Industrial design students impress clients through a semester-long collaboration
Traci Westcott/RIT
Bennett Hu, left, discusses his product design with Josh Owen, right, during a mid-semester review for Metaproject 16. His design, “Strata,” aims to highlight connections between family, home, and identity.
When Bennett Hu registered for this year’s Metaproject course, he was excited about the opportunity to be more abstract with his designs. He drew influence from his childhood to address the prompt “what is safe?”
“My product is a take on how people mark their height on a door frame or wall, recording how much they’ve grown throughout childhood,” said Hu, a fourth-year industrial design student from Vashon Island, Wash.
“Strata,” Hu’s design concept, is a storage tree and stadiometer that archives connections to family, home, and identity by inscribing vertical growth into a useful home object. He said working on this design for Metaproject 16—an annual design initiative that pairs students with industry partners to develop product concepts—helped him grow as a designer and communicator.
His response to the prompt was selected by this year’s Metaproject client to be presented at the 2026 International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), hosted in New York City in May. Hu and Agneya Kulkarni, another fourth-year industrial design student, were selected as co-winners of Metaproject 16.
“This experience helped me to think very deeply about the essence of a product and the subtle ways that its design could influence how people think or interact with each other,” he said. “Being able to communicate a very abstract idea to a real-life client is really good practice for the types of things that I’ll have to communicate and when I’m working professionally.”
Traci Westcott/RIT
Students enrolled in the Metaproject course spend an entire semester developing design concepts to present to their industry partner, Gardall, in an experience crafted to mimic real-world client interactions.
Giving students that authentic working experience was the ultimate goal when Josh Owen, Vignelli Distinguished Professor and Design, crafted the Metaproject course. As director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, Owen is passionate about connecting students with real-world clients while instilling the Vignelli’s iconic “Design is One” philosophy into the practice of student designers.
“This year’s partnership has been unique in that the question posed to the students—what is safe?—is both practical and deeply personal,” Owen said. “I have seen students assert their value systems in this project in a way that is more palpable than in years past. It has been provocative and exciting.”
For Metaproject 16, Owen invited Gardall Safe Corporation, a global manufacturer of premium safes and security devices, to be the students’ industry partner. The company is led by a pair of alumni, Elizabeth and Spar Patton, who both graduated from RIT’s industrial design MFA program in 2017.
Spar serves as president of the company, and Elizabeth acts as the lead designer.
“Connecting current design students with alumni is like providing them with family they never knew they had. It is a privilege to broker professional relationships in this way,” said Owen. “The benefit is a trust that creates opportunities for all.”
Stepping into a mentorship role through this collaboration was exciting for the Pattons. They both observed the relevance and value of Metaproject as students—Elizabeth having participated in the course as a graduate assistant and Spar having observed from the sidelines—and they wanted to help carry on the legacy that Owen had built for the program over the last 16 years.
“We really appreciated the thoughtful work that came out of Metaproject and we are grateful for the opportunity to contribute as industry partners that help foster the same opportunities we were exposed to and enjoyed so much when we were students,” said Spar.
Elizabeth added, “We were very impressed with the quality of work, professionalism, and curiosity with which the students approached the project. It’s exciting to see what new designers come up with.”
Every year, the Metaproject course culminates in a client jury where designs are selected for presentation at ICFF. The designs selected from Metaproject 16 include:
- “Care Chair,” designed by Diya Das
- “Cloak,” designed by Edward Elliot
- “Strata,” designed by Bennett Hu
- “Capsule,” designed by Emma Kobelia
- “Candle Lantern with a Timer,” designed by Agneya Kulkarni
- “Sorted Medicine Cabinet,” designed by Lydia Pringle
- “Branch,” designed by Jason Wu
For more details about the annual design challenge, go to the Metaproject website or email Josh Owen at jkofaa@rit.edu.
