Design Management (Taught)

What is the impact can good and bad design have on society? What challenges do designers and design managers face in the real world? Through our MA in Design Management, you can develop your skills as a design leader, gain experience working with clients, and explore how design shapes our interactions with people, products and places.

Why Lancaster?

• Use this master's course as a springboard into a rewarding career - our graduates are the next generation of design leaders

• Work alongside internationally renowned design leaders in one of the largest design research centres in the world, ImaginationLancaster

• Learn from our world-class researchers - be among the first to hear about our latest research and the innovative ways we take design in new directions

• Explore complex design challenges in our cutting-edge Imagination Lab – a purpose-built, project-based design studio

• Gain real-world experience with clients from a range of organisations Immerse yourself in futures approaches, develop visions and set design strategies

Design for life
Design management is all about how we organise and deploy design solutions to solve problems and add value for users, organisations and society.

Our master's programme helps you assess the far-reaching impact when design methods are strategically deployed to address key issues of today and for the future. You’ll focus on much more than design, with topics such as delivery to market, the supply chain and sustainability being key aspects of this course.

You’ll consider big issues. For example, how can design be used to help a city reach net zero? How can data privacy rules be applied when working with the Internet of Things? How can we give people better access to health services?

Our students and staff join us from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, different countries around the world, as well as from businesses in various sectors. This creates an inspiring and creative environment that is rich in innovation. You have the option to take the programme on part-time basis, meaning you can study alongside work or other commitments if you wish.

Sparking the imagination
Experience the excitement of creating and pitching novel design solutions in our Imagination Lab, as you gain real-world experience in design and business. We’ll bring in charities or businesses to set the brief, so you get the sense of working with a client in real life. Examples of typical challenges including investigating the steps needed to improve transport around the region or how to tackle social inequalities in a particular town.

In addition, your major research project is a chance to experiment with new design methods and focus on a real research question - for example, you might use speculative design to consider topics such as artificial intelligence, distributed production and digital space.

Through these projects, you will develop professional skills such as how to navigate complex ideas, integrate concepts, facilitate thinking and visualise the intangible.

ImaginationLancaster
Imagination Lancaster is an open and exploratory, design-led research centre, and one of the largest in the world. Our academic researchers are leaders in the field of futures design, and they include professional designers, architects, engineers, technologists and more. Imagination Lancaster fundamentally informs our design courses including the MA in Design Management, allowing you to learn directly from current research and the latest innovations in design.

Imagination Lab is a creative workshop space, where you can put your ideas into practice through products, spaces and systems, while collaborating with our experts. You will have access to dedicated studios, seminar spaces and group study areas that encourage collaboration, as well as an equipment store and a team of technicians to support your creative work.