The Graphic Design Master's Degree Program develops communication skills and technical knowledge in design in order to manage the creative department of a business effectively by applying the most advanced design and management techniques, concepts, and theories.

Starting in 2012, the brightest, most creative, and most progressive students from the Graphic Design Master's Degree Program will have the opportunity to become part of the Roberto Garza Sada Center (CRGS), a venue for ideas and expressions that will gather and develop the best creative talent from all over Latin America. 

Objective

To train experts in the use of design solutions, capable of effectively managing their own firms or design departments through the application of the leading graphic design and executive management theories, techniques, concepts.

The Graphic Design Master's Degree Program graduates:

• Show a positive attitude towards change and also master the concepts of multimedia, editorial design, and interactive design 
• Have the ability and knowledge to interpret and apply information derived from marketing, advertising, resource management, product development, and art direction.
• Promote research into new contemporary design techniques.
• Identify customer needs in an empathic manner.

Enrollment Profile

• Is Creative
• Is innovative and a visionary
• Is able to synthesize and effectively communicate information
• Makes judgments and possesses common sense
• Is interested in the use of computer design and management tools
• Is sensitive to the formal and structural aspects of their environment
• Is interested in designing of communication processes
• Has a positive attitude towards change
• Is socially committed

Graduation Profile

Knowledge:

• Overview of historical design tendencies
• Mastery of concepts associated with visual systems
• Good use of graphic symbolism
• Understanding of the fundamental of typography

Depending on the specialization

• Usable electronic interface design concepts
• Marketing concepts, both traditional and electronic
• Editorial design concepts, both informative and persuasive

Skills:

• Leadership 
• Resource management in creative projects
• Design criticism
• Effective and synthetic communication
• Problem resolution considering key issues
• Functional visual communication
• Use of computers for design
• Negotiation and teamwork

Attitudes: 

• Proactive
• Efficient
• Creative
• Structure, neatness, and organization in product presentation
• Continuous academic updating
• Ethical and socially responsible

Graphic Design Master's Degree Program

1st trimester	2nd trimester	3rd trimester	4th trimester	5th trimester	6th trimester
History of Design and Society	Semiotics	Theory of Design and Communication	Research - Action	Innovation Project I	Innovation Project II
Typography and Text	Visual Systems	Elective Course	Elective Course	Elective Course	Elective Course
Optional Professional Skills Workshop	Optional Professional Skills Workshop	Optional Professional Skills Workshop	Elective Course
Optional Professional Skills Workshop	Optional Professional Skills Workshop	Optional Professional Skills Workshop

The UDEM offers free propaedeutic courses to all students enrolled in the program. 

The courses:

• Offer new knowledge or reinforce previous theory used in the graduate courses
• Have no assigned grades
• Students advance at their own rate
• Apply self-diagnostic exams to help you decide which courses to study
• Apply self-assessment exams to measure learning

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History of Design and Society
Understand the history of design and the influence of the social, economic, and political changes on the different sources of design.

Typography and Text
Recognize the origin and evolution of typography, its formal aspects and the principles involved with in the meaning and interpretation of various texts. The knowledgeThe knowledge acquired will be applied to develop design pieces that effectively communicate the visual message through various means.

Design and Communication Theory
Introduction to the theoretical and critical currents of in design, and their relation to communication processes in order to analyze, assess and support the expressions arising from the practice of design.

Semiotics
Explore and develop knowledge on in the theory of Symbols, probing examining the various sources aspects and applications in world cultures.

Visual Systems
Understand the elements used to develop and handle visual systems in order to apply this knowledge to individual pieces as well as to sets belonging to the same series.

The Professional Skills Workshops seek to complement the students' academic training by developing practical applications to promote efficiency in competitiveness and innovation.

MANDATORY PROFESSIONAL SKILLS WORKSHOP

Structured Problem-Solving: Objective: Understand the tools for problem¿solving, with an emphasis on analyzing the problem, isolating key issues, and generating solutions through structured planning.

Logical Reasoning and Communication: Objective: Develop skills to structure and communicate arguments effectively. These include such skills as organizing ideas hierarchically, avoiding stylistic weaknesses, and using simple, direct phrasing and an audience specific vocabulary.

Effective Negotiating:  Objective: Learn to succeed in negotiations by focusing on identifying diverse interests, creating mutually profitable solutions, and promoting fairness. This workshop is based on the Harvard Negotiation Project, which identifies the basic elements that enable negotiators to reach mutually suitable agreements.

Making Ethical Decisions: Objective: Develop skills to evaluate the ethical implications of professional and personal decisions in a disciplined manner. Learn paradigm-questioning skills, how to detect potential ethical risks, and how to use Kohlberg¿s moral development model as a tool for assessing ethical arguments.

OPTIONAL PROFESSIONAL SKILLS WORKSHOP

Effective Presentations: Objective: Learn to perform well in front of an audience by improving your presentation preparation and your mastery of the available equipment, and by clearly defining your message and effectively using your voice and body language to convey it.

Effective Leadership: Strengthen your leadership skills by learning how to manage people and situations so as to bring professional and personal projects to a successful outcome.

Understanding Global Settings: Objective: Study the current trends towards globalization by identifying the world wide effects of the industrial, commercial, financial, and political globalization of the world¿s most important organizations. Become familiar with concepts created by globalization: the right to development, the right to peace, the rights of future generations, the right to the common human heritage, among others.

Project management. Objective: Learn to formally manage projects using the Project Management Institute (PMI) methodology, which focuses on basic processes, terminology, techniques, and tools. Develop the skills to structure the objectives and scope of a project, to negotiate expectations, and to estimate the duration, costs, risks, and necessary human resources.

Encouraging Creativity: Objective: Stimulate your creativity through brainstorming, Synectics (make the strange familiar and the familiar strange), the CoRT method, scenario creation, use of metaphors and analogies, graphic - visual thought, and other thinking techniques.

Research - Action Methodology
Provide the theoretical and methodological tools needed to develop an innovation project that will result in real change.

Innovation Project I
Develop a graphic design innovation project in one of the following areas: visual systems, editorial design, usability and design of websites, marketing or e-marketing.

Innovation Project II
Publicize and apply the student¿s innovation project in the relevant professional fields.

SPECIALIZATION ELECTIVE COURSES

Digital Marketing Management 
Increase the effectiveness of the marketing process by focusing on personalization, individual attention (CRMs), interactive advertising management, product and service design, and execution of marketing plans. 

Client and Consumer Behavior Analysis 
Study the factors influencing the consumer's purchasing process and their impact in formulating the comprehensive strategy of the market

Marketing Comprehensive Communication
Analyze the advertising concept as part of a promotional campaign. Mass media handling and message design will be analyzed.

Interface Design for Electronic Commerce
Design of interfaces for all types of electronic commerce devices. Design on-line advertising beginning with knowing and analyzing its main features.

Design of Web Sites
Understand the fundamentals of website creation, programming, and production. 

Informative Editorial Design
Handling and distribution of communication elements within a defined space, applying the component principles of hierarchy and the flow of information, significance, and functional factors. 

Persuasive Editorial Design
Apply creative strategies intended to influence consumers¿ behavior. Create effective graphic solutions.

Interactive Media Design
Understand design elements and their application in order to develop effective digital interfaces for electronic media.

Design Operation Management 
Understand and apply development and management skills used to design projects, their resources, processes and operation. 

Image Laboratory
Production of relevant, creative images (illustrations, photographs and graphic material) using techniques intended to enrich the formal and conceptual aspects of proposals.

Production and Prepress Means and Systems 
Understand the digital, prepress, and printing systems for publications. 

Marketing
Provide a global vision of marketing concepts and their application in organizations. A strategic approach and orientation aimed at the analysis of consumers, industry, and competitors will be employed.

Text and Style
Develop abilities for creative text writing, proofreading, style, and management, as well as infographics and image selection for publications. 

Usability
Improve the user's experience in websites, from graphic design, information design, architecture of information, and interaction design based on the website¿s and the user's needs. Assess websites, both empirically and by means ofthrough usability tests.

The courses offered in this program meet weekly from 18:30 to 22:00 hours.

A student with a full course load will have a schedule similar to following:

	M	T	W	TH	F
May	Ethical Dilemmas and Decision-Making Module		Design Operation Management		Semiotics
June			Design Operation Management		Semiotics
July	Argument and Debate		Design Operation Management		Semiotics
August			Design Operation Management		Semiotics

A student with a half course load will have a schedule similar to the following:

	M	T	W	TH	F
May	Ethical Dilemmas and Decision-Making Module		Design Operation Management
June			Design Operation Management
July			Design Operation Management
August			Design Operation Management

The UDEM's demanding admission criteria assure academic excellence in its graduate groups.

The following requirements must be fulfilled in order to enroll in the Graphic Design Master's Degree Program:

• Hold a corresponding undergraduate degree
• Have professional experience or be a graduate with academic excellence
• Attend an interview with the Engineering and Design Graduate Degree Program Director
• Submit your résumé and a cover letter explaining the reasons why you wish to enroll in the Master's Degree program
• Submit an Application for Admission to the Graduate Program along with the required documentation
  [See the application in PDF format: admision_posgrado {admission_graduateprogram}]
• Pass the Graduate Studies Admission Test ¿ [Prueba de Admisión para Estudios de Posgrado (PAEP)] and take an English Diagnostic Exam

Establishing projects that connect the academic world to productive and social organizations is a fundamental objective of UDEMthe UDEM. To meet this goal, we have been signed research or applied innovation agreements with renowned national and international institutions.

Some of the research projects supported by this process are listed below:

1. Best Practices in Governmental Internet Portal Design
   Student: Adriana Martínez Bejarano
   Advisor: Luis Carlos Aceves
   Monterrey, Nuevo León, December 2007
2. Representation of Visual Language Through Photography
   Student: Alejandra Yáñez¿González
   Advisor: Maria Eugenia Cázares
   Monterrey, Nuevo León, December 2008
3. Basic Guide for Starting a Small Graphic Design Business
   Student: Verónica Lizett Delgado¿Cantú
   Advisor: Maria Eugenia Cázares
   Monterrey, Nuevo León, December 2008
4. Proposal for the Redesign of BCG Intranet at an International Level
   Student: Thania Serna¿Castillo
   Advisor: Luis Carlos Aceves
   Monterrey, Nuevo León, December 2008
5. Implementation of a Restaurant Menu with Braille System Application
   Student: Benilde del Carmen Martínez¿Barberena
   Advisor: Maria Eugenia Cázares
   Monterrey, Nuevo León, August 2008
6. Development of an Editorial Application to Support Basic School Education
   Student: Patricia Alejandra Sánchez¿Quiroga
   Advisor: Ana Lucía Mata
   Monterrey, Nuevo León, August 2008
7. Journalistic Supplement Regarding Global Warming in Mexico
   Student: Ruth Melinda Olivas¿Castellanos
   Advisor: Maria Eugenia Cázares
   Monterrey, Nuevo León, August 2008
8. Integrated Kitchen Line¿s Graphics and Furniture Design
   Student: Perla Jocely Pérez¿Lee
   Advisor: Ana Lucía Mata
   Monterrey, Nuevo León, August 2008
9. From Form to Typography: Creating a Typographic Font
   Student: Mariana Isaías¿Ruíz
   Advisor: Maria Eugenia Cázares
   Monterrey, Nuevo León, August 2008
10. Designing a Propaedeutic Course for the Graphic Design Master's Degree Program
    Student: Marissa Aidee Villa¿Villarreal
    Advisor: Ana Lucía Mata
    Monterrey, Nuevo León, April 2008
11. Interactive Support Guide for Graphic Designers
    Student: Edgar Benavides¿Lavín
    Advisor: Luis Carlos Aceves
    Monterrey, Nuevo León, April 2008
12. Study on Users' Experience in Bank Portals in Mexico
    Student: Guillermo Abel Palacios¿Mata
    Advisor: Luis Carlos Aceves
    Monterrey, Nuevo León, April 2008
13. Mexican Graphic Design ¿ A Comparative Analysis of Graphic Design in Mexico
    Student: Elaine Yazmín Hernández¿Calvillo
    Advisor: Maria Eugenia Cázares
    Monterrey, Nuevo León, April 2008

María Eugenia Cázares Treviño

MDG Academic Program Director

 

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maria.eugenia.cazares@udem.edu.mx

Building 5, 3^rd floor

T. (81) 8215-1000, ext. 1451
01 800-801-UDEM, ext. 1451