Strategic Communication Design

A Graduate Design Program at CU Boulder

I am in the 2020–2021 Strategic Communication Design program at CU Boulder and this is an overview of the program so that future students, friends, or parents, can get an idea of what students like me are doing.

Where is the Program

This program is in Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado- Boulder. While it is a university program, classes are conducted in a Studio space in the downtown. It has lots of room, techy equipment, and just a good place to collaborate and learn.

What is the Program About:

It is a graduate degree program where students earn a Masters of Arts in Strategic Communication Design. It is a design-oriented program that focuses on innovation in product, experience design, and branding. Its entirely project-based, where students confront design challenges with all their senses of innovation, experimentation, curiosity, and play.

What really excited me about this program is that it adjusts, adapts, and responds to a world that is constantly changing because of new technologies. Students practice key design skillsets but allow flexibility to adapt to the current reality and future trends. This program emphasizes preparing students to have competitive skillsets for the design industry now but aims to be ahead of the industry.

Skills Students Learn:

There is a Brand Design Track and a User Experience Design Track. I am focused on the latter, so I’ll be taking more Experience Design courses. There are Entrepreneurial Design Courses, Critical Making Courses, and Design Leadership Courses.

Students are judged on their performance by how they participate in class discussions, collaborate on projects, the conception, build, and launch of an innovative product in their Entrepreneurial Design Studio, and their final design portfolio.

I won’t list all of the programs, tools, and methods students learn because there are so many. In short, we utilize fundamental design software like Adobe Creative Suite, get involved with coding, prototyping, laser cutting, 3D printing, CNC milling, animation, augmented, and virtual reality. The best way to see what we are doing is to follow our posts, which I’ll get to later.

In general, students learn how to develop processes and ways of thinking to confront people-centered, design problems. There is a heavy emphasis on design leadership where students practice leadership strategies and leading teams through innovation challenges.

Timeline:

It is an accelerated, one-year program so students go to school for one full year without a summer break.

Cost:

The cost of a program like this isn’t cheap and getting the answer isn’t always easy, so I’ll just spell it out.

These are my personal expenses for 12 months, so it will differ from student to student. My housing and health insurance per month is $1175. My food, entertainment, gas, and other is around $500 per month. The total cost of the program is $42,000 for an in-state student. For a grand, depressing total of $62,000.

Certainly high and a bit of a gamble, but speaking with students who’ve gotten jobs after the program, they are compensated around $80,000 starting off so they feel it justifies the program costs. But most importantly, students get to do amazing things and be creative and creativity is always valuable for work and life satisfaction.

Who is Involved:

There are at least 11 key instructors. They are all working professionals so they are in tune with what is going on in the design industry and can give professional mentorship. There are also alumni and people around the program who give insight and support. In this cohort, there are twenty students, mostly in their early-mid twenties, but there are a few of us older folk who are in career changes or bolstering our skills to compete in such a rapidly changing world.

If you want to learn about this program, continue to follow me and my fellow students. We are all publishing posts in this Medium platform throughout the year and I’ll also be putting stuff up on YouTube and in a newsletter. You can find my colleagues in by looking at who I am following in my profile.