Launch a DFA Studio

Steps for Launching a Studio

  • Build a Foundation

    Recruit a team of 2-4 students and a faculty mentor, then build your skills in design and studio leadership.

  • Plan a Launch

    Create a design education plan, set studio goals, and scope your first project.

  • Pilot a Design Project

    Lead new studio members through your first project with a community partner.

  • Share & Celebrate

    Share learnings with your community partner and the DFA network via our Community Innovation Platform.

Four people standing around a whiteboard with colorful sticky notes, in a room with a window showing trees outside.

Benefits of launching a studio:

  • Building leadership skills and managing their studio operations

  • Becoming a community leader and organizer on their campus

  • Connecting with student and professional designers across the country

Launch a Studio

Launching FAQ

Two smiling students sitting at a table in a classroom with a wall covered in colorful sticky notes and papers in the background, surrounded by other students working or talking.

  • Launching your own studio begins with forming a team of 2-5 student leaders and 1-2 faculty mentors committed to building a DFA community. Next, the DFA National team will arrange a meeting with the core team to create a launch timeline and provide training in design and studio leadership skills!

  • The studio launching process is primarily undertaken by a team of undergraduate or graduate students with support from a faculty mentor. We welcome professors or students to reach out and learn more!

  • There is no financial cost to participate in the network.

  • A Student undertaking the launching process can anticipate spending 2-5 hours per week. The time commitment will be highest when you are recruiting new members, facilitating design education, and running your first design project, as well as the period when you recruit and onboard new leaders.

    A Faculty Mentor’s time commitment varies, though most mentors meet with their student team at least 1 hour per month to check in and offer mentorship and guidance.

  • You do not need a permanent physical space to participate in DFA - your team is your “studio!” We do recommend finding a space to host regular meetings and design sprints, like your school library or a trusted classroom.

Success Story: Rutgers University

The DFA studio at Rutgers completed the launching process in January 2023 after recruiting 52 new members and completing a food insecurity project with 8 teams.

The Rutgers team collaborated with other Northeast studios—Yale, NYU, and Barnard|Columbia—to plan and host the inaugural Northeast Meetup, where attendees completed a design sprint on building sustainable studio relationships. The studio also invited Senior Service Designer at Spotify, Grace Kwon, to speak on Community Design theory and practice as part of a network-wide virtual speaker series.

Success Story: North Central College

DFA at North Central College is a standout example of a DFA studio adapting to a small college setting. The NCC studio has a strong sense of design culture and leads successful community projects. Leaders from DFA North Central continue to innovate and serve within the DFA network; co-founder and former Studio Lead Lindsay Gleason is part of the design education team for DFA’s 2023-24 Fellows Program, where she lends her leadership expertise to mentor students across the network.

  • We found the DFA platform so appealing because it gave us the opportunity to set up design challenges that add value to our local community here at Rutgers New Brunswick, while also having a more widespread impact through opportunities that are offered by DFA National.”

    – Kritika Singh, Studio Co-Founder at DFA Rutgers

  • “We hope to establish a community of innovative designers on campus in the future [who are] not just participating in teams and design opportunities, but also engaging with the Rutgers community and beyond. We're collaborating with our own members to design what DFA can be for future semesters, using brainstorming and many of the same methods that DNA members are using in the DFA design process [to apply] them to our own studio.”

    – Serene Labadi, Studio Member at North Central College

  • “I loved learning about the process of human-centered design and then also just working so collaboratively with our class and with our community partners. We're all just trying to, you know, change the world.”

    – Kal Pandit, Studio Co-Founder of DFA Rutgers

Ready to start a studio? Fill out our interest form!

Launch a Studio