University Master in Applied Research in Design

How the disciplines of design and communication interrelate.

1.1 Artifacts and visual language
Research and creation are integrated, in a creative way, in the development of the subject. Through the analysis of visual and material culture, and through the development of visual artifacts that function as catalysts, you will begin your path towards research and critical analysis.

1.2 Design and communication strategy
The subject will provide the basic analysis tools prior to the strategic definition of a communication plan, with the aim of learning to evaluate the needs and opportunities of the market situation and thus determine the relevance of a communicative action.

1.3 Media and environments of design and communication
Analytical vision of the media and the environment as a source of knowledge, both in the field of communication and in the study of design as an integrating element in the construction of contemporary thought. The subject exemplifies the object as the medium that formalizes the functional and the symbolic, configuring the intra- and extra-environment of the subject’s identity.

Different types of research, orbiting between research about design and through design.

2.1 Interdisciplinary critical perspectives based on practice
From an interdisciplinary vision, perspectives such as speculative design and critical design will be explored, experimenting through design on the future of cities and human habitats and the possibilities of expanding design practice beyond communication and the product. Design as a discipline will be treated from the sociological, political, creative and social innovation perspective.

2.2 Social design. Care and the common good
Design is social, it mediates our way of thinking and interacting with the world. At the same time, designers are rarely aware of this social layer and its implications, without knowing how designs interact with, for example, power structures. This friction between capability and knowledge is visible in practices in the realm of “social design,” where, unlike many other design practices, there is an explicit emphasis on designing for the common good.

2.3 Academic-scientific methodology for design research
This subject is organized from a series of theoretical and practical criteria that will focus on providing various methods and techniques, as well as critical-theoretical devices relevant to design research. Although the focus of the subject is practical, central theoretical aspects about the nature of design research, its purposes and the different existing approaches will be considered.

Guide your career towards an ethical-political approach linked to the industry and the market, towards research and dissemination of ideas or towards practical contact with professional reality.

3.1 Philosophy and ethics of design and communication
Exploration of the ethical-political challenges that designers face within the framework of contemporary material culture. The subject seeks to stimulate critical reflection and provide students with the skills to carry it out.

3.2 Projection of the professional and research career
Develop action potential so that you are able to explore and discover your personal and professional interests. To do this, you must generate a series of objectives and future paths both in the professional and academic fields that are technically and materially viable, as well as socially responsible.

3.3 Professional practices
The internships will be developed in accordance with the general regulations that regulate external academic internships for university master’s students, currently by Royal Decree 592/2014, of July 11, which regulates external academic internships for university students. The UVic-UCC regulations, contained in the academic regulations of the university’s master’s studies, will also apply.

Development of a research project in design and communication, through which you will put the knowledge acquired into practice.

The Final Masters’ Project constitutes the last academic project, in which the knowledge acquired during the master is put into practice and validated.