Visual Communication
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Note: Applicants should apply to the MA courses if they intend to take up PGDP Finish. There is no separate application form for PGDP Finish; one can exit at the end of year 1 of MA with an award of a PG Diploma upon successfully completing the graduation requirements.
The MA in Visual Communication program is designed to generate communication that is rooted in local traditions while maintaining social and cultural relevance. Through a combination of existing models of thinking and self-directed inquiry, students will develop the ability to engage in contextually meaningful communication solutions. The course places a strong emphasis on the comprehension and processing of visual information and encourages students to integrate the six key domains of communication design: aesthetic, functional, historical, symbolic, perceptual, and cultural. This approach helps you in developing visual literacy, visual thinking, visual perception, imaging, and representation for creating impactful branding strategies and other forms of creative communication material. Upon graduation, you will find career opportunities in various industries such as Branding & Advertising, Marketing & Communication, Graphic Design, Publication & Publishing, Retail and Exhibition. They will be well-suited for roles such as Researcher, Academician, Educator, Art Director, Senior Designer or Design Consultant at design houses, corporates, publishing houses, marketing companies, advertising agencies, NGOs, innovation centres, and event management companies.
VISION
Professionals and graduates in design as well as non-design background often feel the need to step out of their comfort zones to hone their skills and enhance their creative, theoretical and research capabilities. The MA in Visual Communication enables one to integrate existing models of thinking and making with self-directed inquiries to engage deeper with contextually meaningful communication solutions. The course will equip graduates become resourceful, enhance their research and critical thinking and be more process oriented in their practice.
The foundation for this course lies in emphasizing the comprehension and processing of forms of visual information. Students will be encouraged to integrate the six key domains of visual communication design: aesthetic, functional, historical, symbolic, perceptual, and cultural, through research and practice. The discipline of Visual Communication focuses on providing core competency in developing visual literacy, visual thinking, visual perception, imaging, and representation. Inquiry-based learning, design processes, research methods, history and theories of design form the building blocks for developing a comprehensive and successful branding strategies and creative communication material.
The curriculum approaches visual communication through theoretical frameworks that not only inform and enhance the practice but also encourage students to question the norms and cross established standards.
The course structure will encourage students to engage with questions and inquiries that frame the role of visual communication within contextual approaches that are rooted in cultural relevancy. In today’s Global and Flat world are we simply brushing aside opportunities for deeper inquiries and engagement with culturally important and relevant forms of making.
Is it possible to imagine and create work outside of the prevalent aesthetics to communicate ideas that are rooted in the local, that resonate the traditions while being socially and culturally relevant to us?
Is there an Indian aesthetic that can be explored to affect the way we think and create, or, has the modernist aesthetic completely soaked up our sense of creativity?
Students will be encouraged to connect with these questions as platform to break rules, to express unique ideas, and, to explore and experiment with innovative tools and methods of visual communication. Students will thus experience design both as a complex cultural, societal, corporate activity and an intense, exploratory, personal search into meaning through visual forms.
COURSE STRUCTURE
- Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary studios
- Workshops
- Seminars
- Lines of Inquiries (Field work, Case Studies, Investigations, individual or Group Projects, Transdisciplinary Research)
- Theory and Understanding
- Independent Study
- Open Elective
- Practice
- Exhibitions
- Culminating Performances of Understanding (Portfolio, Transdisciplinary research, Projects, Colloquium, Capstone/Dissertation)
- Knowledge Enhancement (ability or skills)
LEARNING APPROACH
The program is designed to equip you with the skills to apply principles of cognition, perception and visual communication to create meaningful, desirable & appropriate messages and experiences that are empathetic to cultures, contexts and environments. You will be trained in theories of Semiotics, Denotation, Connotation and Visual Symbolism drawn from historical milestones, Culture and Visual Literacy. Through inquiry-based learning driven by seeking critical and thought-provoking dialogues through seminars and colloquiums, you will work with traditional and new media across print and digital to challenge prescribed notions of design practice thus setting new standards and novel approaches to processes, ideation and production and gain proficiency in transforming meaning through form.
CAPABILITIES
- Understand design process and employ the tools and principles of visual communication design to formulate creative and meaningful design solutions.
- Awareness and knowledge about historical contexts as well as latest developments and concerns in the practice of visual communication design and ability to add to these developments and concerns his/her own voice within the context of his/her own practice.
- Demonstrate autonomy and proficiency to become a critical thinker as well as creator.
- Ability to work against prescribed notions of design practice thus setting new standards and novel approaches to design research / processes / ideation / production.
- Apply principles of cognition and perception and fundamentals of visual design to create meaningful, desirable & appropriate visual messages and experiences that are empathetic to cultures, contexts and environment.
- Work with diverse media and materials rapidly to create visual/experiential solutions.
- Document and Communicate compellingly to invite critique by a community of stakeholders for the work.
FAQs
What is Visual Communication?
Visual Communication is a field that uses visual elements to communicate ideas and information. This can include a wide range of mediums such as graphics, typography, illustrations, photography, and video. The purpose of visual communication design is to convey a message effectively and efficiently to a specific audience. Designers in this field use their skills in layout, composition, and colour theory to create designs that are both aesthetically pleasing and communicative.
Is this course suitable for me?
This course is suitable for individuals who are interested in pursuing a career in design to become socially aware professionals who can effect change through activism and advocacy using the medium of visual communication.
What opportunities do I have after completing this course?
Graduates of MA in Visual Communication at Srishti Manipal will be able to contribute to and make a positive difference in a variety of creative and research areas such as of Branding & Advertising, Marketing & Communication, Graphic Design, Publication & Publishing, Retail and Exhibition as well as Digital Publishing and Marketing Companies. Our graduates will make very competent and effective Researchers, Educators, Academicians, Creative Enablers, Art Directors, Senior Designers and Design Consultants.