Gretchen Chern, M.A. design management student, Decatur, Georgia; Adrian Watkins, M.F.A. design management student, Boone, North Carolina
an understanding of the essential role of creativity as a strategic advantage. This holistic application of design principles and practice complements traditional linear analysis and planning methods with exhaustive exploration of alternatives that would otherwise remain hidden, fostering the expansion of context in which design decisions are seen to affect much more than the direct sale of a product or service to the consumer.
Design Management
In 2009, BusinessWeek named SCAD one of the “World’s Best Design Schools” for its graduate program in design management, which focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration and the integration of tangible design thinking in all levels of strategy, planning and management. Coursework and real-world projects enhance students’ knowledge and application of theory, visualization, financial practices, marketing and collaborative culture.
With a foundation in organizational anthropology, collaborative learning, brand analytics, design principles and business practices, the design management program centers on facilitating the integration of business and design thinking throughout organizations. Extending far beyond the management of design in business, design managers integrate knowledge of fundamental business activities such as research, product development, marketing, communications and production with
Driving innovation and communicating the role of design in business—key components in creating new enterprise, developing new products and stimulating the investor community—are at the core of graduate students’ learning objectives. The curriculum prepares students to establish a vision and implement it at every level within an organization. The design management program is about creating conditions in which successful new ventures may be conceived, designed, produced and consumed. Cultivating the language and culture of design in business prepares students to be well informed in the role of design as a business creation partner.
Students in the program participate in industry-sponsored and collaborative projects: • In the class Collaboration at a Distance, students engaged in global virtual teams with students from
universities in the United States, Germany and Finland using automated social network analysis to formulate approaches to complex social problems.
• In the Digital Diffusion Dashboard project, students worked with Wayne State University researchers, along with a global corporate partner, to develop an interaction design prototype for a device that displayed key metrics of the discourse of innovation occurring across divisions.
• Across the spectrum of current M.F.A. thesis topics of study, which range from accelerating the diffusion of small wind energy through a new consumer-centered model to reconfiguring the market mechanics and social network dynamics of independent food systems, collaboration remains the essential ingredient to achieving desired outcomes.
Faculty, students and alumni participate in and present papers at national and international conferences, including the Industrial Designers Society of America’s National Education Conference, Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference, the International Network for Social Network Analysis, the American Anthropological Association, and the International Conference on Design Principles and Practices.
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