge of current and cutting-edge methods, techniques and technology that drive experience based-designed environments.

View Course Outlines

Design Your Future

Earn the certification that demonstrates the highest professional standards in experiential, exhibition, and event design.

  • 5 online courses with 1 seminar onsite at FIT/NYC
  • Online courses begin in May and run through August
  • Two weeks per studio course; three evenings 7-9pm and one weekend day 11-2pm
  • Six required courses
  • Total cost of certification: $5,200*  (*for early registration - price will increase)

Courses

STUDIO 1:  Technical Skills Advancement (Online)
STUDIO 2:  Concept and Ideation (Online)
STUDIO 3:  Design Development: Domestic and International (Online)
STUDIO 4:  Media Integration & Emerging Technologies (Online)
SEMINAR 1:  Presentation Skills (Online)
SEMINAR 2:  Professional Practices and Business Development (In-Person)

Meet the Instructors

Adam CarnesADAM CARNES
“I design exhibits, events, and interactive experiences for all kinds of people in all sorts of spaces. I’m a sucker for great stories and broken rules.”
Adam Carnes is a seasoned creative lead with a demonstrated history of producing experiential exhibits, events, and interactive media installations. Over 10 years he has developed a reputation as an excellent communicator with an eye for detail and a knack for big ideas. Recently his professional focus has been on directing remote, multidisciplinary teams in the creation of narrative-driven experiences that blend physical and digital space.
Adam is currently a Sr. Customer Experience Designer for Derse and resides in Mexico City. He has given talks on mixed reality at the ExhibitorLive conference for the last 2 years and his work was featured in Exhibitor Magazine’s Best of CES 2018. He is a co-founder of Vurv, an art collective creating interactive and immersive works in Austin, TX. In 2017, Vurv was selected to represent the city of Austin at the UNESCO Media Arts Festival in Gwangju, South Korea.
Adam teaches Concept, Ideation, & Audience as part of the EDPA + FIT Design Certification Program. He holds an MA in Exhibition and Experience Design from FIT.

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn
See Adam’s work at adamisgood.com

Rob CohenROB COHEN
Rob Cohen is a VP and Principal in Display Supply & Lighting, Inc. and its related group of companies. Having grown up working in a family owned business, Rob studied business as an undergraduate, spent a year completing a commercial loan officer training program at a commercial bank, went to law school and then practiced law for 12 years focusing on business and corporate law. While practicing law, he represented businesses ranging from sole proprietors to publicly traded companies regarding a wide range of business and transactional matters.
Missing the business world and with the backing of a group of angel investor, Rob purchased a small lighting company making clamp on arm lights for the trade show industry in 1996. Since then, he has been a part of merging companies together, creating new entities, growing companies, developing and selling products and marketing these entities.
Rob is a Past President of the EDPA, serves on the Board of the EDPA Foundation, is Chairperson of the Academic Advisory Board for FIT’s Master of Arts Program in Exhibition and Experience Design and is involved with a number of non profit organizations.
Since 2008, Rob has been a guest lecturer in FIT’s Master of Arts Program in Exhibition and Experience Design in the areas of Lighting Design and Owning Your Own Business and Working in the Experiential Industry. In 2019 Rob also instructed a certificate course on Professional Business Practices at FIT.
Rob resides in Framingham, MA with his Wife, Lisa of 27 years (and their dog Ella) and has 2 grown daughters.

Joe KaradinJOE KARADIN
Joe Karadin is the Executive Creative Director and Co-Founder of TESSELLATE. A highly experienced architect and exhibit designer, Joe has more than 22 years of experience in immersive environmental design.
Joe leads multidisciplinary design teams on projects as diverse as branded retail environments, museum exhibit design, corporate environments and media architecture installations. His passion is exploring new ways of creating, communicating, and producing physical and digital design to shape experiences. His design practice focuses on the complex interconnections between content, experiential narratives, and spatial arrangements spanning across many different project types.
Prior to becoming a founding member of TESSELLATE, Joe was the Director of Physical Design at ESI Design. He has tenured at Thinc Design, Interbrand, Lippincott and other notable design firms. He has won several awards and distinctions for his work on the AT&T GNOC, the Edward M. Kennedy institute, the Studio Xfinity retail store, and as a finalist for his design of the World Trade Center Memorial.
Joe teaches as an Adjunct Instructor of in the Graduate Exhibition & Experience Design Program at FIT in New York City and graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Architecture.

Connect with Joe Karadin on LinkedIn
See Joe Karadin's work with TESSELLATE

Trent OliverTRENT OLIVER
I am the Principal, Managing Director of Blue Telescope. Well what on earth does that mean and what does Blue Telescope really do? 
At Blue Telescope we weave stories, art, and technology into meaningful experiences, and delight in making complexity - compelling. 
These location-based, interactive experiences might make hard math beautiful to an audience of teens, or show how immuno-oncology is changing cancer treatment for visiting hematologists or show how a technology company is creating real digital transformation while listening to their visitors in real-time. 
My career embodies the circuitous path so many of us former theater people take. After starting in theatrical production, I migrating into film and digital creations and then I co-founded my own company, Blue Telescope. 
As Managing Director, I've seen Blue Telescope grow to be both respected and lauded, as I guide an in-house team that's won (way) more than 100 awards for creativity for our engaging, boundary-pushing interactives. 
My job? Find the most creative, kind and trustworthy people as employees, consultants, and especially clients. We all work together to make amazing creations!

Connect with Trent Oliver on LinkedIn
See Trent Oliver's work with Blue Telescope

Katina ZipayKATINA ZIPAY
Katina Zipay is the Creative Director at Classic Exhibits Inc with 13 years of experience as an Exhibit Designer, and she was among the first students to graduate with an MA in Exhibition Design from FIT. Her career as a professional designer started 18 years ago when she earned a Bachelor's degree in Interior Design, but studying exhibit design at FIT from 2006-2007 was the pivot point that turned her creative passion into her job. Katina loves art and its ability to impact the viewer, and considers her medium to be large 3-dimensional experiences that utilize colors, shapes, lighting, and graphics to encompass viewers at an event. Her projects at their best are large scale sculptures in addition to thoroughly functional branded experiences that inform people about products and services in a memorable way. Katina's design work consistently delivers for her clients and has won multiple design awards.
Her passion for education and connecting people with the resources they need to grow in their careers led Katina to a leadership role in the non-profit group "Women In Exhibitions." Under her leadership for the last 5 years, Katina has turned simple annual meetings into well-attend events at ExhibitorLIVE, created a mentorship program, and led an advisory committee committed to further expanding support for women in the exhibit industry. Katina also teaches Design Development: Domestic and International as part of the EDPA+FIT Design Certificate Program.