The MA in Design calls on three fundamental axes of design practice: practical experience, authorship and innovation. It is against these dynamics of pedagogical valuation that the project intends to prepare participative students, capable of critical thinking, culturally and socially aware. Pedagogical strategies will encourage a mature approach towards the development of creative competences, and the students will have access to a range of multidisciplinary proposals, convergent with a sense of authorship/originality and also a broad understanding about the various stages of the design problem: research, design and production. Ultimately, the main objective of this Masters is to promote critical thinking about the planning dimension the design object has in itself. When the series of transversal mediations in several areas of knowledge are highlighted, we will succeed in consolidating discourse, analytical and creative skills which are core to questioning the accepted orthodoxy..
| Subject | Description | Year | Semester | ECTS | Taught in english? |
|---|---|---|---|
1º YEAR | |||
| Theory and Design Criticism I | The curricular unit aims to provide students with an interpretative framework of theory and criticism of design. This way it is expected of the student to fluently know the approaches and history of design criticism, as well as its methodologies, managing to apply this knowledge in a dynamic way as a designer, researcher, editor and author.Create a timeframe discourse on the development of theory and criticism in the consolidation of the design discipline, as an analysed term in project reality and thought process. Recognise the convergence of disciplinary knowledge of transversal origin of design, for a reasoned critical thinking. Establish a comparative analysis of the repercussions of history and its weight in critical composition, developing autonomous learning skills. | 1º year | 1º semester | 5 ECTS | NO The professor will occasionally do small remarks in english, in addition to an overview at the end of each class about the contents that were addressed |
| Project I | This unit aims to integrate highly complex collaborative design projects; Analyse and deepen the understanding of previously acquired knowledge, focusing on the theoretical, technical, artistic and social dimensions; Understand the social and environmental context of a design project, raising awareness of different scales, impacts and scope; Create a work plan considering the complexity of the discipline and its transversality; Apply appropriate methodologies in the formulation of concepts and ideas applied to the project; Develop proposals applying methodologies, materials and technologies appropriate to the conceptual matrix of the projects; Articulate rigorous discursive and expository skills around their creations; Critically analyse the work developed using appropriate evaluation and communication tools. | 1º year | 1º semester | 10 ECTS | NO The professor will occasionally do small remarks in english, in addition to an overview at the end of each class about the contents that were addressed |
| Personal Design Project | This unit addresses an approach to the variants of the design process, in a speculative, problematic and disruptive line, where the problem-response binomial does not necessarily constitute the reason for the project, nor does it necessarily mean the sense of graphic design discipline and practice; Observe and decode fields of action/domains in which graphic design can contribute to reflection and eventual propositional – into, through and for design; Articulate and deepen the dimensions, methodological, formal, functional, technical, conceptual and artistic in the exercise of graphic design, as a professional and disciplinary practice; Develop skills in planning and project management; Increase the autonomy, critical and self-critical spirit on issues and projects in the graphic design field; Establish semantic relations, references, state of the art and speculations that configure the project in a perspective of progressive approximation to what may be, in the future, the research theme in the master. | 1º year | 1º semester | 10 ECTS | NO The professor will occasionally do small remarks in english, in addition to an overview at the end of each class about the contents that were addressed |
| Digital Laboratory | This unit aims to provide students with a set of practical and technical skills essential in the production and implementation of projects under development in the master’s project units; Expand skills at the level of digital tools that allow the student to use and speculate at an advanced level; Develop skills in know-how, exploring digital resources, models, among other more exploratory themes for better materialization and communication of projects; Provide the student with analytical skills to develop, adapt and plan a project, in order to build logical solutions to problems throughout its development; Ensure the exploration of new ideas, through the use of appropriate methodologies and new technologies. | 1º year | 1º semester | 5 ECTS | NO The professor will occasionally do small remarks in english, in addition to an overview at the end of each class about the contents that were addressed |
2º SEMESTER | |||
| Design and Research Methodologies | To be added… | 1º year | 2º semester | 5 ECTS | NO The professor will occasionally do small remarks in english, in addition to an overview at the end of each class about the contents that were addressed |
| Theory and Design Criticism II | To be added… | 1º year | 2º semester | 5 ECTS | NO The professor will occasionally do small remarks in english, in addition to an overview at the end of each class about the contents that were addressed |
| Project II | To be added… | 1º year | 2º semester | 20 ECTS | NO The professor will occasionally do small remarks in english, in addition to an overview at the end of each class about the contents that were addressed |
2º YEAR | |||
| Project/Internship/Dissertation | To be able to take part in this subject, foreign students need to send proofs that they are able to address all the technical and narrative issues implied. In order to do so, each student should contact Prof. Marta Fernandes – martafernandes@esmad.ipp.pt | 2º year | Anual | 60 ECTS | YES |