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Gutenberg Intermedia M.A.
(Communication Design)
The aim of this master's degree program is to train particularly talented graduates from bachelor's and master's programs in the field of cross-media design practice and research, to deepen their qualifications and to provide them with a creative environment for design experiments.
The basic parameters have changed - the media where communication design can be found today are in a state of flux. The role of the observer has also changed: to become an active participant in design processes. But the tasks and self-image of the designers have also changed as a result. They are seen less and less in a traditional role in which the given design is merely translated. Rather, as visual authors, they take on responsibility for the content and reflect social, technical and cultural contexts in their designs.
In the Gutenberg Intermedia master's degree program, you will deepen your creative knowledge in interdisciplinary design projects and acquire analytical and conceptual skills in accompanying courses. You will rethink the content and methods of design work in an intensive studio atmosphere with your own workspaces, which encourages a constant dialog with lecturers and other students. In addition, you can directly implement design experiments and printmaking techniques in the workshops for photography, screen printing, offset printing and bookbinding, as well as in the interactive workshop and computer pools.
Your professional prospects
Graduates of the master's degree program will work primarily in positions where a high degree of professional and personal competence is required. In addition to a self-employed entrepreneurial activity, possible professional fields are those of Art Director or Creative Director. As a communications designer you work in education and research, in agencies, publishing houses, design offices, cultural institutions and design departments in industry and media. Working as a design writer in the publishing sector is another possible career perspective. The Master of Arts degree is also a prerequisite for doctoral studies and enables you to pursue a career in higher-level civil service.
Studying and family
Our University has been awarded the certificate "Family-friendly university". Mainz University of Applied Sciences guarantees all students childcare facilities for children starting at the age of six months. For further information please contact the University's Equal Opportunities Representative.
What's in Store for You
The master's degree program is designed as a full-time program and is divided into five modules. In the first two semesters you will take courses and workshops from modules 1.1 to 1.4, while the third semester is reserved for your master's thesis (module 2.1).
The heart of the course is the Intermedia Project, in which a complex topic is developed across all media. This comprehensive design task trains not only design skills but also organisational skills.
The intermedia project is accompanied by several workshops – practical, technical or design-related – to deepen the topic.
In the research and analysis modules, academic work is taught and the individual thesis is accompanied from topic identification to implementation.
This module deepens the competences for approaching complex design questions and strategies as well as methods of design research.
This module imparts basic competences for a scientific approach to complex design issues and trains the ability to reflect analytically and theoretically.
The last module focuses entirely on the preparation of the Master’s thesis. It combines design and theoretical research, requires artistic-conceptual and scientific-reflective skills.
Program Structure
| Semester 1 | SEMESTER 2 | SEMESTER 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Intermedia project A | Intermedia project B | Master-Thesis |
| Workshop A | Workshop B | Master documentation and colloquiums |
| Research | Analysis | |
| Subject specialistation A | Subject specialistation B | |
| Theory MA A | Theory MA B |
2021: No Doubt: About Decisions
Where are the limits of design? Three semesters of time for your own project with a focus on typography. Workshops, excursions, teamwork: the new Master's in Communication Design at Mainz University of Applied Sciences starts in October 2021.
» When in doubt, give it the benefit of the doubt.« – Tocotronic
We live in changeable times. But crises also always mean opportunities for new beginnings. The master "No Doubt: About Decisions" asks about currently urgent decisions: For our society as well as for us as designers.
Many questions arise: What is our social responsibility? What are the relevant issues? And what is my creative attitude? What are my individual strengths? How far can I go and how far do we have to go to achieve change? What can I achieve as a designer? Decisions have to be made, always, also in design. But how do we create change? This includes: doubts about the familiar and the existing, experiments and setbacks, digressions and unexpected discoveries. Together we will start a discourse in the Master's programme about what is necessary and what is superfluous. From this, we will develop conceptually sharpened typographic master projects that - ideally - leave no doubt.
The new Master "No Doubt: About Decisions" starts in October 2021. Three semesters of time for your own typography project, for workshops, excursions and coaching.
*Das Modulhandbuch mit den inhaltlichen Beschreibungen der Lehrmodule des Master Studiengangs Kommunikationsdesign ist im Sekretariat und in der Assistenz einsehbar.
Who to contact
Marie-Theres Birk
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Assistentin | Raum H3.06
Mareike Rabea Knevels
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Assistentin | Raum H3.06
Julian Lehmann
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Assistent | Raum H3.06