Brunel University London, MA, Design and Branding Strategy

The course is delivered in three phases. Term one is the taught element. In term two, the seminar and workshop programme exploring future trends is delivered, and you’ll also work on your two research projects. Then you move on to your dissertation and undertake an advanced piece of research relevant to design and branding strategy. This will be assessed through a final 20,000 word submission.

This course can be studied 1 year full-time or 2.5 years part-time, starting in January. Or this course can be studied 1 year full-time or 2.5 years part-time, starting in September.

Compulsory

• Branding Strategy Studies

This module aims to develop a creative strategic approach to branding and its relationship to design, to explore branding and brands and their evolving place in society, to evaluate the contemporary relationship of branding to design management and organisational performance, and to discuss existing and emerging branding concepts in specific industry/society areas or operational application.

• Design and Branding Futures: Seminar and Workshop Programme

This module will clearly establish the relationship between and value of future forecasting and design strategy and innovation, it aims to engage with the complexity of future forecasting and its implications for design-led management of change, to incorporate the influence of current and future trends into recommendations from students own design and innovation research, and to identify and use ‘design forecasting' and other tools used in the development of personal and team futures.

• Design and Branding Research Project 1

This project enables each student to formulate an investigation into the factors which impact on the practice of design and branding management in one or more organisations, to explore and evaluate the relationship between design research and progressive design-led branding professional practice, to select and justify appropriate research tools for a developing a design and branding strategy, and to develop an advanced critical understanding of the potential for strategic application of design management in brand development.

• Design and Branding Research Project 2

This project allows students to carry out a well formulated design and branding research project, to enable each student to formulate and conduct a thorough investigation and critical evaluation of the effectiveness of design management and branding in one or more organisations in a selected business or non-profit sector, and to address the issues and challenges for design management and branding in research and practice and make positive recommendations for future strategies.

• Design Research

This module aims to develop in-depth knowledge and skills in design research in order to investigate, formulate and specify a suitable and well-focussed specialist project, to critically explore the semantics and definitions of design, branding, strategy, innovation, design research, technology and creativity, and to evaluate the characteristics of and relationship between design, branding, creativity and innovation from leading classic and contemporary research.

• Innovation Strategy and Management

This module aims to identify the key drivers informing emergent creativity and innovation in business, to explore the relationship between design and innovation within the changing nature of business models and creative industries, to compare and contrast how the strategic use of design is manifest in the performance of business and other institutions, and to evaluate the role of design and entrepreneurship in creative business start-ups.

• Strategic Design Management

This module aims to develop a balanced practical understanding and critical awareness of design management principles and contemporary practice, to critically examine the design process through all major stages, to develop a strategic approach to managing design in order to improve organisational performance, and to explore and debate the influence and origins of design management and design thinking.

• Dissertation

The dissertation allows students to write and present a thesis on a current and challenging design management question, to research and critically evaluate a well formulated specialist design management research question derived from their taught modules, key published research, seminar programme and the practical experience of the design research project, to demonstrate a sophisticated and advance use of conceptual tools derived from previous modules, and to demonstrate the ability to add to the field of knowledge by reporting and presenting in a clear, interesting, reliable and thought provoking manner to a high professional standard.