Communication Design

The Master’s degree programme in Communication Design places a strong focus on the design and creative skills required to implement successful communication strategies based on analogue and digital media. Communication design enables or improves the approach to content and makes it more understandable, convincing and effective.

You will learn about corporate identity, design management, print production, digital production, creative techniques and visual aesthetics. From the first to the fourth semester you will also work on concrete design projects, which will help you to hone your skills in the methodical development of ideas and their implementation in real-world products. This ensures that you will be well prepared for the world of work.

We teach the methods of communication design, creative skills and technical media expertise within a team-oriented and international environment. Special emphasis is placed on aesthetic design as well as effective, comprehensive and emotional design.

Communication Design is a broad-ranging field of design and offers a wide range of opportunities for professional specialisation. Presentations by international experts on issues such as editorial design, emotional design, experimental typography and interactive information systems provide up-to-date inspiration for your everyday design work.

The degree programme also enables you to adopt an intensive scientific and experimental approach to design issues that interest you. Our teaching staff provides individual support and supervision throughout the programme. There is also a chance for your to further develop your expertise as part of numerous collaborative projects and the final Master’s thesis.

Study mode

The Master’s course in Communication Design is organised to fit in with part-time work commitments with lessons taking place between Tuesday and Friday. The average required attendance during the first three semesters is 19 hours per week. It is therefore possible to combine your studies with a part-time job. The fourth semester is dedicated to writing the Master’s thesis.
During the semester, classes take place from 9:00 to 18:30 from Tuesday to Friday. E-learning sessions are not available.

Self-study

The workload is based on the following ECTS credits: each semester, students are credited with 30 ECTS points for a workload of approx. 750 hours. Around 20 units of attendance are deducted from this during the first three semesters and the supervision of the Master’s thesis in the fourth semester. This results in a workload of approx. 520 hours during the first three semesters, or 34 hours per week. The Master’s thesis should correspond to a workload of 750 to 800 hours.

Attendance

There is compulsory attendance in all courses of FH JOANNEUM. You may be excused if you present a doctor’s certificate to show that you were ill. Students require a minimum 80% attendance level. If you miss more than 20%, you will fail the course and won’t be able to sit the first examination. The head of degree programme has the final decision about the consequences of absence as well as exceptions to compulsory attendance. We try to accommodate any extra-curricular design-related activities our students may wish to pursue.