Post Graduate Programme in Creative Entrepreneurship

Creative Entrepreneurship

“The programme is designed to equip designers with skills required to establish and excel in professional practice, with an emphasis on setting up a design practice.”

ISDI’s Creative Entrepreneurship Programme ensures that students be exposed to a host of business management skills ranging from business strategy and financial planning, marketing and market research , talent management and organizational development.

At the end of the programme, students will be equipped to plan and organize the daily running of a studio and how to ensure that the business thrives and develops.

Programme Structure

The Students can focus as per the Studio Course Curriculum:

The Seminar will cover critical, strategic and fundamental aspects of launching and operating a design-driven start-up through case-studies, lectures, guest presentations, and discussion. The Start-up Studio will act as an incubator and provide students with hands-on experience developing and launching a design-driven start-up concept.

Skill Workshops are designed in a manner which shall provide the students a practical overview of the curriculum and give them hands-on training for building their future. The core idea will be to provide a useful insight on how to progress in Entrepreneurial Ventures.

Semester 1 - 15 Credits

• Entrepreneurship Seminar

• Incubator

• 3 Skill Workshops

Semester 2 - 15 Credits

• Operating a start-up Seminar

• Incubator

• 3 Skill Workshops

CE Course Module

Each Semester comprises of 15 credits where 6 credits are for the Seminar Courses and 9 credits for Skill Workshops

Semester 1 - 2 Courses

Entrepreneurship Seminar

As design has increased its mandate, the media that designers work with has shifted and grown, from the physical artifacts to digital systems and now to the business enterprise. In this new landscape, the methods designers use to identify product and service concepts, prototype and test them, and continually refine them can be applied to commercial and social enterprise as a new media for design. With the assumption that entrepreneurship means "starting a new business where there was none before," students will learn how to apply design thinking skills to the problems business entrepreneurs face while getting their startup off the ground. Design thinking approaches to problem solving, such as, empathy, systems thinking, problem definition (and redefinition), visualization, ideation, prototyping and testing will be presented and discussed relative to entrepreneurship and value creation in business. Students will learn a variety of methods that they will use to bring these concepts to bear in creating their own entrepreneurial endeavours.

Incubator

Our incubator is a workshop for students to apply what they are learning in the seminars to their own entrepreneurial business ideas. In addition to oversight and advice from prominent design and business leaders, the program will provide business support resources, and marketing and networking opportunities to students as they pursue their business vision. Through the incubator experience, students can expect to develop a feasible business idea, a workable business plan, effective marketing demos and communication materials, and a functioning prototype of their business idea they can use to seek partnership, investment, and eventually customers for their offerings.

Seminar 2 - 2 Courses
 

Seminar: Operating a Startup

Developing a business concept, finding and defining a profitable value proposition, attracting and satisfying your first customers–these are what an entrepreneur needs to master to get a business off the ground. This requires iteration, redefinition, and willingness to "pivot" or fundamentally change your strategy in order to find a profitable business. Once an enterprise is up and running, however, the rules change. The initial search and exploration activities required to find and exploit a profitable market opportunity are no longer as useful. In this later stage of the startup experience, a focus on growth is required, to scale this profitable business. This stage requires different skills, and different methods. Students will learn "Lean startup" approaches to optimizing and scaling a startup, such as customer goal-oriented methods, iterative releases and improvements, and a reliance on open source software and inexpensive services.

Incubator

Our incubator is a workshop for students to apply what they are learning in the seminars to their own entrepreneurial business ideas. In addition to oversight and advice from prominent design and business leaders, the program will provide business support resources, and marketing and networking opportunities to students as they pursue their business vision. Through the incubator experience, students can expect to develop a feasible business idea, a workable business plan, effective marketing demos and communication materials, and a functioning prototype of their business idea they can use to seek partnership, investment, and eventually customers for their offerings.

CE Skill Workshops

The Workshop Titles carry 9 credits for each semester

Semester 1 - Workshop Titles

1. Entrepreneurship

• Social Media Marketing & PR

• Brand & Advertising Strategy and Management

• Managing Creative Talent

• Intellectual Property & Contracts

• Project Management

• Market Research Methods

• Innovation (definition, types of, measurement and management approach)

• Business Model Design (business model canvas, value proposition design)

• Service Design (service architectures and blueprinting)

• Prototyping Methods (experience, service, product, etc)

• User-testing and Evaluation Methods

• Lean startup methodologies (minimum viable product, agile, customer development)

• Sustainability and Social Innovation (definition, types of, measurement and management approach)

2. Web Development

• Data Visualization

• Information Architecture

• Writing for the web

• Graphic interface design

• Designing for mobile

3. Typography & Print Design

• Layout using InDesign

• Digital Imaging with Photoshop

• Graphic Illustration with Illustrator

• Digital Photography

• Presentation design in Keynote

Semester 2 - Workshop Titles

1. Motion Graphics & Broadcast Design

• After-Effects - intro

• After-Effects - advanced

• Audio/Video

• Sound Design

2. Film/Video

• Storytelling and Narrative Form

• Editing

• Sound Design

• Screenwriting

• Videography - Intro

• Videography - Advanced

• Pre-Production

3. Business Design

• Managing Innovation

• Business Model Design

• Service Design Methods

• User research and evaluative testing methods

• Lean startup methodologies (for product management)

• Managing sustainability

CE Skill Workshop Details

Semester 1 - 9 Credits

1. Entrepreneurship

Social Media Marketing & PR

In this hands-on course, students will learn to strategically use the most current social media for marketing and PR. Students will engage critically with many participatory design methods and test out theory by putting it into practice.

Brand & Advertising Strategy and Management

This course is an intensive overview of brand and advertising strategy in the 21st century. An understanding of both new and traditional advertising and branding techniques will be applied to planning and managing a campaign. Topics such as demographics and targeting, market research, consumer insight and social media, brand position, executing a strategy, and evaluating a campaign’s effectiveness are covered. How can media companies achieve and maintain a competitive edge in this radically changing and converging media environment? And what part does the development and communication of a differentiated brand play in that challenge? This course will apply techniques and tools for analyzing industries, companies and competitors and understanding the context in which competitive strategy and positioning is formulated.

Managing Creative Talent

Dramatic changes in technology and in the media's role in converging technologies require new management and leadership techniques and paradigms. This course aims to give students a survey of some of the latest management and leadership theories, including those encouraging a new sense of social responsibility. It also gives students the opportunity to apply these theories to a number of different competitive, structural, motivational, strategic, and organizational issues in the media world, by writing original case studies and solving problems in existing case studies.

Intellectual Property & Contracts

This course focuses on the role intellectual property (e.g., patents, trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, etc.) and contracts play in the management of a new venture. Current case studies will be used to cover the key concepts.

Project Management

This course focuses on managing media-based projects, ranging from small scope, short-term projects, to large-scale ongoing development using complex technological systems. It covers topics such as feasibility and risk analyses, budgeting, project selection, administrative and organizational structures, coordination and scheduling of activities, personnel, negotiations and contracts, cost estimating and controls.

Market Research Methods

This course will cover research methodologies used to gather and report insights in the Media Industry. Principles of audience research and ratings will be discussed, leading to a deep understanding of media sales, buying, planning and research. New Media techniques will be explored with a critical analysis of the theoretical implications and the framework of techniques and tools that get beyond Likes / Clicks / Friends / Followers to true engagement and return on investment.

Innovation

This course explores innovation through Entrepreneurship and strategies for successful new venture creation. It will encourage the development of leadership skills for entrepreneurs and will examine prevailing frameworks of innovation such as reverse, open, and disruptive innovation to identify and categorize contemporary innovations.

2. Web Development

Data Visualization

The course explores the design of interfaces and systems that will draw on generated data to show compelling stories, patterns, and points of view. This course will allow students access to a variety of data sets and APIs from the public domain such as article text, metadata (keywords, geotags, etc.), and archival data. Using these APIs, students will develop generative interfaces and data visualization projects that create dynamic views into the news and data of the present and the past.

Information Architecture

This course will develop students' abilities to conceptualize and visualize information architecture within various organizational frameworks and dimensions of space. Students will learn to articulate and propose new design methods for mapping, navigating and visualizing projects and learn how to create wireframes and other documentation used in the development of websites.

3. Typography & Print Design

Layout using InDesign

In this class, students explore the fundamentals of InDesign, including all aspects of the page layout process. Importing, creating type, and working with imagery are covered extensively. Production shortcuts for print, PDF, and the Web are discussed.

Digital Imaging with Photoshop

Acquire a working knowledge of this industry-standard software used for print, Web pages, animation, presentation, video production, and enhancement of traditional and digital photography. Explore scanning and color correction, tools and layers for image compositing, elemental retouching, and type treatments. Learn the fundamentals of this digital image manipulation and customize palettes, control layers, tweak scans, and master selections to create professional imagery.

Graphic Illustrator with Illustrator

Learn the fundamentals of this powerful illustration and vector-based graphic design program. Draw and design using the basic tools and features. Create curves, lines, and shapes to make objects. Manipulate, copy, and color your objects and arrange them into final artwork.

Digital Photography

This course will provide hands-on experience in digital camera controls, image creation and workflow, from capture to print output. Students will be introduced to non-automatic shooting modes, image storage capabilities, file types, menus, exposure, light, shutter effects, optimal image development, organization and output.

Semester 2 - 9 Credits

1. Motion Graphics & Broadcast Design

After-Effects – intro

This is introductory yet intensive course explores the fundamental of time-based graphic motion, with particular emphasis on typography, image, and narrative sequence. Students are challenged to develop concise yet powerful presentations, literal or abstract ideas, and move step-by-step through the development process, from storyboard to final rendering.

After-Effects - advanced

This course helps students build precision, control and fluency of expression within time based digital environments. Students will gain a solid foundation of motion graphics and effects techniques that will support their creativity and enhance their digital skill-set. Complementary relationships between commercial and fine arts work will also be explored.

Audio/Video

This course is an introduction to the design issues involved with time-based media, focusing on the conceptual, technical and historical aspects of digital film and video. Students will produce, shoot and edit their own videos on a regular basis. Weekly in-class screenings are focused on helping students understand the dimensions of establishing a visual language across time.

Sound Design

This course provides an overview of nonlinear audio production and sound culture with an emphasis on integration with other narrative formats. Sound is one of the most profound ways to convey ideas, sensations, and information; and, since it complements and enhances visual experience rather than excluding it, it can be one of the most flexible too. In this introductory-level course, students gain familiarity with the basic tools and techniques of nonlinear audio production. Projects improve listening skills, raise awareness of our aural experience and sonic environment (yes, we have ears too), integrate sound with narrative visual media, and allow us to communicate and conceptualize with sound.

2. Film/Video

Storytelling and Narrative Form

Traditional linear storytelling in film and video is increasingly supplanted or replaced by hybrid 'transmedia' approaches that function across platforms and formats. The rise of short-form and user-generated content online, video gaming, interactive technologies and virtual worlds have broadened possibilities for audience participation in the creation of stories. New funding and distribution models enable the 'makers' to cultivate and reach their audiences directly, not only through industry intermediaries. This course allows students to experiment with these new forms and strategies, construct their own project and apply transmedia approaches in their own work. Students are asked to formulate a concept, which they then develop through multiple storylines and forms of media, such as film or video, social media, blogs, websites, as well as live performance and interactions. Particular attention is paid to how these storylines translate and transform through different media. The class discusses various case studies and current developments in this rapidly changing environment, as well as ways to integrate funding and distribution into a project’s overall concept.

Editing

This course begins with a focus on the analysis of structure and editing style and concludes with some advanced techniques in digital postproduction. Major topics include: rhythm, continuity editing, mise-en-scene, montage, cinematic time and space, among others. The class focuses on basic principles of digital editing – documentary organization, structure, workflows, logs, timelines, basic trim procedures, etc. – and introduces more advanced techniques such as: working with music and composers; preparing the sound mix; creating video titles and graphics; color correction; generating output; and conforming and transferring projects, among other topics.

Sound Design

This course provides an overview of nonlinear audio production and sound culture with an emphasis on integration with other narrative formats. Sound is one of the most profound ways to convey ideas, sensations, and information; and, since it complements and enhances visual experience rather than excluding it, it can be one of the most flexible too. In this introductory-level course, students gain familiarity with the basic tools and techniques of nonlinear audio production. Projects improve listening skills, raise awareness of our aural experience and sonic environment (yes, we have ears too), integrate sound with narrative visual media, and allow us to communicate and conceptualize with sound.

Screenwriting

This course for the beginning screenwriter introduces the tools, vocabulary, and techniques used to tell a screen story and put an original idea into outline form. Assignments illustrate basic three-act structure, economical use of dialogue, visual storytelling elements, development of complex characters, revelation of background information, and effective use of dramatic tension.

Videography - Intro

Experienced film students are guided in shooting their own narrative, documentary, or experimental films, using HD digital video. All students in the class crew on one another's productions as a way of practicing the teamwork that is part of filmmaking and in order to maximize the learning experience. The course covers preproduction (budgeting, casting, scheduling, locations, permits, releases, film stocks), directing (including script analysis and rehearsals), camera and lighting, sound (use of professional microphones and digital sound recorders), and editing (synching dailies and an editing approach).

Pre-Production

Student filmmakers learn how to lay the groundwork for an advanced narrative, documentary, or experimental film or digital motion picture project.

3. Business Design

Managing Innovation

Students will learn frameworks for understanding what innovation is and how to bring it to bear it within the context of a startup endeavour. It will begin with the definition of innovation (clayton christensen), cover various types of innovation (doblin types, etc.), how to evaluate them and when to use them, methods of measuring and mapping types of innovation in your business a competitive landscape (doblin framework) and approaches to engendering innovative thinking in employees.

Business Model Design

Students will learn frameworks for understanding what innovation is and how to bring it to bear it within the context of a startup endeavour. It will begin with the definition of innovation (clayton christensen), cover various types of innovation (doblin types, etc.), how to evaluate them and when to use them, methods of measuring and mapping types of innovation in your business a competitive landscape (doblin framework) and approaches to engendering innovative thinking in employees.

Service Design Methods

Students will learn the basics of Service Design methodology, how it is different from product design methodology and how it compliments it. Concepts like front and back of house operations, touch points will be covered. Methods such as service blueprinting, service prototyping and service journey mapping will be taught.

User research and evaluative testing methods

Students will learn approaches to planning, executing, analyzing and reporting on a variety of evaluative user testing methods, from usability to concept testing. Methods and approaches for developing participant screener questionnaires, recruiting and scheduling, executing evaluative tests with individual users and focus groups, collecting, organizing and analyzing and reporting on test data and synthesizing approaches for next steps.

Lean startup methodologies (for product management)

Students will learn the theory of lean startup methodology and it’s sub-components. Concepts and methods will include use of open source approaches and repeatable frameworks, agile product management including iterative development and minimum viable product (MVP) thinking, and customer development process, for identifying user needs and involving customers in a co-design process.

Managing Sustainability

Students will learn frameworks for understanding what sustainability is and how to create a business that operates sustainably or focuses on social or environmental purpose and mission. Types of sustainability such as Social, Economic and Environmental sustainability will be covered and students will learn how and when to use them. Students will learn approaches to evaluate sustainability (life cycle assessment LCA, sustainable return on investment SROI, etc.), and methods of measuring (triple bottom line 3BL) and mapping types of sustainability in a business or a competitive landscape.