3D design faculty will encourage you to experiment, using a wide range of materials and approaches, integrating theory and conceptual thinking with hands-on making.

The program values conceptual dexterity, sophisticated design, craftsmanship, the aesthetic quality of studio work and the meaning of social value.  Intermediate and advanced courses involve intensive inquiry in furniture, hand built bicycles, objects, fabrication, modeling and materials. The problems-based curriculum enables you to both investigate the critical questions facing designers and makers today, and develop the sophisticated skills required by changing technologies and new materials. Our studio labs, some of the finest in North America, include computer modeling, virtual reality (VR) and computer numerical control (CNC) equipment including router, plasma-cutter, water jet, laser-cutter, thermoforming and rapid prototyping (RP).

The "Iowa Idea" permeates the study of 3D design, wherein studio art, art history, and more broadly science and the humanities, are woven.