Adam Smith

Adam Smith, a full-time faculty member, has taught for 31 years in RISD’s Industrial Design department, where he served as department head from 2010–13. His teaching is closely linked to his research and professional design work. Adam teaches within many design-related areas, including hand sketching towards ideation; communications/ information graphics; 2D digital/analog; digital 3D modeling; hand and analog machined fabrication in metal, wood and plastic; 3D printing and CNC; focus on design for plastics, investment cast metals and sand cast metals; sustainable design focused on improving physical application towards a greener product; manufacturing and production; life cycle assessment; design-related future forecasting; UI/UX software design; and defining virtual user experiences. Adam’s focus on teaching research methodologies that help to formalize a design hypothesis allows students to conduct system-based design thinking that leads to validated, tangible results. See highlights from his career through the CV link at left.