Domus Academy Courses

Domus Academy, center of excellence in research and development of project design and Ars Sutoria, the most prestigious historical Institute of technical specialization in leather goods and shoes, have agreed on a partnership based on the didactics of the Master in Accessories Design at Domus Academy, making the most of the different characteristics and experiences to provide students with a unique path of excellence.

The evolution of the Fashion System demands for the designers not only to be able to design collections, but also to be professional characters with growing multi-disciplinary competences, capable of managing and communicating with the various sectors involved. Today the fashion designer needs to be manager and art-director at the same time, and has to be able to manage the project up to the product, the communication and the retail aspects.

Only in Italy and only in Milan it is possible to study at the centre of a Fashion System that is unique in the world and internationally recognized. Here the creativity of the fashion designers integrates with the production capacity, with the quality of fabrics and confection, with entrepreneurial abilities as well as with retail and communication innovations, allowing a direct contact with this world, its protagonists and events.

THE COURSE

Despite the shared formative foundations with the Master Course in Fashion Design, the path of the Master Course in Accessories Design specifically focuses on everything that revolves around people and clothes. Bags, leather goods, shoes, glasses, gloves, belts, jewels, hats, scarves etc…. these items often become as significant creations just like the clothes they should complete and, for this reason, they often represent a strong element for characterization and style uniqueness.

The path of the Master Course in Accessories Design is a path of experience, research and project making, created by combining the theoretic patrimony of innovative and expert didactics with the fundamental contribution of a close and concrete collaboration with prestigious companies and professionals, who chose to follow the students during their training. The course, in fact, is a sort of laboratory dedicated to express one’s creative sensitivity according to manufacturing and entrepreneurial realities, thus allowing the young designers to experiment innovative design methodologies and to acquire a deep knowledge of the field in all of its aspects.

The Course Begins : January,

Course Duration : 12 months

The Master in Accessories Design lasts 12 months. The structure of the course is divided into two semesters

First Semester

The teaching activity is initially run together with the Master course in Fashion Design (psychology, anthropology, socioeconomic forecasting, marketing and management, contemporary art) with the objective to update the skills acquired by the students in their backgrounds and to facilitate the integration in terms of exchange and contents. During second part of this semester, the master follows its specificity with project seminars and workshops.

Second Semester

The students are given the opportunity to work individually with companies and project leaders to realise their Master thesis.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

The professional market for a fashion designer specialised in accessories is extremely fluid and open to collaborations of various kinds.

Besides, the world of accessories is increasingly growing in the international landscape and requires more and more specialisation.

The opportunities created by the course are the following, among others:

• Companies producing accessories (footwear, small leather goods, bags, jewels, etc.)
• Textile companies (scarves, neck scarves, etc)
• Fashion Houses (design office)

Business Design is the concept of generating new business and innovation through design. The program is an educational project aimed at training students to think creatively and learn how to develop their own innovative and original ideas.

THE COURSE

The Master course in Business Design has been designed with the aim of underlining the importance of Design for production, economy and quality of life. The rationale underpinning the Master in Business Design is the concept of generating new business and innovation through Design starting from the idea that Design is the key factor to generate socio-cultural transformation including changes in mode of production, to overcome the current inadequacy of the traditional paradigm.

In addition to providing the foundations for an all-round understanding of the design’s body of knowledge, this course is aimed at empowering the students’ ability to think creatively and learn how to draw upon a variety of resources in order to develop their own innovative and original ideas.

Historically the Master in Business Design has been conceived to carry out in an educational program the outcomes of a field of research developed since the foundation of Domus Academy, aimed at verifying the “Italian way to do Design”, where the design's contribution is required since the early beginning of the product development process, and the designer represents a strategic partner in a business venture by actively participating in the entrepreneurial challenge, to change and to develop new products and services.

The Master's didactic approach aims at these formative objectives:

• To earn critical knowledge of "Design Thinking" and "Innovation Through Design" tools and methodologies
• To develop a critical awareness of different research techniques applied in creative processes.
• To apply “Design based approach and methodology” in non-design fields.
• To develop a comprehensive understanding of “Entrepreneurship through Design”.
• To present and sell a creative project in an entrepreneurial way by demonstrating both its validity and reliability, through tests, supporting evidences, and application scenarios.

In 2009, for the third year, Domus Academy has been nominated by Business Week as one of the 30 best Schools of Design in the world.

Giovanni Garibaldi, USA

The Course Begins : January , September .

Course Duration : 12 months

The course operates prioritizing an original “learning by designing” approach. Emphasis is placed on:

• learning and applying a “problem setting” approach, ensuring that students hone their critical skills and apply them throughout their work process;
• fostering a personal creative style and developing an original way of expression;
• developing research skills, which will enable students to source relevant materials, assimilating and articulating relevant findings;

The teaching activity of the Master course follows a structure consisting of two main parts:

The first part of the course is mainly didactic and is articulated in lectures, practicals, tutorial sessions and student centred learning and workshops. Workshops are project work-based activities designed to give students a working knowledge of different core subjects. These would encompass aspects of experimental entrepreneurship, as well as issues pertaining the requirements of a company brief.

The second part is the Final Master Project, an individual activity that the student is asked to produce under the guidance of the Master in Business Design staff and a mentor chosen among the visiting professors of the course.

Students’ work is constantly supported by Tutors, Course Director, Project Leaders, Project Assistants as well as by visiting lecturers, advisers and designers.

The course lasts 12 months. Lectures are held from Monday to Friday, from 09.30 to 13.30, and from 14.30 to 18.30. Attendance is compulsory. Lectures and workshops are mainly held in English language.

In order to read the full Master's program download the Master handbook

Career Opportunities

The evolution of markets and the competitive scenarios have determined numerous changes in the corporate management as well as the need to create new professional characters able to face problems with evolved approaches, if compared to the past. The Master in Business Design is addressed to graduates and young professionals coming from design and creativity related faculties, economic and human science, who wish to learn how to combine creativity, business and entrepreneurial mind set through a multidisciplinary approach.

Participants will develop competences to occupy senior positions as Design director, Creative director, Project manager in sectors like Design, Food, Leisure, Tourism, Consumer Goods, Media, Social business, Public and cultural institutions, Consultancy, ICT. Students are also trained to be entrepreneur of their own projects by starting new business venture through design concepts and methodologies.

The aim of the Car and Transportation Design Course is to provide young professionals with the expertise to conceive innovating solutions in designing new generations of vehicles better suited to the current and incoming mobility scenario: mobility needs have considerably increased and represent a sector for massive investment in structural terms, which has to be accompanied by a new paradigm for design.

Vehicles, in fact, are no longer seen as just private objects of desire and mostly developed in terms of style, but now have other parameters that need to be taken into account such as limited access to property, urban congestion, pollution, economic, sociological and technological issues. Concerning the education of designers, it requires on the one hand developing theoretical tools, and on the other, experimenting new skills towards interaction and exchange with other players in this current and future mobility scenario. One of the main issues generated by this combination of factors concerns, nowadays, the crisis of the automotive sector.There is no doubt that the main role of mobility in the last century was played by the automotive sector and though millions of people move today in individual vehicles, the trend is clearly indicating an intermodal way of using means of transport, where users switch between several mediums of transport on land (cars, motor bikes, bicycles), water (yachts, ships, boats) and air (planes and others).

This does not mean that cars are disappearing, but as users and drivers we would like our experience to be enriched and assist in the transfer of quality between the different means of transport, from the point of view of ergonomics, mood and technology.

If this scenario is on-going, the automotive sector may well have a massive experience to impart, but it could also find an interesting opportunity for enrichment from other points of view, other approaches on issues such as concept design and design culture, user behaviour, ethics and sustainability, language and identity, market and property issues, marketing and sales, production and material technologies, smart interfaces, emotive and soft qualities.

THE COURSE

The Course has the benefit of 30 years of experience for Domus Academy in managing crossover study field approaches in Design and is based on a 360° holistic approach, the aim of which is to highlight the relevant and necessary aspects in designing a vehicle adapted to a new mobility scenario and to develop ad hoc teaching methodologies:

On the one hand, Lectures dedicate particular attention to presenting the state of the art on research for mobility and environmental sustainability, and on the other hand, they follow the traditional path of Car and Vehicle Design: from concept to sketch, from clay modeling to 3D modeling, from the interior design of the vehicle to the definition of it’s identity gender and language, from the context in which it is proposed on the market to the presentation of the whole project.

The “learning by designing” process is thus fed by the contribution of companies and experts who highlight possible strategies in innovation through new technologies and materials, indicating how feasible, desirable and sustainable the vehicle of the future will be.

The contribution of the Italian approach to Design and Car Design additionally proposes groups of professionals, opportunities to visit design studios and a wide range of trade fairs, museums, libraries and on-line resources providing a unique background where students can obtain both knowledge and inspiration.

The Course Begins : July , September

Course Duration : 12 months

The Master in Car and Transportation Design lasts 10 months from September to July.

It is based on the principle of “learning by designing” and simulate a team working in order to design it is not important what the theory describes as possible: the designer is interested in the potentials, those possibilities the theory does not eliminate. What is interesting is the method with which to direct the existing know-how towards an innovation vision.

The Master in Car and Transportation Design lasts 10 months and is articulated into lectures, project seminars, workshops and a final Master thesis. Workshops are the backbone of Domus Academy’s unique learning approach. During workshops students work on different areas of project in collaboration with car designers and partner automotive companies. Every workshop includes lectures (cultural, methodological and technical), meeting with automotive sector experts, and a design project, developed with the supervision of experienced designers. Participants will receive a project brief, they will work under the guidance of a project leader and with the assistance of a tutor, individually or in a small design team. At the end of the workshops, a presentation of the projects’ results will be held, in some cases to a mixed team of faculty members and external experts.

Master Thesis

In the last months of the program, participants will work on a project that gathers all the competences developed during their studies, starting from a global vision and getting to the design of a detail. Participants to the Master in Car and Transportation Design will be asked to choose a design theme to be developed, to give a sense to their project and to carry it out keeping an high level of research in all the steps of the design process. Project results will be prepared at an actual professional level, will be shown during the thesis dissertation and will enrich the student’s personal portfolio

Career Opportunities

The students attending the Domus Academy’s Master in Car and Transportation Design are going to become professionals in the automotive sector, acquire different and multiple skills, through a multidisciplinary approach acquired during the studies. Technical and managerial competences are in fact at the basis of this course, to allow the students to gain a global vision and to confront with all the parties involved in the creation of the product.

The School own Career Service will help participants to establish contacts with a wide number of perspective employers, ranging from car manufacturers design department to leading design studio active in the automotive and transportation sectors, in Italy and abroad.

After this Master, students could expect to find employment opportunities primarily in the following role:

• Car Designer
• Designer

Nowadays, skilled designers can make it in the design world of the post-industrial and information era only if endorsed by a complex and sophisticated professionalism, which can autonomously master very dynamic and multi-disciplinary competences. A designer’s activity in fact, doesn’t only involve the design and production of a service or a product, but it implies its promotion and marketing, as well as the aptitude to keep a constant dialogue with different actors and the handling of market rules which are often unconventional.

THE COURSE

Stemmed from this viewpoint, the Domus Academy Master Course in Design offers a path of research, experience and design which combines the theoretical richness of an expert and innovative didactic system with the close and concrete collaboration of prestigious firms and professionals who chose to follow the students in their education.

The Master Course revolves around these three key points:

• Acquisition of an individual expressive language through the investigation and practice on the expressive codes of the design culture
• Development of a “problem solving” skill, typical of the design culture, and the buildup of an autonomous critical vision which can enable the students to effectively employ the gradually acquired practical knowledge within a “problem setting” approach.
• Reinforcement of a “design direction” vocation, namely the ability to integrate the design choices in a broader vision of management and in a corporate strategic project, embracing all aspects of the offer involved with the designed product or service, such as communication, distribution, service, corporate identity, relations.

The Course Begins : January , September

Course Duration : 12 months

The Master course lasts 12 months, from January to December, with a summer break in August.

The program is divided into two semesters:

First semester: The first month is mainly based on a cycle of lectures with the aim of updating the skills the students have acquired in their backgrounds, and to bring them towards a common vision. After the second month, the training plans an intense workshop activity, sometimes in synergy with other Master courses, aimed at introducing the students in the designing world.

Second semester: Professors-designers present their research proposals for the different design areas. Each student will be asked to choose the design area closer to his/her sensitivity and interest and will work in direct contact with the professors and his collaborators. At the end of the course, each student will present to the examination board the Master project, which will be then exhibited together with the others in an exhibition organized and promoted by Domus Academy.

Nowadays, skilled designers can make it in the design world of the post-industrial and information era only if endorsed by a complex and sophisticated professionalism, which can autonomously master very dynamic and multi-disciplinary competences. A designer’s activity in fact, doesn’t only involve the design and production of a service or a product, but it implies its promotion and marketing, as well as the aptitude to keep a constant dialogue with different actors and the handling of market rules which are often unconventional.

Career Opportunities

Students attending Domus Academy’s Master in Design are about to become professionals able to create and design products for the different fields of the industrial system.

The trained professional profiles are destined to found opportunities in several contexts, from companies (product, furnishing, materials) that are more and more creating their own research centres or structures for internal design, up to architecture and design studios, able to represent a consolidated reality both in Italy and worldwide and operating in different fields.

SAY IT WITH THE IMAGE

The evolution of the Fashion System demands for the designers not only to be able to design collections, but also to be professional characters with growing multi-disciplinary competences, capable of managing and communicating with the various sectors involved. Today the fashion designer needs to be manager and art-director at the same time, and must be able to manage the project up to the product, the communication and the retail aspects.

Only in Italy and only in Milan it is possible to study at the centre of a Fashion System that is unique in the world and internationally recognized; where the creativity of the fashion designers integrates with the production capacity, with the quality of fabrics and confection, with entrepreneurial abilities as well as with retail and communication innovations, allowing a direct contact with this world, its protagonists and events.

THE COURSE

From this point of view, the main formative objective of the Master Course in Fashion Design is to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the fashion sector in all of its aspects, through an integrated approach between creative, cultural, productive marketing and communication aspects.

The path of the Master in Fashion Design is a path of experience, research and project making, created combining the theoretic patrimony of innovative and expert didactics with the fundamental contribution of a close and concrete collaboration with prestigious companies and professionals, who chose to follow the students during their training.

Studying Fashion Design in Italy is a unique experience that allows being in direct contact with this world, its protagonists and events, and the constant dialogue with professionals, contribute to the development of professional characters able to successfully express their creativity and to face effectively the evolution of the challenges presented by the field.

The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (National Chamber of Italian Fashion) recognises the elevated of Domus Academy's Fashion Department.

The Course Begins : January

Course Duration : 12 months

The course starts in January and finishes in December. Its teaching structure consists of a series of project seminars,which are changing over the years, covering all the issues useful to train a complete designer.

• The first months are dedicated to the basic training of the students with the analysis of the complex distribution system, trade fairs and manufacturing processes. Students are asked to work on design methodologies and the knowledge of the territory and of the Italian Fashion System, through two project seminars developed in collaboration with professionals. The themes faced in the course are in fact constantly updated, considering the social, commercial and methodological evolution of the Fashion System.

  Each project seminar lasts three/four weeks, and in this period the department plans meetings and lectures (psychology of fashion, anthropology, socio-economic forecasting, marketing and management, textile culture, contemporary art, etc.) on the theme of the seminar, which is consequently analysed from different angles, thanks to the support of the different professionals.

• In the following months start the projects in collaboration with companies and fashion designers. The formula of these seminars change from time to time since the designers and the representatives of companies can choose to work separately or according to tandems built ad hoc to stimulate the confrontation with the students. The briefs become more complex and articulated. The students are not simply asked to develop a design project, but a pathway able to highlight their strategic abilities in using conceptual and research tools applied to the project. In this phase, the confrontation with the professional world becomes the operative key to build a path closer to the philosophy of a laboratory rather than to a traditional education experience. In this way, the students are given the opportunity to face the reality of the system in the different categories of product and of market.

  The students work in collaboration with fashion designers representing the international ready-to-wear field, as well as with companies present on different levels of the market. In order to offer a complete overview of the possibilities offered by the Fashion System as well as a full understanding of the different competences, the students meet in this phase the different professional characters of the field.

• At the end of the this second phase the companies that have taken part in the project seminars select a number of students who produced interesting results to follow them in the final Master thesis.

  The final Master project is developed and represents the moment when the students have the possibility to work individually with companies on a chosen theme.

• The final Master project is presented to the Examination board during the last months. All of the Master projects are exhibited during an exhibition open to the public and to the press.

Career Opportunities

The objective of the Master in Fashion Design is to train professionals with the ability to blend their creativity and their theoretical knowledge with organisation and relation abilities with the world of production.

Students attending the course have the possibility to access different contexts, such as:

• Fashion companies : both casual-wear and ready-to-wear
• Fashion Houses : design office
• Textile companies

Fashion companies are constantly looking for people capable to match creativity and management: a new generation of managers, suited to the specific requirements of Fashion.

Domus Academy, thanks to its long lasting experience in Fashion education, has taken this challenge and has developed a unique approach to work out and strengthen the peculiar managerial competences necessary to work within the Fashion world.

THE COURSE

The Master in Fashion Management aims at shaping and developing the competences of managers capable to understand and play the rules of Fashion. The Programme follows a cross-field and multicultural approach, matching management and fashion styling, linking knowledge of the product to sensitivity to fashion.

The Master represents a gateway to enter the Fashion world. It aims at creating different profiles among the several areas of Fashion, as product and brand management, distribution and communication.

The Master in Fashion Management will provide participants with a strong, robust basis of fundamental managerial tools and with the necessary conceptual framework to understand and follow modern fashion languages and trends. Participants will also have the possibility to gain direct experience developing projects on specific topics chosen among the hottest issues in Fashion, and they will have the chance to work together with the most outstanding professionals and the most prestigious fashion brands. A series of meetings with companies’ executives and visits to fashion companies will be a key element of the programme. (2010 VIP Photogallery )

The Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (National Chamber of Italian Fashion) recognises the elevated level of Domus Academy's Master in Fashion Management.

Domus Academy is proud to communicate that one of the students enrolled in Fashion Management Master Course 2011 will have the chance of doing a four-months internship at Camera Italiana Buyer Moda – Milano that affiliates the most prestigious high-level multi brand shops in Italy.

The Course Begins : January ,September

Course Duration : 12 months

The Master in Fashion Management will consists of three main phases:

• The first phase of the course aims at providing the fundamental competences and tools to approach the world of Fashion companies and organisations, through basic lectures exploring relevant Fashion and Management topics, together with case studies of Italian and International brands.
• The second phase foresees of a series of workshops during which Domus Academy will make available its extensive network of relationships with companies to allow participants to get involved in a real project. The workshops will address the main areas of the Fashion world-product management, brands, buyer, retail, communication and events. During the workshops, participants will have the chance to test their own capabilities in tackling strategic, marketing, production and organisational issues. The workshops are characterized by a series of lectures, providing state-of-art knowledge relevant to the issues dealt during the workshops, and by the direct involvement of professionals and companies.
• The third and last phase is dedicated to the development of the final Master Thesis. Students will work individually on a specific theme assigned by the Director of the Master with the supervision of a project leader. Projects may address one of the several topics relevant to the International Fashion system, and might consider a combination of techniques and forms, as desk research, industry and demand trends analysis, economic and market feasibility, preparation of business and development plans.

Career Opportunities

The objective of the Master in Fashion Management is to train professionals capable to blend their creative sensibility with managerial skills. Students attending the course will have the possibility to occupy positions as Product Manager, Brand Manager, Store Manager, Retail Manager, Communication Manager, Fashion Buyer.

In a competitive market, where visual communication plays a key role in the success of companies, our program aims at providing participants with the tools and competences for the new profession of the Visual Fashion Brand Communicator. This strategic figure will be able to create, through photographic shots, the “fashion message” making the products appealing and so giving an added value to the creativity of designers. He/She will be the aesthetic coordinator of the point of sale where the brand values will be highlighted by researching the most effective way to reach the reference target market.

THE COURSE

The Course Begins : September

Course Duration : 12 months

The program consists of three phases where students will learn to see what is new and trendy from a fashion perspective.

• The first phase focuses on management and marketing competences, on fashion culture and its iconographic languages.
• The second phase, developed together with leading companies, consists of workshops on key subjects like styling, display concepts planning, new web visual strategies, event design and “celebritying” as communication tool for promoting the fashion brands.
• The third phase is dedicated to an individual final master project.

Career Opportunities

Participants will be able to develop a career as Fashion Stylist or Visual Merchandiser, starting their own busi­ness or working for fashion companies. They will be able to work for fashion magazines, advertising agen­cies, TV, as Celebrity Assistants and in all those areas strongly involving visual communication skills.

Designing, producing, promoting and marketing a product or a service in the post-industrial society of information, requires designers with very specific skills, able to dialogue with different players and to handle the market following non-conventional rules.

THE COURSE

The Master course in I-Design comes from a challenge: to bring the originality of Italian Design in the world of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The course represents the natural evolution of a series of training and research initiatives developed in Domus Academy since 1983 on theme of technological innovation and on the design of intangible relations with interactive objects and services. It is part of a permanent laboratory on the themes of digital information with the culture of design at its centre, intended as knowledge of the changing world and as a way of learning by designing. I-Design is a direct connection to the themes of information and interaction, but it is also a reference to the culture of Italian Design and of the Made in Italy, as original approach in balance between design and corporate culture. It blends creative skills and understanding of the media with the ability to transform design visions into business opportunities by adopting points of view connected to the market strategies and logics.

The Course Begins : September

Course Duration : 12 months

The programme of the Master course in I-Design lasts 12 months and is mainly articulated into 2 semesters.

First semester (September-December). The first semester is a full immersion in the “teamwork design” activities to update the skills students have acquired in their backgrounds and to bring them towards a common vision. The lectures held during the first month are aimed at connecting the world of ICT and design culture to social and economic sciences, artistic practices and technological experimentation through a constant multidisciplinary confrontation. The workshop activity follows. The workshops are aimed at creating concepts and scenarios on themes such as interactive objects, tools and environments, media and languages formats and services related to digital media.

Second Semester (January-July). The second semester is dedicated to the preparation of the Master thesis. The students will choose a specific theme of I-Design to develop and broaden, by elaborating a personal project through a multidisciplinary point of view based on the ability to understand the complexity of current design activity. The course finishes with the presentation of the thesis and with the final exhibition “Aperto al pubblico”.

Career Opportunities

The objective of the Master in I-Design is to train designers with practical and conceptual tools, needed to develop concepts and strategies for the ICT world,blending design and creative sensitivities with more specific skills.

The students attending the course will develop skills and abilities able to cover several design and strategic roles, such as:

• Interactive Designer
• User Experience Designer
• Creative Director
• Strategist
• Design Director

The possibilities of employment can range among:

• Research Centres
• Telecommunication companies
• Architecture and Design studios

The Department was born with the objective to work on the whole universe of urban experience. In this perspective, the department has created a training project of excellence able to reflect on the changes and transformations of the built space, promoting a permanent research activity for design models and solutions that are appropriate and innovative.

THE COURSE

Domus Academy has always had a wide and multidisciplinary approach to design research and teaching, which makes it possible to have a wide vision on design. The Master in Interior and Living Design intends to focus on the need to explore all aspects that concern design: from the most technical to the most intuitive ones, and to combine them in order to contemplate the various nuances of meaning in the words to live, to dwell, to use. Milan offers a wide range of historical and contemporary stimulating examples; its long tradition in experimenting and finding practical solutions to the problems of living and dwelling makes it unique.

The Course Begins : January ,September

Course Duration : 12 months

The Master course in Interior and Living Design lasts 12 months and starts in September. The first eight months of the course are focused on the teaching activity that includes a part of theoretical contributions divided into three main areas:

• the Areas of Languages
• the Areas of Strategy
• the Areas of Research

and a practical part consisting of:

• Workshop (the Areas of Project): workshops organised around a specific theme, focusing on different areas of project in order to concretise a 360° teaching experimentation on the numerous design issues of Interior Design.
• Technical visits (Out of School): visit to companies, professional studios, guided tours to building sites, meetings with managers, participation to exhibitions and fairs, visits to museums and to important cultural events useful for the students to acquire direct knowledge of the profession and to experience relational situations linked to the evolution of the design culture and to interior design.
• Focus: A one-month training period at the end of the workshops activity where students will be given the opportunity to focus on specific aspects relating to the reality of interior design through technical visits and discussions on the themes of the master thesis with professionals.
• Master thesis: The Master thesis, which is prepared in the last three months of the course, is set up as the big theme-based design competitions. Students, under the guidance of a lecturer or of a company leader, will carry out an original piece of high-level research in a specific area, applying a theoretical, analytical and reflective approach.

Career Opportunities

The Master course in Interior and Living Design aims at creating a new profession: a spaces and services designer who knows how to combine technical/design knowledge with a solid cultural background and with the strategic ability to identify new user scenarios. A designer who is aware and interested in any process as well as in its management over time.

The aim pursued in the course is to provide a cultural knowledge that is half way between the arts and other disciplines and that represents the access code to the new world, and which is adequate to develop a synergic project – similar to design direction – that will always take into account its material and immaterial aspects. Domus Academy’s teaching approach is to foster the students to have an aptitude for the problem setting approach and to develop their own poetical language by exploring, experiencing and constantly questioning the meaning of their own work.

The new Master in Marketing of Luxury Goods has been designed based on the idea that the acquisition of an eclectic set of competencies, which combines managerial, organizational, creative and multidisciplinary skills, has become the key to successfully operate in a highly competitive sector such as that of luxury goods.

Over the last few years, economic, political and cultural changes have been reshaping the luxury industry. Despite the recent acute economical crisis in many countries, the luxury sector as a whole has been witnessing an incredible growth, which shows no signs of slowing down. Its customer base is shifting dramatically, as wealth continues to spread to new parts of the globe.

The concept of luxury and luxury goods is changing.

The proliferation of luxury goods is being made accessible, at some level, to many millions more. Yet, the concept and definition of luxury are becoming more and more blurred. Historical luxury brands have launched more accessible brands, products and services. Some other premium and lifestyle brands have engaged in “trading up” strategies.

Luxury consumers are changing.

A younger generation of luxury consumers has grown tired of the usual offerings. They also have more money to spend on luxury purchases and are looking for new types of goods and services. Rather than flash and luxury, more and more consumers are now seeking discretion, special access, surprise, sense of humour and even secrecy.

In the aftermath of the economical crisis, new luxury consumers want more quality, meaning, authenticity, emotion and connection. They are more about 'being' versus 'having'. Luxury brands are also facing different luxury consumers around the world, with different maturities, attitudes and expectations.

Luxury traditional distribution and communication channels are changing.

Some large luxury companies are quickly developing their retail power, and multiplying retail formats. Online luxury, once an oxymoron, is now omnipresent. The Internet is giving consumers a voice. Traditional advertising is evolving fast. The advent of digital and social media is influencing the way luxury companies communicate and dialog with their customers.

In order to fully size the opportunities arising from the recent changes, luxury companies, large or small need to evolve and rethink their business models in order to serve a more discriminating and demanding consumer. And they need to recruit managers with new skillsets, which this Master Course is intending to provide.

THE COURSE

The Course Begins : September 2014

Course Duration : 12 months

Throughout the Master program, students will have the opportunity to learn how to approach and solve problems from complementary perspectives. The program blends academic and theoretical knowledge with a more practical and professional approach. The Master course follows an original “learning by doing & designing” approach. Therefore, the primary learning vehicle during the course is the project work, where students have the opportunity to assess situations from business, creative, design & cultural standpoints.

The Master is divided into 3 main periods.

The first period, of about one month, focuses on gaining familiarity with the luxury industry, analysing the most significant luxury market & luxury companies characteristics, currents trends and future challenges. It also aims at providing the fundamental skillset required for a Master degree (marketing, company organization, finance & accounting, business planning).

The second period is developed around 5 workshops, which are project work-based modules designed to give students a working knowledge of different core subjects about luxury marketing & brand management. Those workshops are run in collaboration with companies operating in the luxury sector. The programme complements the workshop sessions with formal lectures and tutorial sessions. During the workshops activities, students work in teams. Workshops are monitored by a member of the Domus faculty, Project Leaders and Project Assistant and /or company executives.

Finally, the third period is devoted to the Master Final Project, when students work individually on a subject of their choice. The Final Master Project is the conclusion of the overall didactical path.

Career Opportunities

This Master course represents a unique opportunity for those who want to give a new start to their career and in particular, it offers interesting opportunities for position such as:

• Marketing Manager
• Brand Manager
• Product Manager
• Business Development Manager
• Communications Manager
• Luxury Industry Consultant

Due to the utmost importance of the service sector in our contemporary world economy, high customer expectations for a quality level of service standard are rapidly expanding.

Thus, service companies will be looking for greater differentiation and competitiveness through innovative ideas and outstanding experiences, hence, requiring more qualified professional profiles.

Service design is a relatively recent interdisciplinary practice that emphasizes the centrality of users and the user experience into service management and innovation, promoted by a growing community of academic and professional practitioners, in Europe and abroad.

Domus Academy’s distinctive approach is to consider the aesthetic of the experience along the parameters of quality and efficacy for a good service performance: such a dimension depends on sensitive and emotional aspects, linked to human nature, behavior, and cultural backgrounds.

The Master in Service and Experience Design is a unique occasion to experience the Italian design culture and its humanistic approach along with the most advanced service design methods and tools to envisage innovation for the service sector.

THE COURSE

The Course Begins : September 2014

Course Duration : 12 months

The Master program focuses on consumer services (B2C): from banks and insurance, hospitality and tourism, mobility and transportation, entertainment and culture, retail and commercial, to healthcare and public services.

The first semester of the Master program foresees introductory lessons, aimed at providing the conceptual, theoretical, and operational tools, and workshops aimed at practicing service design through the simulation of actual cases, performed with the cooperation of a service company.

Lessons will offer fundamentals on services, such as basic concepts and definitions, sectors and taxonomies, typologies and delivery modes, the historical and evolutionary phenomena; socio-economical issues affecting the service industry, such as environmental sustainability, social innovation and the experience economy; main principles and tools of service management and organizational issues, such as business planning and service operations mgmt; design culture language and approaches; service design methods and tools, such as customer journeys, touch-point maps, service interaction guidelines, and visualization tools.

Workshops will include investigations on customer experience, service innovation and service branding as well as thematic design exercises focused on specific service sectors. The activity mixes tutored studio work with lectures and critic sessions.

In the second semester the students will conclude the program with an individual Master Thesis supervised by a project leader on a service design case.

Objective

The aim of the Master Program is to develop professional skills for Service Design and Management, with a focus on the quality of the overall customer experience and on the design of innovative service ideas. The educational objective is to impart upon participants all the conceptual and operational tools for designing and managing service innovations, such as, customer experience assessment and improvement; design of service organizational procedures; service interface design; as well as envisioning the feasibility and implementation of new service ideas.

Audience

The Master in Service and Experience Design addresses professionals and graduates in humanistic studies, social sciences and communication, business and design-related disciplines.

Career Opportunities

Participants can find a wide range of career opportunities: from strategic positions within service companies (strategic marketing, brand and quality management, customer care, training departments) to service design consulting companies.

The world’s urban population is rapidly increasing and cities are the stage for important changes, which are the result of trends and dynamics that have been taking place for a long time.

Cities are the place where new phenomena as well as new issues arise, but also the laboratory where, by experimenting innovative models and urban transformation processes, it’s possible to formulate the proper answers to the expectations and needs of citizens, interest groups and institutions who identify themselves in the city.

The Master was born with the objective to work on all the topics concerning the urban experience. In this perspective, it has created a training project of excellence able to reflect on the changes and transformations of the space of the city, promoting a permanent research activity for design models and solutions that are appropriate and innovative in the field of architecture, landscape and urban planning.

THE COURSE

The Course Begins : September 2014

Course Duration : 12 months

The Master in Urban Vision and Architectural Design program, working on the interplay among the multiple project scales within the urban context, offers a vision where urban planning, architecture, landscape and design skills, social and anthropological analysis, communication and marketing tools, converge to create a new professional identity, able to redefine the functions and aesthetics of the urban space.

The Master, in order to provide complex professional skills, uses innovative analysis tools and design methods on different levels, with a particular focus on architecture, landscape, urban planning. Environmental sustainability and renewable energy topics, that can’t be ignored in any contemporary scenario, represent a transversal research and project theme.

The program is structured around five modules dealing with the different project scales: Tools and Languages, Strategies and Vision, Architectural Link, Urban and Landscape Design, Architectural Design. They consist of lectures and research and design workshops

• the lectures express both methodologies, theories and reflections about architecture, landscape, urban planning and experiences related to practices and professionals rooted in Europes
• the workshops give students high familiarity with the research, analysis, planning and communication activities.

Moreover, students are involved in

• visits to interesting building sites and meetings with professionals, which give back the complexity of the process of project realization
• architectural tours, invite students to reflect about the specificity of the italian design culture
• learning and research experiences in collaboration with other architectural institutes and and universities, which enrich the individual background of knowledge and experience

During the last three months students develop the Final Master Project, a personal project focusing on specific urban and architectural issues. The student is required to present the work by an oral dissertation, a digital presentation and a model.

Career Opportunities

The Master Urban Vision and Architectural Design offers several job or requalification opportunities at national and international level as Urban and Architectural Designer

• in Architectural Design Studios and Engineering Offices, dealing with the development of projects, as well as national and international competitions, which require a wide range of articulated skills, capable to interpret the new architectural languages and meanings as well as sthe complexity of the territory at any scale of intervention
• Public Planning Administration Departments, on a local, national and European level, to face and manage the complexity of formulation, implementation, evaluation and communication of territorial policies;
• Territorial Development Agencies and Real Estate Companies, involved in both territorial, urban and architectural transformation processes and in activities of consultancy and design of future development scenarios.

The concept of branding is moving away from the traditional idea of creating an "image" to represent the name and the values of a company, by exploring a broader view, that incorporates several disciplines, from visual design to sound design, from storytelling to consumers' psychology and marketing techniques, thus addressing a strongly integrated approach whose aim is to identify the core assets and to orchestrate them into a consistent brand identity.

Branding is now much more than the definition of a visual image: it's the creation of a rich and attractive environment, to catch the consumer's attention and bring him into the brand world, to share the brand values and to become an informal sponsor of the brand.

The Master in Visual Brand Design is a unique opportunity to acquire hands-on competencies and in-depth knowledge on how to design the identity of a company and/or organization, by integrating graphic design skills with strategic thinking.

THE COURSE

The Course Begins : September 2014

Course Duration : 12 months

The program of the Master Course in Visual Brand Design has a structure consisting of three main parts:

• The first part of the course is mainly didactic and aims at providing students with the Master's fundamentals: visual design and branding culture; visual design techniques (from traditional illustration and branding techniques to digital media); cross-platform presence; the brand as a global experience. Two main workshops will follows lectures and seminars of the first months helping the students to measure their abilities with the creation of a communication campaign and with their skills on giving visibility to a brand, project, event, product, etc...
• The second part of the Master will be carried out through workshops giving insights and first-hands experiences on themes such as the Value of Brand, Multimedia Brand Design, Metaproject for Brand Development, Infodesign and Magazine Design, Urban Branding, Storytelling as a Branding Tool. Short hands-on workshops on techniques such as traditional print and calligraphy will be held to increase the technical knowledge of the participants.
• The last part of the course is dedicated to the preparation of the Master thesis.

Career Opportunities

The Master Program in Visual Brand Design is aimed at giving the participants the skills to become visual brand designers with a complex and rich approach, or brand managers capable of orienting the company needs towards an innovative direction, working as freelances or inside medium/big sized companies in the fields of Fashion, Design, Events and Expos Management, Digital Media and Services, or in Public Administrations.