SPECIALISATION
Design and Applied Arts

DEPARTMENT
Design and Applied Arts

INSTITUTION
NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti - Milan Campus

ACCREDITED BY
Italian Ministry of Education and Research

TITLE AWARDED
Second Level Academic Degree

CFA
120

LANGUAGE OF TUITION
Italian or English

COURSE DURATION
2 years

The transition of the modern world from “society of goods” to “society of services” gives designers the chance to explore the ethics of design more thoroughly. In the post-industrial era, individuals are discovering the limits of progress, and are working to establish a sustainable relation with nature and environment. Therefore, today many design projects have an added dimension of socially responsible production. At the Master of Arts in Design - specialisation in Product and Service Design, the students prepare their future professional life by analysing scenarios and designing or re-designing objects through the development of a physical, experience-based relation with them. Thanks to the constant interaction with professors and professionals, the students become full-scale designers, capable of managing all the development phases of a product from its conception to the actual manufacture, through the definition of the design strategy and the research of materials.

The ideal candidate is able to elaborate complex design strategies, which require ripening and consolidation of cultural references, conceptual and methodological tools, and of the typical technical skills of the product design culture, strongly oriented towards the exploration of innovative opportunities and the building up of critical skills to evaluate the impact of projects on the social, cultural and economic context, as well as being competent in designing and managing the project. Students must have an educational background in design, a strategic vision of the innovation processes, of the impact of design projects and of complex design actions in defining new product systems and use scenarios.

For admission procedures, please refer to the Academic Regulations.

The course aims to develop:

• Explore values and needs of new humanities, in order to derive the language of objects that can establish new a sustainable relations with nature and environment.

• Experiment with new technological possibilities which can make production more flexible and, at the same time, progressively fragmented mass markets in consumption segments that are more and more personalized, through new processes related to new craftmanship and to makers and rapid manufacturing experiences.

• Define the tools that allow to work on the project not only at the product level, but also at the system level, going from concept to vision.

• Develop the own design identity and project vision through intense design activity, closely and practically collaborating with professionals and companies.

• Define project scenarios in the medium and long term, prefiguring the possible evolutions of digital systems, technologies and artificial intelligence, and their potential integration within the complex picture of social and cultural dynamics.

• Manage all the social, economic, environmental and meaning implication derived from the project, as well as the context dynamics it is going to change.

During the course, students are engaged in different kind of activities, according to the specific learning goals. Those activities may include:

• Front lectures

• Debates, presentations, peer assessment

• Use of tutorials, videos or other multi-media material

• Classroom demonstrations

• Exercises and revisions

• Workshops

• Seminars and workshops with industry professionals or visiting lecturers

• Intensive workshops on specific topics

• Development of individual or group projects

• Individual or group study and research

• Visits to organisations within the professional field of interest

• Individual sessions and tutoring

The achievement of learning goals is generally assessed at the end of the term, although intermediate evaluations may occur. Assessment methods vary according to the learning goals being assessed and may include:

• Oral exams

• Written exams

• Practical demonstrations

• Graded exercises

• Graded revisions

• Papers

• Comprehensive projects

• Submission of papers, projects or research work

The Master of Arts in Design - Product and Service Design, is divided into 4 semesters of didactic activities, followed by a period dedicated to extra-didactic activities (internships, abroad study) and research aimed at the development of the final project. Each semester revolves around a design workshop, which approaches research and project themes in a cross-disciplinary way.

The courses sequence Design 1, Design 2, Design 3, Design 4, provides sound knowledge within the project's disciplines, both at a theoretical and at an operational level. The Product Design 1 course provides the ability of working with the "Soft Qualities" languages (colour, light, surface, sound and smell) as relevant features of a product's identity: the theories of Primary Design and the practice of CMF (colours, materials, finishing). The Product Design 2 course deepens methods and strategies to knowledgeably work on all the executive phases of industrial product projects, as well as on limited-series self-productions. The supplementary didactic modules deal with the aesthetic codes of Visual design and with the operational strategies in the field of Communication Design.

In the second year, the Product and Service Design Lab 1 and Lab 2 courses give room to education, research and innovation on a broad scale, and are open to collaborations with companies and brands where all the product and service-related topics are approached consistently. In such context, the discipline techniques of interaction design are investigated through the devising, design and creation of interactive products; The supplementary didactic modules go in-depth in the UX/UI fields, as well as in Interface Design. They also approach, at an experimental level, the relation between Big Data and design, searching for new design and professional opportunities in the Data-driven design field.

With the other courses that are part of the two-year programme, the students will go in-depth on:

• classical subjects which allow to interpret the social and cultural contexts where the designed products will be marketed: from semiotics to aesthetics, from psychology to sociology

• historical-critical subjects that analyse the evolution of products - (History of Art, History of Design)

• scientific and technological competencies in relation to materials, their performance, structure and function features, the related processing techniques, industrial working processes, production restrictions - (Materials and Technology)

• tools and techniques for a morphological, physical and functional representation of products: from hand sketching to technical drawing and digital representation, from photography and three-dimensional creation of study models and product prototypes - (3D Modelling and Rendering)

• elements to integrate the most recent technological advances into multimedia devices and social media, with a traditional approach to design and Product Design;

• technical and theoretical tools to create high-level, multimedia project presentations with high communicative impact, with the use of digital post-production and video editing software;

• expressions of corporate identity through the world of products and the "places" of their communication. The collective image of products and what they summon is part of the creation of corporate brands – (Brand design, Art direction)

• aspects of the economic culture that relate to the industrial and market context, together with the economic feasibility analysis of products and services, and with all the elements which define the company consistency in the processes of design-led innovation – (Design management)

Furthermore, the programme of this Master of Arts is completed by a wide range of opportunities for extra-curricular experiences, both in design and in vocational training (workshops, collaboration with companies, etc.), that can be carried out starting from the third semester. Also, starting from the fourth semester, the students are bound to individually and independently develop research projects on themes of personal interest. The research can involve abroad studies aimed at the completion of the final project for their Master of Arts Degree. Based on NABA's academic calendar, the students have about 10 months’ time from the end of the didactic activities to prepare their final project and to defend their final dissertation.

Over the same period of time, the students can complete their training with vocational experiences (internships) at designing studios or companies, or through NABA's partnership projects (field learning experience).

Successful Product and Service Design Master graduates can find professional opportunities within all professional and corporate activities related to design and product design in their broader sense, from consumer goods to transportation, from furniture to product-service systems. In particular, they will be able to cover specific professional roles:

• Product designer

• Service designer

• UX/UI designer

• 3D modelling specialist

• Brand specialist

• Brand designer

• Art director

In general, they will be able to operate as:

• Freelancer professionals

• Professionals working at associate studios, or as collaborators and consultants at professional studios

At the end of the course, successful students will be able to:

• Analyse new reference scenarios based on a thorough knowledge of the historical models developed by the project culture.

• Explain materials and technologies languages by positioning them in the right productive and economic perspective.

• Decode the aesthetic strategies of products by identifying their historical, anthropological and cultural implications.

• Interpret sociological models to identify market changes and new consumption targets.

• Evaluate the social and environmental impact of products.

At the end of the course, successful students will be able to:

• Research and define concepts, their development and representation, and the final project communication.

• Design a strategic vision that puts the product into its socio-economic context thanks to the sound knowledge of company products planning techniques, and to the identification of possible technological development scenarios for product use and consumption.

• Represent projects through sketching, manual and digital modelling techniques, use of basic and advanced software.

• Manage multimedia techniques to represent projects for products, services and interaction.

• Manage the interaction with companies, finalizing the project strategies to the impact of the project itself, keeping consistent with the global offer of the company on the market, and with the context.

At the end of the course, successful students will be able to:

Successfully work individually and as a group, interacting with different professional figures.

Efficiently communicate their own ideas and opinions, both in writing and verbally.

Evaluate their own skills and identify possible fields or paths for further study.

Efficiently use the main professional informatic tools.

Identify and consistently direct their professional ambitions.

At the end of the course, successful students will be able to:

• Interpret relations and contaminations among products in order to translate new needs, creating fresh values and aesthetics, as well as new models of industrialization.

• Revise the relation with materials and technologies in artisan and industrial productions for the development of new, sustainable logics, and to approach the possibility of "customisation" thanks to the new systems of digital production.

• Use the theories of shapes, light, colours, surfaces and expression codes to create products with new aesthetics and meanings.

• Interpret project briefs to adjust the level of innovation and correctly interpret the identified technological possibilities, targets and economic levels.