Senior Associate Dean

AIB

"Our goal is to cultivate designers who are versatile problem-solvers."

"Good design is more than visual styling," explains Fried, who chairs the Design Department at The Art Institute of Boston. "Design attracts people who think in different ways but who ultimately are both visual and conceptual problem solvers - bringing order to disorder."
For students in his Senior Seminar, Fried offers his own career as an example, giving the students an exclusive look at some of his first attempts at design. These are not the sorts of work that Fried would place in his portfolio but they do illustrate for the students how Fried made his transition from photography to design.
"My career began with a sense of uncertainty," he says. "I show students how a path through uncertainty can work."

The goal of the department, and of the school, Fried explains, is to cultivate students who are versatile problem-solvers able to use their design training to become everything from strategic thinkers and planners to art educators, as well as professional graphic designers. "They will be able to apply what they learn to many things," he says.