A master’s degree from an accredited graphic design school is a lot of work, but can pay off in big ways following graduation and landing that first job. A master’s degree in graphic design allows graduates to enter their profession at executive and managerial levels, as well as provides entry into educational fields. Graphic design graduates with this level of degree have reached the maximum in education for their field and are well qualified to teach university level graphic design classes, open a graphic design business of their own, or set out to invent the next “big thing” in graphic design.
All throughout their time in graphic design school, students learn how to be creative and develop the skills they need to grow in their industry. That includes research techniques, trending markets and consumer buying trends. It also includes the philosophy of art and graphic design, the theory of conceptualizing design work, and how to execute and present unique ideas to supervisors, clients, and business partners.
Graphic designers are part artist and part communicators, so a lot of emphasis is placed on the way that a design student’s art will come across to an audience. Will it make the audience want to buy a product? Believe in a program enough to make a donation? Choose the client’s services over the services offered by the competition? It is the graphic designer’s job to answer all of those questions within a single artistic creation, so graphic design schools weigh heavily the students ability to convey the message that the client intends to put out to the public.
A master’s degree in graphic design is an “MA” degree, or “Master of Arts”, and can set new designers ahead of the pack right out of college. Getting to graduation day may look like a long road when first entering into a graphic design program, but the rewards are certainly worth it. In order to enroll into an MA in Graphic Design program at a school, students need to have already built a strong portfolio of work and completed all of the prerequisite programs required by the graphic design school.
This means that students who want to enter into the MA program will first have to obtain lesser degrees successfully, while building their overall set of skills and the coveted “full” portfolio exhibiting their success as graphic design students. A master thesis project is the culmination of the graphic design degree and will require all of the student’s knowledge to complete successfully. The end of the program will typically require students to create an entire graphic design campaign that is totally unique and fresh, taking into account the trends of the contemporary market and the skills they will use in the real-world of graphic design as a designer.
