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PhD

Courses

The Master of Design in Communication Planning and Information Design is a two-year professional program for students who want to explore the new arts of communication and their practical applications. It is for students who want to explore the creative potential of the interplay between words and images in traditional and innovative media. The program provides a balanced integration of theory, practice, and production, with access to advanced technologies throughout the period of study.

Students will investigate the influence of narrative and argument in shaping information design. In this forum, they discover both opportunities and challenges in information visualization and navigation created by new technologies. There will be a balance of collaborative work and individual exploration, with some projects assigned by instructors and other projects for clients, such as Caterpillar, Texas Instruments, the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA), and the City of Pittsburgh.

Historically, writers and designers have been distinct breeds of communicators. Recruited from different backgrounds, they worked with different tools, and participated in different contexts of work. This division of expertise was reinforced by universities and trade schools, which sheltered writers from those who presented their words and often left designers out of the planning process.

As we enter the next century, however, new technologies are revolutionizing the environment of communication. Computers are appearing at every level of communication design, blurring the traditional boundaries between creation and production. With effective communication as the goal, writers and designers are expected to take increasing responsibility for both the verbal and the visual aspects of their work. The need to relate more complex information to a greater variety of audiences demands that writers and designers expand their individual roles and collaborate in formerly unexpected ways.

To better prepare students for the new role they are increasingly asked to play as communication designers, there must be new arts of communication and a new field of research and inquiry. The new arts will combine words and images for effective expression, using technologies from print to video, from photography to interactive multimedia. The new field will be communication planning and design, encompassing all the disciplines required for the conception, planning, production, and delivery of effective communication pieces.