First Year Experience (FYE)

D104
NCSU College of Design
Fall 2023

The work on this page was completed by undergraduate students in a variety of disciplines during their first semester of their first year of study at the North Carolina State University College of Design. Instruction was in person.

The First Year Experience is a unique educational moment in students’ curriculum in the College of Design. Before moving into studio courses dealing specifically with their chosen disciplines, students studying Architecture, Industrial Design, Graphic Design, and Art + Design are all grouped together in an interdisciplinary first semester. The work of the studio is distinctly not of a particular discipline, intending for the unfamiliarity with the content to allow for more focus and rigor to be placed on learning a new process - one that will serve them well in the various fields of design in which they will become professionals.

1 - paper wearable
The first major project asks students to investigate (1) a grounds for conceptual ideation - in the case of the ‘23 studio; relationships with their studiomates - and (2) the material constraints and opportunities of paper. Moving through a highly iterative process of divergent and convergent exploration of these two topics, students ultimately are to design a wearable or occupiable paper construction that conveys a concept they have developed.

Gaining some control over abstraction of concepts and execution is a key objective of the project, which is a new parameter for most students at this stage. Form, texture, light + shadow, and material quality are all exploited in an effort to convey meaning without metaphor. Concepts from this group range from explorations of death and impermanence to a celebration of having curly hair. If you are curious to know more about a particular project, feel free to contact us. You can also read more about the project in this article on the NCSU design blog.

A selection of student work is featured below.