Since January this year, I have been in-charge of running a 2 years Masters program in Transcultural Design in India. This is a short article on what the program is about and how one can get admission to it.
Transcultural Design – A unique opportunity for Design Graduates
In the current context of globalization, understanding other cultures and other value systems is a major asset for every designer. Lecole de Design Nantes Atlantique offers a unique two years Masters program in Transcultural Design at its Asia Campuses in India and China. It offers a tremendous opportunity for design students from all over the world to discover and comprehend the Indian and Chinese cultures. This master program encourages the exploration and acceptance of different cultures within an applied, interdisciplinary context. It aims at providing young design students an opportunity to broaden their horizons and develop their design skills in a cultural and creative environment.
Design graduates of any discipline are encouraged to apply. The students spend their 2 years enrolled in the program and have the option of spending time on the China campus in Shanghai too as an exchange student.
The program is a professional masters program with the participation of the industry design experts and supervised by an international staff. The teaching is based on a participatory approach and the course is delivered in modules. The modules are structured into workshops and seminars to encourage student participation.
The programs bring together students from different fields of design and undergraduate curriculums (product, spatial, interaction or graphic design). Central to the programs are a strong international dimension, the acquisition of project management skills and a cross-disciplinary, professional approach to design.
The skills gained during the 2-year master’s programs are based on the ability to:
– use design in an innovative strategy for the general management of the company: design of products, services, scenarios, both material as well as virtual, thus contributing to the quality of brand image, the integration of lifestyle evolutions and topical research on environmental issues
– encourage collaborative work between different design specialties around the design project, integrating the contributions of each discipline (social sciences, ergonomics, marketing, technology, economics and aesthetics), to take into account the constraints of manufacturing, distribution and commercialization and to manage the collaboration between the various internal or external departments involved in the project
– follow the development of a product or service, from design to realization, and to communicate effectively within the company or agency, as well as with customers, limited partners and suppliers.
The students’ learn to apply the schools’ design methods to the local cultural context, and exploring in depth the design challenges posed by the transcultural experience.
This program is run in partnership with the University of Shanghai, and with Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, India.
All the master’s programs offered by the École de design Nantes Atlantique lead to the master’s level degree certified by the Ministry of Higher Education. Officially certified since 2002 and confirmed with honors in 2011, the degree from L’École de design remains today the only postgraduate degree in design to obtain this coveted certification, the highest possible recognition of a degree in France in this field.
