MA/PgDip Art and Design: Design Management

You can expect to find employment in the following areas: design management positions within major organisations, brand or identity management, project management, managerial roles within design consultancies, account handling or directorship, new business development and owner management.

Career Prospects

Our alumni are working throughout the world, including China, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela and many more.

Past graduates are now senior academics, graduate trainees for major retail brands, fashion entrepreneurs, strategy managers for medical product manufacturers, freelance designers and writers.

Alumni Profile

Examples of the careers of some of our alumni:

• Specialist, User Operations, Ireland. Student 2008/09
• Project Manager/Design at IBM India Pvt Ltd, India. Student 2008/09
• Account Manager at British Council, UK, supporting business development, marketing campaigns and strategic analysis. Student 2008/09
• Design Manager at UniSTAGE Ltd and UniPLAY Ltd, UK. Student 2008/09
• Design Manager Fox Racing Inc./Shift Racing, US. Student 2009/10
• PhD candidate in University of the Arts London. Student 2009/10

‘The mix of mature and international students with varied backgrounds in design and management enriched the classroom discussions, and there were many opportunities to draw on the experiences and insights of full-time and visiting lecturers. I felt the course empowered students to become independent practitioners or take on entrepreneurial roles.’

Industry Links

This course is the UK representative on ESN (the European Student Network). This is a collaboration of postgraduate Design Management programmes from European Higher Education Institutions organised by PARK, an international Design Management consultancy based in Hamburg and Amsterdam, bringing together HEIs partner from Spain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Each year, selected students on the course are funded to take part in ‘live’ briefs with organisations in the EU.  

Funded by the Research Councils UK, the course leader organised a summer school ‘Design for the UK and Chinese consumer markets’ in China in 2010. This project provided an opportunity for students to work on cross-cultural research in design with a range of MNCs, local organisations, and HEIs in Shanghai. Partners included Shanghai Jiao Tong University, IDEO, SPoint, Intel, GM, and Cisco.

Further Study

Research in the School of Art & Design is coordinated by Professor Paul Sermon, Associate Head Research. There are over 30 fully research-active academic staff and a number of embryonic and early career researchers engaged in a range of innovative creative practice in art and design and in advancing the boundaries of theoretical investigation. Find out more on the school's research pages