Master of Design in Graphic Design
The Master of Design (MDes) in Graphic Design is a two- and three-year degree program focused on an independent master’s research project that offers students the opportunity to identify and explore a topic of inquiry with the potential to contribute to broader disciplinary knowledge.
The program is equally concerned with thinking and making. Through project-oriented activities that foster analytical competence in research, writing, design history, and image theory, the curriculum is designed to deepen process-oriented skills as applied to typographic form/systems, image-/form-making, documentation/publication design, and digital media design. The MDes in Graphic Design is an international program delivered in Chicago or Basel, Switzerland. Chicago-based students participate in the Basel School of Design summer workshops. The program culminates in a public exhibition of the master’s research paper and project.
Pathway for Non-Design Students
The field of design continues to expand in exciting and unprecedented ways. The increasingly complex challenges designers embrace are not only changing the nature of what designers do but how disciplinary knowledge in design is understood. The MDes Preliminary Year embraces this evolving reality by welcoming applicants without traditional design backgrounds and considering areas of post-secondary study, non-academic activities, professional experience, and stated aims alongside evidence of visual production and critical cultural engagement.
Motivated applicants who do not hold a bachelor’s degree in design or a related discipline should plan for three years of study that begin with the MDes Preliminary Year, which is structured as an inquiry-based immersion in studio practices. In the interdisciplinary MDes Preliminary Year Studio, students are introduced to various design methodologies as they conduct basic investigations into cultural and disciplinary contexts. Simultaneously, MDes Preliminary Year students enroll in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses that introduce fundamental technical approaches, research strategies, special topics in design, and more.
Year 1
need content
Year 2
need content
MDes Basel Workshops
Coordinated programs of exchange offer possibilities for all MDes students to experience the rich international history of Basel and to access the diverse forms of design practice in Chicago. Every other year, Basel-based students make a field trip to Chicago. Activities and excursions during this exchange balance campus-based collaborative workshops with interdisciplinary cultural experiences. Between the first and second year of the program, Chicago-based MDes students participate in the Basel Summer Workshops.
