Students exploring screen-human interaction as play.
2-YEAR PG Arts Program
2-YEAR PG Arts Program
Note: Applicants should apply to the MA courses if they intend to take up PGDP Finish. There is no separate application form for PGDP Finish; one can exit at the end of year 1 of MA with an award of a PG Diploma upon successfully completing the graduation requirements.
The MA in Visual Communication program is designed to generate communication that is rooted in local traditions while maintaining social and cultural relevance. Through a combination of existing models of thinking and self-directed inquiry, students will develop the ability to engage in contextually meaningful communication solutions. The course places a strong emphasis on the comprehension and processing of visual information and encourages students to integrate the six key domains of communication design: aesthetic, functional, historical, symbolic, perceptual, and cultural. This approach helps you in developing visual literacy, visual thinking, visual perception, imaging, and representation for creating impactful branding strategies and other forms of creative communication material. Upon graduation, you will find career opportunities in various industries such as Branding & Advertising, Marketing & Communication, Graphic Design, Publication & Publishing, Retail and Exhibition. They will be well-suited for roles such as Researcher, Academician, Educator, Art Director, Senior Designer or Design Consultant at design houses, corporates, publishing houses, marketing companies, advertising agencies, NGOs, innovation centres, and event management companies.
Professionals and graduates in design as well as non-design background often feel the need to step out of their comfort zones to hone their skills and enhance their creative, theoretical and research capabilities. The MA in Visual Communication enables one to integrate existing models of thinking and making with self-directed inquiries to engage deeper with contextually meaningful communication solutions. The course will equip graduates become resourceful, enhance their research and critical thinking and be more process oriented in their practice.
The foundation for this course lies in emphasizing the comprehension and processing of forms of visual information. Students will be encouraged to integrate the six key domains of visual communication design: aesthetic, functional, historical, symbolic, perceptual, and cultural, through research and practice. The discipline of Visual Communication focuses on providing core competency in developing visual literacy, visual thinking, visual perception, imaging, and representation. Inquiry-based learning, design processes, research methods, history and theories of design form the building blocks for developing a comprehensive and successful branding strategies and creative communication material.
The curriculum approaches visual communication through theoretical frameworks that not only inform and enhance the practice but also encourage students to question the norms and cross established standards.
The course structure will encourage students to engage with questions and inquiries that frame the role of visual communication within contextual approaches that are rooted in cultural relevancy. In today’s Global and Flat world are we simply brushing aside opportunities for deeper inquiries and engagement with culturally important and relevant forms of making.
Is it possible to imagine and create work outside of the prevalent aesthetics to communicate ideas that are rooted in the local, that resonate the traditions while being socially and culturally relevant to us?
Is there an Indian aesthetic that can be explored to affect the way we think and create, or, has the modernist aesthetic completely soaked up our sense of creativity?
Students will be encouraged to connect with these questions as platform to break rules, to express unique ideas, and, to explore and experiment with innovative tools and methods of visual communication. Students will thus experience design both as a complex cultural, societal, corporate activity and an intense, exploratory, personal search into meaning through visual forms.
LEVEL
Postgraduate Degree
AWARD
Masters of Arts (MA)
DURATION
2 Years / Full-time
Inquiry-based learning, learning by making, and project-based learning are some of pedagogical tools employed to create insights into real-life situations and industry needs. Design thinking and research, the principles of cognition and perception, creative thinking, and contextual thinking is emphasized and encouraged. The course prepares the students to participate and function in the areas of creativity and visual communication across print as well as digital media.
Learning is driven by engagement with theories and methodologies through four overarching modules:
The program is informed by the following disciplines:
The students under this course will have the opportunity to work with the following centers and labs at Srishti Manipal.
Graduates of MA in Visual Communication at Srishti Manipal will be able to contribute to and make a positive difference in a variety of creative and research areas such as of Branding & Advertising, Marketing & Communication, Graphic Design, Publication & Publishing, Retail and Exhibition as well as Digital Publishing and Marketing Companies. Our graduates will make very competent and effective Researchers, Educators, Academicians, Creative Enablers, Art Directors, Senior Designers and Design Consultants.
Yes, you are. Not having formal training in art/design related disciplines does not hamper your eligibility. However, it is important that you possess a talent, keen interest and awareness for the arts and design, and have a deep desire to carve out a career in design for yourself. Your talent in art / design will need to be showcased through a portfolio of your original works relating to Visual Communication.
Not having an academic background in art/design will also mean that the student will have to work extra hard especially in the first semester and become well-versed with the fundamental principles of visual communication design through independent studies since this course does not focus on developing a student’s basic skills in Visual Communication.
This is a fulltime program and this means that students will be enrolling in studio units for 5 to 6 days of the week during each semester. Contact time with teachers for the studio units is 3 to 4 hours per day, however, students are expected to put in at least 3 to 4 hours more towards assignments, research, independent study which may be practical or theoretical in nature. Furthermore, each semester also includes a 2-week workshop period where students will be engaged with hands-on activities for 6 to 8 hours every day. The semester ends with a 2-week period which constitutes the final exam and students are expected to work on examination task for at least 6 to 8 hours each day during this period. In short, this means that a student is left with very little time for additional professional work.
As a young graduate, you need to enhance your creative aptitude and sharpen your thinking & making skills and research abilities to become creative, resourceful and proficient practitioner in Visual Communication Design. You will engage with and also learn to apply design processes, research methods and history and theories of visual design to create meaningful and contextually relevant communication material. This course will also help you enhance your visual literacy, visual thinking, visual perception, and critical thinking skills. It will also enable you to integrate your existing skillsets and processes of thinking with the emerging technologies, methods, media and practices in the field of visual communication. The course is designed to engage students in inquiry-based learning. At post-graduate level students are also expected to be self-motivated and take charge of their learning and their time at Srishti Manipal to forge meaningful relationships with their peers, deepen their learning through independent studies, seek critical and thought-provoking dialogues through seminars and colloquiums, and, align their research and inquiry with the vision of the course.
You will be required to dedicate between 25 to 30 hours of work every week for homework and assignments. These hours may be partly spent at our campus and partly at home.
As a graduate of MA in Visual Communication, there are a variety of creative / research / academic areas that you will be eligible to engage with. You will be able to contribute to and make a positive difference in industries such as Branding & Advertising, Marketing & Communication, Graphic Design, Publication & Publishing, Retail and Exhibition. You will be highly effective to work as Researcher, Academician, Educator, Art Director, Senior Designer or Design Consultant at various design houses, corporates, publishing houses, marketing companies, advertising agencies, NGOs, innovation centres and event management companies.
This is a demanding course and students are expected to be productive from the day one. Focusing on enhancing productivity skills by learning various visualisation and crafting techniques along with working on improving your computer skills (especially Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop) will be tremendously helpful.
Being aware of the latest trends and concerns of the art and design industry will also help to gather and understand the fundamentals quickly. Visiting art galleries, museums, attending Degree Shows of various design colleges, reading books and magazines on art, design and learning about the history of Art and Design will make a big difference in your ability to comprehend complexities and demands of the creative process.
The course does not allow you to choose another major. However, the course allows for Choice-based navigation of some of the learning units, which means that a student is able to signup for units from other specialisations within other MA Courses which could be from specialisations from other Courses such as Art Practices or New Humanities and Design. There may also be opportunities for a student to work on developing skills/capabilities in an area of their interest through choosing to work on related projects or independent study, and, thus focus on a specific expertise/skill.
Only some of the Learning Units are mandatory within a specialisation. Apart from mandatory Learning Units, students can sign up for units from other courses that will be termed as allied or elective units. The allied units are the learning units offered by specialisations within the course you have enrolled in, and, electives are learning units offered by courses and specialisations outside of the course you have enrolled in.
Srishti Manipal does not provide an official/formal placement event for its graduating batches. Instead the graduation seminar known popularly as “The Srishti Collective” becomes a platform where industry is invited to attend and view our graduating batch’s capstone seminar and conference. Historically this also becomes a placement event. Additionally we publish a catalogue of our graduates each year which is circulated amongst industry and professionals.