The teaching of Design in Paraná began in 1975 in Curitiba, with the simultaneous opening of a course in UFPR and another at PUC-PR. Throughout its 30 years history in the Undergraduate course of Design (Industrial Design, Visual Programming and Product Design) the institution has trained hundreds of professionals, with many of its Alumni teaching in other universities in the Southern Region of Brazil (eg Tuiuti University, Positivo University, PUC-PR, UTFPR). Such background has enable a deep understanding on the potentialities of Design research in the region and motivated the staff to joint efforts on the implementation of a Post-Graduate Program.

In 2001 there was the first initiative in structuring a proposal to CAPES (government institution) to implement a Post-Graduate Program at UFPR. Unfortunately, that first attempt was not succesfful due to shortage of doctors with adequate scientific production on the field of Design.

Between 2002 and 2004, the Department of Design at UFPR has made a bold effort to speed up its research profile, expanding the amount of research projects and the amount of scientific publications at national and international level as well as contracting more doctors to joint the permanent staff. These advances were joined by the  set up of laboratories and infrastructure, enabling a new proposition to implement the UFPR´s Design Post-Graduate Program. The approval by CAPES was published in September 2005. The PPGDesign/UFPR is the first of its kind Southern Brazil and fifth in Brazil.

In the 2010 triennial review conducted by CAPES, the overall evaluation has PPGDesign from grade 3 (entry grade) to grade 4. This quick rise allowed the submission of a proposal for a Ph.D. course in 2011. As a result of this effort in March 2012 the program received the formal approval from CAPES. The selection process for the first PhD candidates was launched in July 2012.