Graphic Design - Focus on New media

Master Courses - Florence

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12th edition - The Master course in Graphic Design offers a high level of professional preparation which is based on the design method, the mastery of technical and technological skills and the continuous updating about the latest market demands.

Besides a strong cultural background on the roots and evolutions of design and visual communication, our students receive a constant training on the most used and advanced software thanks to the development of many projects. They work side by side with Italian and international companies involved in different fields in order to gain as much experience as possible on the graphic design's contemporary scenario.

A Graphic Designer graduated from this Master course is particularly involved in social issues and communication ethics, manages the creative process at its best and is ready to satify the needs of the brands he/she works for with a personal expressive touch. 

  • Start date
    January 2023
  • Duration
    11 months
  • Attendance
    full-time
  • Language
    English

Get an insight: find out more about Master's activities

Target - The Master is tailored for graduates or professionals in graphic, architecture, design, fine arts and advertising. Participants with a professional (two years minimum) experience in the fields of management, communication, marketing, public relations or visual communications (graphic, product, interior, advertising, photography, web or social) are also welcome.

Career opportunities - The Graphic Designer works in advertisement and communication companies, web agencies, publishing houses or as a freelancer in his own facility ; he is able to interact with multiple clients in different fields thanks to a developed versatility. This professional figure, in fact, has the necessary tools to keep updated and anticipate the times, offering innovative solutions to his clients.

Methodology and structure - The Master has a complete and articulate programme thanks to a balanced didactic structure, organized in three main areas: cultural, project and media design.

The cultural area includes historical, methodological and communication modules and allows students to acquire notions and an effective methodology suitable for different kinds of projects.
The Project area enables participants to deal with the development of a project in different design contexts, ranging from creative thinking to branding strategies, from software frameworks to printing phases.
The Media Design area focuses on the new technologies in design, allowing students to experiment with the ever evolving techniques of the contemporary digital scene.

Classes consist of working on the basis of real briefs which are inserted from the start in a context that reconstructs the dynamics of companies, studios and institutions. Professors are selected from experts and professionals in the respective fields of teaching.  

In the last editions, the Master course hosted some exceptional guest speakers such as:

David Moretti - Art Director WIRED Magazine
Marco Cendron - Creative Director with previous collaborations for Mondadori / ROLLING STONE Italy / GQ Italy
Riccardo Luna - Innovation Editor for the newspapaer La Repubblica.

  • Cultural area

    • History of Design and Communication

      This lecture-based course explores the fascinating evolution of visual communication from the invention of printing to the present time. The presentations showcase design history milestones and the work of leading Designers, while stressing the relationship between visual communication, historical, social and cultural conditions, and technological developments.

    • Marketing and Public Speaking

      This course represents an in-depth about both marketing fundamentals and communication techniques: the different market segments and their critical success factors, consumer behaviour and needs, product values, consumer satisfaction, as well as a method to structure theoretical arguments for a presentation.

    • Account Management & Professional Development

      The course presents seminars dealing with topics such as customer relationship management, time management, and the legislative framework affecting communication. Students also acquire presentation skills.

       

    • Visual Communication

      This course aims at exploring and experiencing the issues related to visual communication conceived as a universal language in contemporary culture. Images are the new words of a collective language connecting all the disciplines expressed by the variegated human community.

       

    • Creative Advertising

      Introduction to business communication topics: communicating, informing, promoting. The creative team and the creative process. How the copy strategy turns into a creative idea. Managing creative presentations. Production hints.

    • Illustration

      The use of illustration to visually communicate information through drawings, paintings, and photography.

    • Sociology and Ethics in Communication

      The course deals with the historical relationship between the media and society. An introduction to communication studies, starting from the birth of mass media, passing through the counterculture, ending up to new media. The study of behavioral communication in public and private dialogue and how the need to consider the ethical approach to this field impacts the individuals, the communities and the societies that populate the world today.

  • Techniques and tools

    • Color & Print - Printing Technologies: Pre-Press

      The course explores how to work with colors, technical challenges and creative opportunities of contemporary design production and how to prepare production proofs, in both high-end offset and digital printing. It also teaches how to deal with proofreading and production costs.

    • Typography and Font Creation

      The course aims at fully understanding how typefaces are built, work and interact, through the analysis of a single glyph and the creation of a complete set of characters. The final result will be a complete typeface ready to use made with specific tools. Composition of text-only content, designing pages with balance between the several elements.

    • Graphic Design Advanced

      The course aims to a full learning of the Adobe Suite - Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. The students will learn how to master the softwares and a new point of view on the elements of Design.

       

       

    • Media Design

      Elements of Digital Photography / Video Design / Viral & Guerrilla Marketing / UI/UX Interface & Responsive Design / Digital Publishing: eBook, iBook Author, Adobe .folio / New Media & Interaction Design: ID, Arduino, Kinect and Leap Motion sensors.

  • Project area

    • Creative Process

      Looking at problems or situations from a fresh perspective that suggests differents solutions, involving the discovery of new ideas and concepts.

    • Illustration

      The use of illustration to visually communicate information (drawing, painting, photograph).

       

       

    • Corporate Identity and Coordinate Image

      The study of all the elements that create the visual identity of a museum or art gallery (naming, logo and visual elements). The corporate image is designed to be appealing to the public, clear and functional, so that the final result can spark an interest among consumers. The visual identity project developed during the course represents the final project.
       

      Introduction to Corporate Design: elements of the corporate identity and the designer’s role in developing it.
       

      Analysis of Communication Problems: using brands, typography and color codes, project planning and execution.
       

      Logo Development and Application: coordinate image and its applications.

       

    • Copywriting

      Copy is content primarily used for the purpose of advertising or marketing. The Copywriter is the “content writer” and helps to create pay-off for identity, taglines, advertising and to edit online and off-line, content-based, communication projects.

    • Creative Advertising

      Introduction to business communication topics: communicating, informing, promoting. The creative team and the creative process. How the copy strategy turns into a creative idea. Managing creative presentations. Production hints.

       

    • Publishing Design

      Constructing text “stories” and images in the context of complex publications such as magazines, newspapers, corporate brochures, books etc.

    • Packaging and Merchandising

      Considering packaging as the consumer’s initial experience of the product and of brand corporate identity. Studying names, logos, roughs, mock-ups and final products.
      The methods, practices and operations used to promote and sustain the commercial activity. The variety of products available for sale and the display of those products in such a way that it stimulates customers interest.

    • Final Project

      The purpose of the final work is to direct the study path towards the field or area that the students are most interested in and allow them to start the professional career.
      The final project can be developed individually or within a small group and is generally connected to a company, recreating the relationship between commissioner and freelance studio.
      A team of professors and tutors carefully follow the students in the creation of the final work, maintaining high quality standards.
      The final work is necessary to enrich the student’s portfolio that will include, as well as the final work, many of the projects produced during the other subjects.

       

Remarkable is that teacher who accomplishes himself what he teaches to others.
(Italian proverb)

IED faculty are professionals that daily face the market. Here you can read their bios.

Isabella Ahmadzadeh - Course coordinator

Isabella Ahmadzadeh - Course coordinator
Art Director and Visual Designer, she collaborated with several studios and advertising agencies in Milan and Florence and worked for Gucci as a Graphic Designer, specialising in photography. Her work as Art Director in the field of type design for Zetafonts earned her the recognition of Aiap as part of the AWDA award for the Napo & Leon project and of Print Magazine for Kitten for the Typography & Lettering Award 2016.

Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini

Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini
Founder and Creative Director at Studio Kmzero and Type Designer for Zfonts. Designer and Creative Director for Motion, Print and Advertising. Background in illustration, comic art and gaming development and strong experience in design for multimedia and the web. Interested in mixing new technologies, user experience and visual storytelling. With his partners at Studio Kmzero he has written and directed short animation videos, developed experimental software and websites, and produced print projects, as well as providing a full range of design and consultancy services to clients. 

Marco Innocenti

Marco Innocenti
Owner and Founder of Kidstudio. Designer, Illustrator, Art Director and Photographer with experiences in copy, typography and text editing. Expert in magazine design and publishing, he is involved in cultural and tourist promotion.

Laura Ottina

Laura Ottina
Laura Ottina is a Graphic Designer with twenty years of experience in the publishing industry. She has worked as Project Coordinator, Art Director, Layout Artist, Calligrapher, Author and Iconographic researcher. Since 2005 she is part of Popdesign studio, which is specialized in digital art and visual communication.  

Ingrid Lamminpää

Ingrid Lamminpää
Ingrid Lamminpää received her Degree in Architecture in 2005 and continued her academic career in multimedia communication and design, completing her Master Degree a couple of years later. She currently teaches in several institutions in the city of Florence. Her interests are ethics in communication, visual design, digital storytelling and new media communication. Outside of the academy, she is a blogger and works as New Media Strategist for the social research company Sociolab (sociolab.it). She is the screenwriter and executive producer of the video blog leidissesi.net and the documentary “Just Say Yes”, a journey through the civil rights. The documentary won the jury and the audience award at the Biografilm Festival 2014.

Omar Rashid

Omar Rashid
Creative Director. Marketing director for Multiverso. He interned at Givenchy in Paris and became a designer at the Zoo York in NYC. He then returned to Florence where he launched his own brand, GOLD. His experiences and transversal figure allow him to be involved in several projects at once: co-founder of Logic (Florentine club), Viral Marketing professor at IED Firenze.

Alessandro Capellaro

Alessandro Capellaro
Architect (graduated in Firenze in 1997) and Doctorate (2000), in 1998 is in Barcelona in Pep Llinas office. In 2003 opens q-bic studio in Florence. From 2010 is associated with b-arch. Professor in Graphic Design and Visual Communication, Faculty of Architecture, Istituto Lorenzo de Medici and Auburn University of Alabama, since 2009 is a Visual Communications and Presentation Techniques at IED Firenze.  

Paolo Fiorini

Paolo Fiorini
Gradueted in Economics with a thesis on international marketing, he is a Marketing Consultant and in 2006 founded Kaleidos Comunicazione, a communication, event planning and marketing consulting society. He has been teaching marketing and communication since 1997.

Giovanni Iozzi

Giovanni Iozzi
Since 1988 he's been working as a System Administrator for communication systems in companies that operate in graphics, multimedia and interior design. Furthermore, he expanded in research and development for the fields of strategic and operative marketing.

Enrica Ficai Veltroni

Enrica Ficai Veltroni
She began to advertise in Milan in 1981, working for J. Walter Thompson, Leo Burnett, BBDO and J.W.T. as Associate Creative Director. She worked at national and international campaigns for Kodak, Heineken, Kellogg’s, Kraft Jacobs Suchard, Quaker, Alfa Romeo, Carlo Erba, Parmigiano Reggiano, UniLever, Henkel, De Beers, etc. Strategic Copywriter, she combines creative talent with a strong experience in TV and radio production.    

Laura Boninsegni

Laura Boninsegni
She worked for 15 years as an Account in advertising (Grey, BBDO, Eretici), reaching the position of Client Services Director. Two years experience in Yomo as Associate Marketing Director. Currently she owns and manages a concept store online: styletrigger.com.      

Antonio Civita

Antonio Civita
He is Creative Director at Lift-D. He collaborates with several companies, dealing with web design, web development, web platforms, project management and content creation for creative multimedia communication projects, cross-platforms, interaction design, video production and animations. He graduated in Industrial Design and Visual Design.

Andrea Tartarelli

Andrea Tartarelli
Typography & Infographics Graphic Designer specialized in wayfinding, type design and type engineering. He has collaborated in the creation of fonts with Bubbleboddy, used by Google for the Doodle of the European Football Championships 2016.

Giulia Ursenna Dorati

Giulia Ursenna Dorati
Specialised in  marketing and communication design, she has developed her skills as type designer and art director for several national and international brand. Since 2019 she is actively involved in the organization of the Florence chapter of Type Thursday, an international event  focused on typography, calligraphy and lettering.

Miriam Frescura

Miriam Frescura
She is an Italian designer with over 15 years of experience. Today she is Senior Designer in Auge Design, an award-winning Italian agency focused on Packaging and Branding. Before she's worked in other important studios such as Rovai Weber in Florence, and communication agencies such as GrayUnited in Milan, competing with both commercial, cultural and artistic realities. Over the years she has worked for Italian and international brands such as Barilla, Giovanni Rana, Bahlsen, Diners Club, Sky, Palazzo Strozzi, Richard Ginori, Pitti immagine and has won national and international awards: Art Director's Club Italiano (2020 Gold, 2018 Silver) and to the Pentawards (2020 Gold). From 2020 she teaches Packaging Design.

Giovanni Stillittano

Giovanni Stillittano
È un premiato Designer e Art Director di Bolzano. Attualmente è impiegato presso Auge Design, pluripremiata agenzia italiana focalizzata su Packaging e Branding; ha precedentemente lavorato come packaging e brand designer per aziende, agenzie creative e come freelance. Negli anni ha collaborato con clienti italiani e internazionali come Amplifon, Ferrero, Mulino Bianco, Mutti, Bahlsen, Universal Music, Sammontana, Interaction Design Foundation e altri.