Design

Our Bachelor of Design is a unique interdisciplinary studio-based course that provides students with options to complete specialisations in communication, industrial, spatial or collaborative design. Our graduates are equipped with the skills, knowledge and capability to create imaginative and effective solutions to the challenges of our rapidly changing world.

Collaborative Design encourages students to build their capacity to work with others using contextually relevant methods, tools and techniques. Emphasising collaboration within the design process requires students to consider how they might forge better connections and build stakeholder capacity using design. The socially orientated work explores how we can design for better experiences, dialogue, speculation, negotiation, engagement and learning.

Our communication design studios encourage students to experiment with image-making, typography, digital media, UX and more, as tools to solve design challenges. Our students work with different materials and learn how to use digital tools like laser cutters, 3D printers, robotics, coding and animation software. Working with a range of industry clients on real projects, our graduates have gained first-hand experience while building a folio of work to launch their design careers.

From cutting-edge transport solutions, to medical equipment, to solutions for managing waste in circular manufacturing economies – the work of industrial designers advances the human experience, making a better life for us all. Guided by Monash academics, practising industrial designers and top researchers, our students develop a deep understanding of ‘user needs’ through empathy, and apply pragmatic, user-centric problem-solving processes to design products, systems, services and experiences. Our graduates understand how important it is to integrate their product designs into larger systems of operation that take account of our environment and are sensitive to their context.

Spatial Designers consider how we conceptualise and design objects, spaces and experiences at a range of scales. They work within architecture, urban space, performance and events, virtual environments, museums and galleries. In their final year studios, students explore the role of spatial design in advocating for social issues, and produce design propositions that speculate on the future of the spaces and environments in which we might live, work and socialise. Our graduates complete their degree with the expertise to adapt and evolve as designers who can positively contribute in a rapidly changing world.

Our prestigious honours program focuses on design practice, theory and research, with high achieving students undertaking an independent studio project within their selected specialisation. Our graduates have developed advanced strategic and critical design thinking skills that respond to current user needs and industry challenges; extending their professional expertise by developing research capacity and creating a pathway to higher level training in design research.

The communication design specialist area prepares students for a design future in the areas of graphic design, visual communication and digital media. Our graduates are equipped with the ability to work collaboratively with interdisciplinary teams: marketers, service providers, clients and other designers; and apply advanced visual and experiential processes across a range of communication challenges. These include such areas as corporate identity, interactive environments, interaction designs, information designs, analogue and digital publishing, advertising, promotion, packaging, illustration, typography, way-finding systems, animation, and motion design.

The industrial design specialist area of study prepares students for a design future in the fields of industrial and product design and other related areas of industry and commerce. Industrial design is concerned with the research and development of design in consumer and industrial products used by people. These range from industrial equipment to motor vehicles and from medical equipment to domestic appliances. Our graduates acquire the skills to work as a part of a creative team involving engineering, production and marketing.

The Master of Design consists of a series of defined and self-directed design projects that encourage students to engage with design systems, services, processes, environments and artefacts. Our students explore design research processes and contribute to the development of their specific discipline. Our graduates possess a high-level of planning, resourcing, implementation and evaluation skills, equipping them with an expert understanding of professional design processes.

Advanced studies in design allows students to construct an individual program of study from across interaction design, multimedia design and collaborative design. Our students can tailor their unit choices while addressing the fundamental principles of advanced design practice and thinking. Our graduates are thoughtful design practitioners, who connect research and practice across the design disciplines.

Collaborative design places students conceptually and practically at the intersection of interior, graphic and industrial design practice. Our students are set design challenges involving image, text, products, narratives, systems, services, public and private space, materiality and virtuality. Our graduates have developed independent conceptual and practical design skills alongside an ability to be part of collaborative design processes. They have an expanded awareness across design disciplines; developed multidisciplinary design expertise; and built broader skills in leadership, professional adaptability and complex project planning.

The interaction design specialisation develops our student’s skills in the design of contemporary artefacts, products and services that engage with interactive, user-focused technologies and processes. These can include, but aren’t limited to, health and medical equipment, ‘smart’ furniture, educational toys, wearable technologies, information kiosks and transport systems. You’ll use a diverse range of interactive processes, including the application of advanced technologies; electronics and programming; physical and virtual interface manipulation; engineering and material fabrication; and rapid prototyping. Our graduates have a strong understanding of the relationship between interactive activities, products and human behaviour.

Multimedia design develops our student’s skills in digital communication environments; designing for the web; motion and animation; and interactive touchscreen devices and surfaces. Emphasising an advanced knowledge of existing and emerging digital design processes and systems, they embrace projects of varied scale, from hand-held smart devices to large public interactive screens. Our graduates are equipped to build a communication narrative; use multimedia processes to fill community and business needs; and understand the end-user’s engagement with projects or products such as websites, apps and other screen-based media.