Design for Social Business

Objectives
Design for Social Business redefines and researches how design process and designing methods have to change and adjust in order to fulfil the premise serving social business for the bottom of the pyramid. MA students will do design research which, with the support of methodologies as Ethnography, Semiotics and appropriate Discourse Analysis, will provide them the skills to develop tools which can allow to innovate within the social business segment and creatively with business, culture and society. Students will learn to reframe designing practice in the design industry developing strategic and innovative opportunities and their management as the outcome.



Methodology
The Master in Design for Social Business is constructed as a series of taught and research modules as well as travel modules in order to study problems and contexts in real time.
At the same time, the flexibility of the modular structure enables the course to students who can do some further work during the week. The two main aims of the Master in Design for Social Business are to enable students to design with theoretical rigour and to create products and services for social business as well as social business.
The modular structure of the course is designed to meet these two goals. The course is, therefore, intended as a developmental experience with students progressively acquiring conceptual, technological and creative skills.

Many professionals will serve students to enhance their ability to conceptualize and critical review creative ideas in order to promote designs and designing services for the 4th tier.

Students Profile
The course recognises and welcomes students from a range of backgrounds in artistic, management and theoretical. This gives sufficient flexibility within the structure of the programme to attract students with different specialties and with various needs. Some students will have more interest in the taught elements of the programme while others want to concentrate on research and execution of the projects. However this mix will bet his success of the program.

Designer of all disciplines, artists, architects, professionals from business and management areas, marketing and communication, or social sciences, among others, are welcome to join the program.
To enter the validation process, all candidates should submit the following documentation:

- Academic background: Undergraduate degree is required. 

- Working experience: Evidence of 3 years working experience (minimum)
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- Certificate of English proficiency: official IELTS or TOEFL certificate.
- Motivation letter.
Once all this information is submitted, all applicants should pass a personal interview with the Academic Director, Jürgen Salenbacher.



Professional Opportunities
The graduates of this course will have developed an international perspective, will have visited the environments they design for, will have understood how design will have to shift to serve development countries as well, and will have acquired adequate knowledge for them to be able to integrate different disciplines from the design world into their projects, focussing on social business. 
Students who take this course will add value to their professional experience in both business companies and design studios, NGOs, joining multidisciplinary teams, or as entrepreneurs launching their own projects. The course also will help them to develop careers in areas like innovation design, strategy design and business development, brand/product and social enterprise development.
 Graduates will be highly attractive to potential employers in business sectors who have already indicated that there is a need to generate new business models, products and services, which serve the disadvantaged people.



Coordinators
The course responsible and coordinators of the Master support the choice of the teaching team, all of them professionals with extensive experience, and associated with prestigious institutions and organisations in their fields of expertise. We have the participation of prominent international professors and speakers.



Course director
Prof. Jürgen Faust 
Vicepresident for Academic Affairs and Research. Dean of Media and Communication Faculty, Prof. Digital Media MHMK Munich, Germany, International Consultant Strategy and Development, IED Group, Milan, Former Professor Monterrey Tecnologico, Mexico, Dean at CEDIM, MTY Mexico, former Prof. Digital Media Chair TIME department and Dean IME Cleveland Institute of Art, USA. 
Has been teaching art and design and theory with an emphasis on design processes and the possible transformation into other disciplines.

Course Coordinator
Jürgen Salenbacher 
Jürgen Salenbacher has been collaborating with IED since 2005 as a professor of Communication, Marketing and Branding in the three-year courses in Fashion and Marketing and Master of Design Management. In 2011 he was appointed Academic Dean of IED, Istituto Europeo di Design Barcelona.
Bachelor of Arts in Design and Communication, Jürgen Salenbacher also has a diploma in Public Relations and a Master in International Business Administration from EADA Business School.
In addition, in 2010 he published the book Creative Personal Branding, in which he shares his professional strategy method, based on his professional experience positioning local and global brands as well as people, and inspired in his research on the creative economy.

Student Support and Guidance
Will be announced.



The course is taught in English

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