Description
This Master’s programme in Design, with a subject pathway entitled ‘Innovation, Interaction and Services’, comprises theory-based, methodology-based and applied course units.
It is based on research activity and experience of the professional context in equal measure.
This Master’s is available as a single, vocationally oriented pathway aiming at students’ direct entry into employment without the need for doctoral studies. This subject pathway combines university learning with skills gained via experience in different socio-economic contexts.
Objectives
The ultimate aim of this Master’s programme in Design is to shape designers who are:
- agile and proactive in the digital sector, in service industries, in creative industries, in R&D industries, in public or private structures and in manufacturing;
- capable of applying their capacity for reflexivity and flexibility to a range of project contexts, in order to contribute to the improvement of our world’s habitability and to play a major role in breakthrough innovations.
Design positions itself within a creative field that interrogates the scientific advances and professional sectors emerging from the sociocultural, economic, technological and industrial transformations currently underway. These transformations encourage today’s designers to come up with and give meaning to new uses for the relationships between space, product, information, image, experience and services. In this way, it is designers who can redefine the way in which people, products and services interact within a given context. Via a humanist and reflexive approach and a critical analysis of societal issues and questions, and in light of the accelerated development of digital technologies, this programme of study interrogates the contexts, actors, uses and consumers in Design Thinking.
Training content
Two years of study: Master 1 (M1) and Master 2 (M2)
This Master’s programme in Design offers an understanding of the epistemology of the fields and practices which fuel a design project, for which there are multiple points of reference: semiotics, anthropology, sociology, engineering (in collaboration with ENSAM Paris-Tech Talence), cognitive ergonomics, aesthetics, collaborative practices of creation and ideation and technological and mixed-media experimentation. This learning develops and broadens the professional profile of future designers, drawing on our multiple partnerships and collaborations with socio-professional networks and stakeholders in innovation, thereby facilitating students’ entry into employment.
This programme of study offers the opportunity for a significant field presence, via workshops, displays, exhibitions and competitions.
Master 1: First year of two-year Master’s programme
The first year of this two-year course is essentially about gaining a strong command of processes and methodologies for design ideation and the enunciation of schemas of thought. Students explore contemporary societal issues and their impact on the design project. Great emphasis is placed on both fieldwork (observation, diagnostics, critical analysis) and experimentation (ideation, creation, iteration, production).
Our close collaboration with ENSAM Paris-Tech Talence means that students benefit from an interdisciplinary point of contact, which is truly essential in the training of new designers. Students gain insight into the range of logics and schemas by which to represent the design project in industry and its scalability in the service sector.
Master 2: Second year of two-year Master’s programme
The second year of this two-year programme aims to strengthen students’ reflexive skills and capacity for applied criticism of a given design project. Students carry out a professional project by means of an internship, which serves to further strengthen the profile of these future designers.
This exercise demonstrates students’ ability to see a project through, from start to finish.
An integral part of this project is the completion of a dissertation, which draws on theory and methodology. The ability to explore the link between the practical conclusion of a project on the one hand and the theoretical issues raised therein on the other is a considerable asset for any designer who aspires to carry out original and innovative productions. This is particularly true in the context of the current instabilities in the world around us.
This coherence between theory and practice can be conceived of in one of two ways:
- either the professional project puts forward a hypothetical and pragmatic response to the research question tackled by the dissertation;
- or the professional project is itself a means by which to set in motion this theoretical and methodological reflection.
Entry requirements
Find information regarding enrolment procedures and the supporting documents to be provided, according to your profile and your level of studies :
Career pathways
Through close cooperation with regional stakeholders in the industrial and services sectors (manufacturers, company leaders, small and medium size businesses, R&D service providers, public bodies, living labs), students are able to contribute to the growth of emerging and ever expanding professional fields. For example, students may find employment as interaction designers, service designers, information designers, product-interface designers, project managers or R&D designers. Designers in these fields are all creators, who have a driving role before and after the creation phase itself. They seek to call existing solutions into question and to find divergent and innovative ways of designing products and services invested with meaning. They are thus able to fuel new areas of reflection and the discovery of new professional practices.
