Introduction

The new technologies, with the presence of user generated content and co-making of communication products, have changed the way of designing and communicating. Today, communication experts have to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to the various activities they have to carry out in an increasingly “fluid” context whose disciplinary boundaries are loosing their definition. They have to understand the logic ruling and influencing the single business, detect obligations and opportunities and vouch for all the phases of a process, starting from recording a need and renovating itself in the continuous redefinition of its goals. Communication is one of the potentially most fertile areas of cross-breeding of knowledge reorganized in constantly new and coherent combinations by individuals endowed with a clear and cross-disciplinary vision and way of thinking. At the same time, in the most innovative organizations, the need for professionals capable of interpreting these changes is growing.
The two-year Master of Arts Program (MA) in Communication Design is intended as a research space in which it can be experimented with innovative methods of constructing integrated communication projects: a real “think tank” through which students are involved in an increasingly lively and topical debate aimed at continuously redefining and enlarging the work group’s interests. The project at the roots of this two-year Program aims at completing NABA didactical and educational offer in a particularly interesting sector with an eye to the demand of the labour market and at offering to those who have obtained a Bachelor degree the possibility to continue their studies in a new and stimulating way.

Educational Philosophy

The two-year Master of Arts Program (MA) in Communication Design has been conceived with the aim of combining a solid training in the field of marketing and integrated communication with a wide range of technical-expressive skills (graphic design, media design, environmental design) with a new perspective of maximum integration between expressive tools aimed at producing real communication outputs. All this in a logic of combining theory with practice, research with experimentation, in order to develop one or more consultancy projects commissioned by institutions or companies that will enable students to face issues related to the practice of a profession. Characterizing feature of the program is the continuous synthesis between a dimension more related to business and traditionally dealt with business-administration-oriented programs, and a more artistic-expressive one, also modelled in a perspective of adopting the new available technologies.
The two-year program requires full-time attendance and is characterized by various didactic methods: theoretical courses with ex-cathedra lessons and continuous assessment through written and oral exams. The laboratories offer students the opportunity to experiment and use the tools and technologies needed for the realization of the single projects. The cross-disciplinary seminars aim at confronting students with different kinds of experiences and encouraging a fruitful exchange with students enrolled in other programs offered at NABA. Thanks to the Erasmus Program and the other International Exchange Programs students will be able to spend one study semester at qualified European and extra-European design universities. The consultancy project works as well as the periods of internships represent an opportunity for the students to use the knowledge they have acquired in class in a professional context.

Summary

Fields of specialization: Integrated Marketing Communication, brand management, advertising, art direction, sales promotion, marketing and web 2.0, public relation, sponsorship, direct marketing, exhibition & event management, packaging, field marketing.
Professional profiles: art director, communication designer, interface designer, multimedia designer.
Director: Alessandro G. Montel.
Language: Italian.
Title: Master of Arts Degree (legally recognized by the Italian Ministry of University and Research).
Credits: 120 CFA.
Duration: two years, from January to December of the following year.
Yearly schedule: 600 hours of class and 800 including individual studies, group studies, internship.
Internship or company project: the internship period can be carried out with an external institution, production and communication agencies, companies or professional studios, or by participating in a communication project developed within NABA together with partner institutions or companies.
Study abroad: it is possible to take a study abroad period in one of NABA partner universities and academies, within the frame of international agreements (LLP-Erasmus and others).
Evaluation: In addition to the final exams, students have to develop a final thesis and an artistic-professional portfolio.

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