What college majors could lead to a career as a conceptual designer?

Industrial design. Look at DAAP at the University of Cincinnati.

Art Center is the only school I know that teaches that sort of thing specifically.

DAAP is on the Business Week A list of international design schools – again. Their co-op programs are awesome. They have students co-op with David Copperfield. Lots of international exposure.

What do you mean by a conceptual designer? I have degrees in design but I don’t know what you mean.

I would suggest mechanical engineering with a minor in industrial design.

You need to know how things work and how people that use those things think.

Engineering of some kind and Psychology/advertising.

I would suggest fashion design if you want to create concepts for fashions.

I would suggest scenic design if you want to create concepts for stage sets.

I would suggest a flower arranging course if you want to explore concepts for flower arrangement designs.

I would suggest a degree in business with a focus on human resources if you want to develop concepts for benefits packages.

I would suggest nuclear engineering if you want to create concepts for closed loop nuclear reactors.

etc etc. Again, you should try to clarify what it is you’re actually asking if you want useful answers.

To clarify, Lockheed Martin currently has an advertising campain going and in one of the videos for it has a guy that says he’s a conceptual designer. Essentially it looks like his job is to come up with designs for Lockheed Martin aircraft. Not so much the mechanical aspect but more about the shape and purpose and how the aircraft would work. So that’s specifically what I’m looking for here.

Industrial design