Faculty

Profile

Robert Rabinovitz is an multidisciplinary designer, entrepreneur and Associate Professor of Design at Parsons. He received his BS in Industrial Design from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1982, and worked as an Industrial Designer in a variety of multi-disciplinary design consultancies around the United States. In 1992, he received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art where he was awarded the first Steelcase Design Scholarship. Continuing his education, he completed one year in the MFA Sculpture program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 2014, he also received his MA in The School of Media Studies at The New School University for Film and Screenwriting. 

Robert’s professional experience as a practicing artist, designer and educator span over thirty years. He has exhibited and sold his art and design work around the world with clients including Nambe, Moen and Knoll. In NYC he has shown at Jim Kempner Fine Art, Felissimo Design House and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) for his Spring + Crosby Collection. Robert’s work was published in Product Design 2, his work with Moen received awards for design, a patent for the Revolution Showerhead, 2002 Business Week IDEA Bronze and the ID Annual Design Distinction Award among other publications.

As educator, Robert served as Chair of the BFA Industrial Design program at University of Wisconsin, Stout, led sponsored projects with Rollerblade, Trek and Puma, organized and led numerous exhibitions with the university community and IDSA nationally. At the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, he served as Interim Chair of the Industrial Design program for Product, Automotive and Furniture Design, developed a new Furniture program and curriculum. Since 2002, he has taught in New York at Pratt Institute, School of Visual Arts, Mt. Sinai Medical School and Parsons School of Design. At Parsons, he has taught and developed courses in the Pre-college and Summer programs, Foundation, BFA Product Design, the BBA in Strategic Design and Management, BFA Integrated Design and BFA Fashion Design programs. Robert continues to teach in the School of Design Strategies.  He has led and worked on collaborative projects with Sunbeam, Vespa, Daimler Chrysler, 3M, Donna Karan’s Urban Zen Foundation, the Red Cross of Greater New York, AARP and the Noguchi Museum. 

Robert helped create and lead the Senior of Design Strategies [SDS] Senior Portfolio Strategies Lecture and Workshop class for both BBA Strategic Design and Management and BFA Integrated Design students, has also helped develop the Senior Thesis year-long BFA Integrated Design “Social Impact” Thesis studio. Robert’s students have been published, won numerous design awards and have worked in the top design consulting and corporate offices, started their own firms and freelance all over the world including IDEO, Sunberg Ferar, Design Continuum, Smart Design and Nike. 

Robert published his first series of poetry books entitled “Twelve Poems, Volume 1, 2, 3”, integrating poetry, design and photography. He returned to graduate school and received an MA in Media Studies in 2014 from The New School University in Film and Screenwriting and developed a variety of short films including “Maybe Me” which has received awards including Best Experimental Short, San Francisco International New Concepts Film Festival, NYC Indie Film Awards, Reel Recovery Film Festival, NYC, Colorado International Film Festival, Other Venice Film Festival and Yosemite International Film Festival. Robert has also co-written a feature length screenplay based on a true story entitled “The Seizure”, which has gained recognition in several film festivals including as finalist in the 11th annual Topanga, CA Film Festival, Beverly Hills International Film Festival, Burbank International Film Festival and in 2016, was invited to continue work on the script at the Squaw Valley Screenwriters Colony. 

Robert's work has been a continuum addressing universal complex contemporary social and cultural issues, which continues to shape his multi-disciplinary professional career. Robert’s most recent work explores integrated projects of poetry, lyrics and urban street photography and sculpture, “The Found Children’s Series” of sculptures is based on reclaimed shop wood and vintage children’s toy blocks. “The Creative Journey” is a new 52-card playing deck exploring four themes [The Hero’s Journey, the 12 Archetypes, 12 stages of Recovery from all forms of trauma and addiction and the 12 stages of the Design Process].

Research Interests

design research,furniture design,product design,social innovation,transdisciplinary design

Portfolio

Robert Rabinovitz Studio