Art Direction and Product Design

The teaching is aimed at students both from Fine Arts Academies and Universities.
The two-year course seeks to be a National Centre of Excellence in the study and research of design applied to a system-product.

Learning outcomes

The aim of the study course to attain the second level degree of the School of Artistic Planning for Enterprise is to offer a series of design tools required for design management and provide the necessary skills to work in the creative direction of complex production organisations whose products, services, events and communication strategies are integrated in the entire design procedure.
Starting with basic artistic and scientific training, theoretical and practical, the courses enable mastery to be acquired in the management of relations between product components, associated services, communication, promotional tools, trade fairs and events, through to the decommissioning and recycling of the materials, in an approach centred on the design of the system-product. More specifically, the student learns the techniques and tools required to manage the various success factors in brand identity and the entire life cycle of the product to be developed.
The contemporary context is highly complex, international and changeable, so a strictly monolithic approach and isolated inventions – be it a product, service, communication, packaging or fitting out interiors – are no longer enough to overcome the increasing competitiveness in order to produce excellence, innovation and development: what is required is design organised on the basis of the entire system-product, marketing and strategic management, mastery of the supply chain logic of the entire system, awareness of the synergic potential of business networks and the internationalisation processes, integrated communication and the new media, studies that enrich the skills of a creative designer aiming for a managerial position.

Employment prospects

The intended training profile is a professional able to work as an art director in the highly competitive, contemporary international context and to integrate the know-how of the various corporate structures – Research and Development, Marketing, Production, Commercial, Sustainability – and who knows how to effectively transfer this know-how to the design of the system-product.
The natural career path is within dynamic, design-oriented industrial organisations or research institutes, consultancy firms, communication and distribution companies in the design world. This involves interacting with the highest corporate position-holders including art directors, system-product designers, trend analysts, corporate image managers, service designers, event managers, retail designers or visual merchandisers. A prospective career path in today’s context is in the business world, involving the production of goods and the distribution and supply of services, always with the emphasis on design.
The student following this path will acquire bankable skills in public or private professional contexts where ability is required in managing complexity and design.

The subjects and applied skills developed cover the following sectors:
1) Management and development of projects connected to the corporate processes of growth and innovation
2) Research aimed at the application of new materials, new technologies and new product types
3) Intervention in the field of sustainable resources
4) Enhancement and development of centres of excellence involving design
5) Business design and visual communication
6) Organisation and preparation of exhibition events: trade
7) Fairs/conventions/exhibitions/major events
8) Consultancy in the analysis and development of training projects aimed at corporate growth
9) Development of new entrepreneurial organisations centred on the production of goods and services or their distribution

STUDY PLAN