Rama Chorpash is the founding director of the MFA Industrial Design program at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where he is a tenured associate professor. Before shaping this forward-thinking graduate program, he was director of BFA Product Design, Parsons and BS Industrial Design, University of the Arts. His pedagogy cultivates critical making; exploring what products are, what they could be, and how they might tangibly posit positive change in an uncertain world.
While engaged as an academic, Rama Chorpash also balances a creative-practice where he has worked with clients such as Victorinox Swiss Army, Ikea, and Swatch Watch. His designs have traversed a broad spectrum of project types, from innovative office furniture for Herman Miller to a celebratory roller-skate disco in Central Park with avaf and the Public Art Fund in Central Park. Embedded in each project is an exploration of social-use.
Work has exhibited coast to coast, from the Museum of Modern Art, New York to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He has had feature profiles in publications such as The New York Times Style Magazine, The New Yorker, and Co. Design | Fast Company. He has had the honor of being listed by Elle Décor as one of the ten most influential people in design.
