School of Design

Design is a cultural, social, political, economic, and relational activity that responds creatively to its context, location in time, connections, and people.

Design makes a direct economic contribution of €20.7 billion Gross Value Added (Grant Thornton Economic Assessment Report) and NCAD continues to play a critical role in the development of new talent and research that is helping establish Ireland as a creative, cultural and technological centre of design excellence.

At NCAD we seek to nurture, empower and enable our design students to become agents of change. The diverse range of creative work on display across 8 undergraduate and 5 postgraduate programmes demonstrates how our graduates are co-creating, co-realising, and co-communicating tangible design solutions.

The award winning School of Design at NCAD offers the most comprehensive range of design education on the island of Ireland, our students study within and beyond graphics, fashion, illustration, interaction, jewellery, medical devices, moving image, product, service and textile & surface design. This dynamic environment creates a research-led studio culture that thrives on new ideas, ways of doing things and new areas of expertise.

The calibre of our undergraduate and postgraduate students continues to be globally recognised, with the college. As the sole Irish University or College in the top 250, we are now ranked 60th in the world for Art & Design and 23rd in Europe (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024).

The staff team and I are immensely proud to introduce the next generation of NCAD educated designers and changemakers.

Professor Alex Milton
Head of the School of Design