Under Graduate Diploma Programmes in Communication Design

Diploma by The Indian School of Design and Innovation (ISDI) Mumbai View Contact

Starting from: INR 4,54,000 Per Course (Taxes As Applicable) Request Info

Communication Design - Developing your Craft

"Learn the art of persuasion by creating compelling messages, narrating them in meaningful ways, and crafting strategies to broadcast them to the world"

ISDI’s diploma in Communication Design (CD) is a three-year specialisation pursued by students who have completed their Foundation Year.

The content of the courses will help students learn about multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches to design processes, addressing branding, visual identity, design history, digital technology, communication theory, sustainable graphic design, design research, entrepreneurship and professional practice.

Students in this programme will acquire skills and process knowledge based on both the discipline’s historical tradition and the potential of modern technology within the systems and structures of society.

The focus of ISDI’s Communication Design programme is on process. Mastery of design skills are essential to the education of a designer, and one of the key skills that students will experience is thorough engagement with process and creative problem solving.

Students will also learn about the unique nature of Indian society, and the role the profession of Communication Design plays in the context of this rapidly changing nation.

Throughout the course curriculum students can focus on the following subject areas:

• Colour Theory

• Design Theory & Writing

• Typography & Print Design

• Drawing and Illustration

• Photography

• Printmaking and print production

• Motion Graphics & Broadcast Design

• Interface and Interaction Design including web and mobile

• Visual Identity and Branding

• Information Design and Data Visualization

Future Opportunities

As a Communication Designer, ISDI prepares you for a career in advertising, motion and broadcast graphics, book and magazine design, package design, corporate branding, information visualization, interactive design, exhibition and retail design, architectural and environmental graphics, apparel design, and other fields.

Year 2 CD Curriculum - Sem1

Semester 1 - 5 Courses - 15 Credits

Core Studio: Type - 4 Credits

A project-driven studio to introduce the vocabularies, concepts, practices, and contexts of typography and visual design as an essential component of the discipline. As a practice, typography provides a space to play and experiment with scale, form, composition, proportion, and communication. Students begin to evolve their understanding of design process and presentation. They develop their own work iteratively across several design projects, and collaboratively on research projects. Through lectures, drawing, and research, this class will immerse students in the language of symbols and lead them towards effective mastery of the persuasive power of visual communication.

Core Lab: Type - 2 Credits

A hands-on laboratory to introduce the technologies, concepts, practices, and workflows of typographic layout and decision-making as an essential component of the discipline. Structured to complement and assist the projects of the Core Studio, students evolve their understanding of production and troubleshooting and develop their own skills within contemporary professional standards. The lab focuses on building technical and practical skills towards a fluency in setting and manipulating type within a contemporary digital environment. Students work iteratively, with emphasis placed on analysis of outcomes.

Creative Computing - 3 Credits

Introduces students to the building blocks of creative computing within the visual and media environment. Students will learn to program, creating dynamic images, type and interfaces that can translate into print, screen, and space. Through weekly problems, students learn programming fundamentals that translate in virtually all programming platforms as well as contemporary methods for creative output. Primary software platform: Processing.

History of Graphic Design - 3 Credits

The goal of this course is to learn about twentieth century graphic design movements and design pioneers and to gain an understanding of how graphic design, perhaps more than any other design discipline, is a visualization of the social, economic, and political conditions of a particular time, place and culture. In addition to looking at and analyzing the formal elements of an individual designer's work, the class studies how posters, books, magazines, packaging, corporate communications, information design, and motion graphics function as instruments of persuasion or as marketing tools, identifiers, style setters, and/or organizers of information.

Studio Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Year 2 CD Curriculum - Sem2

Semester 2 - 5 Courses - 15 Credits

Core Studio: Interaction - 4 Credits

A project-driven studio to introduce the basic vocabularies, concepts, practices and contexts of interaction design as an essential component of the discipline. Students continue to evolve their understanding of design process and presentation as well as develop their own work across a variety of projects. Students will produce projects with increasing complexity, focusing on historic precedents, information architecture, media integration and future developments. Emphasis is on a critical awareness of new technologies, an articulated design process, creative engagement with the medium and principles of user experience. Students will be working both collaboratively and iteratively along a variety of assigned projects, culminating in a more research-driven final.

Core Lab: Interaction - 2 Credits

A hands-on support lab to introduce the basic technologies concepts, practices and workflows of interaction design as an essential component of the discipline. Structured to complement and assist the projects of the Core Studio, students evolve their understanding of production and troubleshooting and develop their own skills within contemporary and professional standards. Students will learn processes and techniques for website and interactive design, media integration and problem solving. Students will be working both collaboratively and iteratively along a variety of assigned projects.

Lecture Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Liberal Arts Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Studio Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Year 3 CD Curriculum - Sem1

Semester 1 – 4 Courses - 15 Credits

Topics Studio 6 Credits

Advanced studio for students particularly interested in developing more complex projects with a specific domain of media design. Emphasis is on critical thinking, iterative design methodologies and synthesis of research, design production and presentation. Students will complement historic and theoretical readings with their own research, and will develop a larger independent project of their own areas of interest.

Lecture Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Liberal Arts Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Studio Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Year 3 CD Curriculum - Sem2

Semester 2 – 3 Courses - 15 Credits

Collaborative Studio - 3 Credits

Project-driven studio that emphasizes collaboration between team members working on an external problem. Ideation, prototyping, collaboration, and iteration are practiced within a variety of contexts that are chosen each year, some generated from within and some in partnership with an external company, institution, or nonprofit.

Introduction to Design Studies - 3 Credits

This class examines different aspects of design and visuality by looking at larger questions of production, consumption, and use and how these issues become part of a larger discourse about design and visual culture. The design process is intricately tied to visuality, or how things appear and look; thus, the course uses images to provide students with a better understanding of their chosen field of study at Parsons. In this class, students will assess the relationship between design and the visual by investigating questions about gender, spatial control, ethics, race, status, and class; and will look at a variety of theoretical, historical, social, and political writings to explore this complicated topic.

Studio Electives - 9 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Year 4 CD Curriculum - Sem1

Semester 1 – 4 Courses - 15 Credits

Thesis 1 - 6 Credits

This two-course sequence is a year-long self-driven investigation into the research, prototyping and design of an identified problem, providing an opportunity for design innovation following an appropriate methodology, and building the project in different ways and on various trajectories. The goal of the first semester is to research, develop and articulate the thesis problem and goals towards the deliverables of an initial prototype, including designed presentations of research and process from the entire semester. Thesis requires a finished project or proposal along with a written component to communicate the public presentation of the work.

Pre-Capstone - 3 Credits

Students will choose from of a range of courses designed to prepare them for their capstone experience. These will stress a reciprocal relationship between independent work and class time, practice and theory, which will enable them to reflect critically on art, design and visual practices as they relate to issues of sustainability, politics, and social justice. This is an upper-level methodology, research, and writing class that continues to refine the skills and thought processes students have acquired as they progress through Parsons: presentation skills, writing skills, self and peer reflection and assessment skills, executive skills, research skills and systems thinking.

Liberal Arts Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Studio Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Year 4 CD Curriculum - Sem2

Semester 2 – 4 Courses - 15 Credits

Thesis 2 - 6 Credits

This two-course sequence is a year-long self-driven investigation into the research, prototyping and design of an identified problem, providing an opportunity for design innovation following an appropriate methodology, and building the project in different ways and on various trajectories. The goal of the first semester is to research, develop and articulate the thesis problem and goals towards the deliverables of an initial prototype, including designed presentations of research and process from the entire semester. Thesis requires a finished project or proposal along with a written component to communicate the public presentation of the work.

Liberal Arts Electives - 3 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Studio Electives - 6 Credits

Students should explore their elective options with their advisors to create a coherent study plan.

Entrance Exam

All Candidates interested in pursuing full time Under Graduate Diploma Programmes, Post Graduate Diploma Programmes and Post Graduate Certificate Programmes are required to complete out Entrance Test known as the ISDI Challenge.

The ISDI Challenge is an adapted version of the Parsons Challenge and it helps the Admission Committee understand how a prospective student develops ideas, translates them to good design and form, communicates that , and defends the work in writing

Eligibility Criteria

Under Graduate Diploma Programmes (UGDP)

 Any Candidate who has appeared for a 10+2 examination (e.g. A levels, CBSE, HSC, IBDP, ISC etc), or its educational equivalent in any discipline (e.g.: Science, Commerce, Arts) with an interest in Design & Innovation.

Although, successful completion of the 10+2 examination is necessary to confirm the admission, our institution does accept predicted or preliminary grade indications until final results are declared.

Fee Structure

Under Graduate Diploma Programme

The Indian School of Design and Innovation (ISDI)

A New Model

"There is recognition worldwide that the disciplines of design and innovation can play a significant role in helping address issues of economic development and social improvement."

These challenges take on a special urgency in India, where a growing population and a rapidly evolving society can benefit from design intervention.

The Indian School of Design and Innovation (ISDI), which opens its doors to students in July 2013, is committed to a new educational model inspired by the idea of design and innovation as transformative forces in society.

Located in the dynamic coastal city of Mumbai, ISDI offers a series of globally benchmarked Undergraduate Diploma Programmes (UGDP), four year intensive programmes (foundation year plus three year specialisation) for students across the disciplines of fashion, interior, product and communication design. Opportunities to engage in design education for graduates and young professionals start in September 2013, with the launch of ISDI’s one year Post Graduate Programme (PGP).

ISDI has entered into a collaboration with Parsons The New School for Design, a global leader in design education, which will enable ISDI to benefit from Parsons’ rigorous curriculum, prominent visiting faculty, well established student exchanges and global relationships.

ISDI’s academic ideology moulds designers to cater to a diverse range of industries and employers.

All educational programmes are built upon the foundation of a forward-thinking and innovative curriculum, industry sponsored projects, national and international collaborations and a deep sense of social and environmental responsibility.

Creativity, innovation and sustainability are core to ISDI’s philosophy.
 

ISDI has been conceptualised with the following goals in mind:

• To become India’s premier destination for students wishing to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across all design disciplines and specialties

• To emerge as a world-class institute of design and innovation established through a collaborative effort among designers, industry leaders, academic professionals and policy makers

• To create a school that is truly Indian in its core make up, but also global in its outlook

• To deliver the latest interdisciplinary design education driven by systems thinking and responsible innovation

• To foster creativity, nurture design and promote new talent

• To provide opportunities for internships and placements through unmatched professional connections