MA Visual & Experience Design

Gain an understanding of innovations in the digital, social, computational, and physical designs that permeate our daily lives and create sustainable and human-centered solutions to complex challenges.

Professional roles in the field of design are constantly in flux. Contemporary design has to encompass the traditionally physical, as well as new digital media. Increasingly, companies are discovering the value of experience design in delivering brand, product, and service messages and in engaging their customers and users through digital touchpoints. While many experiences work on multiple senses, the singularly most important is visual – rendering effective visual communication crucial to experience design.

photo courtesy of University of Europe for Applied Sciences

In our Visual & Experience Design master’s program, students will gain an understanding of innovations in digital, computational, and physical interactions that permeate our daily lives. All topics will be delivered in sequential clusters, allowing the students to acquire and apply theories to real contexts, as well as to envision entirely new scenarios. Modules will focus on creative approaches to visual design, the value of cultural diversity in an age of globalized markets, and the deep spectrum of approaches to designing for social media and digital ecosystems.

This course will focus on the critical awareness of the balance between creative, commercial, and business considerations, to develop visual narratives using a variety of tools and graphic elements. You will also create briefs for research-driven projects and innovative approaches to business. Modules will emphasize the changing role of designers in the sphere of the algorithmic process that mediates our interactions in digital spaces, where adaptive thinking and human-centered content creation are the true currencies of contemporary designers.

Course Requirements

Admission requirements for different lengths of master's degrees:

• Fast Track 2 semesters: Bachelor 240 ECTS + 60 ECTS Master
• Thesis Focus 3 semesters: Bachelor 210 ECTS + 90 ECTS Master
• Industry Placed 4 semesters: Bachelor 180 ECTS + 120 ECTS Master

Application requirements (1,1.5 or 2 years):

1. Application form
2. High School Diploma/Certificate
3. Undergraduate degree (Bachelor’s, MBA, or Master)
4. Language Proficiency* (or request to waive**)
5. CV
6. Copy of Passport
7. Letter of motivation
8. Non-EU applicants only: €3,000 deposit (This reservation fee will be deducted from the total amount of study fees)
9. Portfolio

Portfolio Requirements: Up to 10 examples of your best creative work – commercial and/or non-commercial. The program accepts applicants from a wide variety of fields including graphic/communication design, advertising, digital product design, architecture, fine arts, exhibition design, visual and sound design, etc.

*Language Proficiency:

Please note: German-taught programs need both English/German language certificates.

• IELTS 5.5 overall
• TOEFL iBT72
• TOEFL ITP (paper based) 543
• Pearson Test of English (Academic) 59
• Pearson Test of English (General) Level 1
• Cambridge English Advanced and Proficiency 160 overall
• Cambridge Exam First (FCE)
• TOEIC Listening/Reading 785, Speaking 160, Writing 150
• PASSWORD 5.5 (no less than 5.0 in each component)
• EF SET (50-minute Test) 51 (only for students applying with an MOI (Medium of Instruction) letter)
• Duolingo 90

**Language Waiver

To request a language test waiver, you must have studied in a country where the official first language is English:

• At least nine months in duration;
• Full-time;
• Undertaken at a recognized institution where teaching and assessment throughout the course are entirely in English;
• Has been completed within 2 years of the start date of the course to which you are applying;
• Medium of Instruction (MOI) should indicate English + EF SET or any accepted English proficiency certificate requested.