The future of design is interdisciplinary
Students like Frédérique Gagnon, who is considering pursuing an MDes once the program officially opens, stand to benefit from Concordia’s evolution into an interdisciplinary giant. | Image courtesy of the artist
A new Master of Design program at Concordia, expected to begin in the fall of 2016, is built on a fundamental belief that good design incorporates knowledge and expertise from a range of fields.
“Successful design methods and processes are those that are able to connect practices from across disciplines," says Joanna Berzowska, chair of Concordia’s Department of Design and Computation Arts.
Students looking to study graphic design to the social impact of architectural practices or the creation of digital and non-digital interactions, will be welcome in the new graduate program, Berzowska says.
“We’re hoping to attract students who think of design as this very broad range of activity — that design has to actually consider multiple realms to perform its roles.”
The new program is the fruit of over five years of labour. Berzowska has been working with members of her faculty for at least that long to create the far-reaching curriculum that will centre around three main streams: visual communication, interaction design and the built environment.
“Design plays an increasingly critical role in the evolution of the built environment, as it integrates an artificial or human-centric world into the existing ecosphere,” she says.
Concordia University has come a long way in the sphere of interdisciplinary studies, from its Hexagram network, to its Individualized Program to its Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture and many others in between.
"Dialogue Analogue," 2015, by Frédérique Gagnon. | Image courtesy of the artist
“As design work crosses the boundaries of visual communication, the built environment and interaction design, and faces constant change as the result of new technologies and knowledge creation, practices that are adaptive, dynamic and team-based are required, Berzowska says.
“Concordia makes it easy to work outside of disciplinary constraints.”
Students like Frédérique Gagnon, who is a freelance graphic designer currently enrolled in the Digital Technologies in Design Art Practice graduate certificate program, stand to benefit from Concordia’s evolution into an interdisciplinary giant.
Gagnon is considering pursuing an MDes once the program officially opens. Having previously studied communication design at Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art and Design, she’s looking forward to being around students from a greater diversity of disciplines and backgrounds.
“Collaboration is what I think is really cool about school,” Gagnon says.
Fine Arts Associate Dean Mark Sussman says the creation of the new design graduate program is a natural progression for the Department of Design and Computation Arts, and noted that the entire faculty contributed to its proposed curriculum.
Sussman is particularly looking forward to seeing what students come up with as a result of the program’s emphasis on sustainability in design practices, a theme largely developed by Martin Racine, an associate professor in the department.
“I think the curriculum of the MDes will reflect the diverse definitions of design — of sustainability, of the built environment — that are reflected in a very diverse faculty, from a disciplinary point of view,” Sussman says.
He says the department is in a position to take the lead in a number of academic fields, including gaming and game design, interactive technology research and new media.
“The applications are exploding and it’s a great moment to be starting a program,” he says.
Learn more about the new MDes program by contacting the Department of Design and Computation Arts.