MA: Strategic Communication Design

Located in a state-of-the-art studio in the heart of Boulder's entrepreneurial tech community (Twitter is our upstairs neighbor; TechStars is across the street), STCM's new culture of learning explores the potential of design as a critically useful tool for humanity in a world that is changing more rapidly than ever before. Our positioning is timely and encouraging. Recent figures indicate that design is the fastest-growing sector within the creative industries worldwide and it is also increasingly playing a key strategic role in an evolving global economy.  

Our graduate design program is entirely project-based and our students learn in a dynamic studio environment. Entering students choose a primary path in either brand design or experience design, providing a throughline that focuses and prepares them to hit the ground running qualified for current industry design positions in branding and UX.

All students enroll in RE, our product-based open studio that combines entrepreneurial design and critical making. RE is where we prepare our students to think and act as designer-founders, who imagine, design, develop, make, and launch products that have the potential to become design-driven startups. Learn more about designer founders →

And all students will also develop their individual portfolios for industry positions in BookLab, our creative laboratory whose purpose is to evolve student project work within a professional portfolio that captures and expresses an original, individual vision that can guide a successful career in design.

We perennially attract and encourage applicants with entrepreneurial aspirations and ambitions. They make their way to our studio from diverse cultural backgrounds and geographies, including Brazil, South Africa, India, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, China, and throughout the United States. There is also diversity in our students' undergraduate academic training, with degrees ranging from fine arts to engineering, advertising, business, environmental design, humanities, film, and social sciences.

The common thread is that all of our entering students recognize the power of design as an adaptive tool to realize their creative potential as professionals. As a matter of course, our graduates go on to become design-based leaders in a variety of positions in top creative companies.

Here's a short list of positions our graduates have taken:

And here are additional areas our more recent graduates are trending toward:

Wherever our students go after graduation—client-side, agency or startup—they take with them a distinct point of view focused by design thinking, collective creativity, and an empathic, user-centered approach to problem-solving that makes them effective leaders. They also become part of an exceptional creative industry network comprised of our graduates working at top companies.

Total number of credit hours: 39

Our program is for students who feel they already have foundational skills in design software and the basics of design. These skills may be from previous professional or educational experience.  You can still apply for the program if you do NOT have those skills, however, you will be expected to learn the basics as part of your advanced course work. The program does not provide explicit instruction on those skills. 

In the STCM program, students evolve from designers to design leaders and will gain advanced skills needed to lead teams, build strategy, and influence business leaders. Students will deepen their skills in screen-based design, but extend themselves into new areas by designing and building products beyond the screen that challenge existing conceptual and executional norms.  

Upon entering the program, students select a focus area, specializing in either Brand Design or Experience Design. This drives the mix of classes they take during the year.

Note that the STCM program is a full calendar year consisting of Fall Semester, Spring Semester, Maymester, and Summer Session D, beginning in August of one year and ending in August of the next. It is immersive, accelerated, and transforms students into design leaders within a single calendar year.   

Fall Semester - 15 credit hours

Brand Design Specialization Courses

Brand Design 3: Brand (R)evolution - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Deepen student understanding of visual design concepts, tools, and systems to evolve and extend brand identities and values beyond core offerings into disruptive visual systems.  

Special Topics in Brand Design 1: Brand Cultures - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Develop student ability to apply design skills to a range of specialized focus areas within the cultures of various brands––both new and enduring.  Students will work with current industry partners within the STUDIO network to solve problems and leverage opportunities for the growth of existing brands.

Experience Design Specialization Courses

Experience Design 3: Service Design - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Develop student ability to apply design-thinking and experience design process to the development of service-based products.

Experience Design Special Topics 1: Advanced Research Methods - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Deepen student skills in UX research and synthesis methods.

About Product Lab

As part of the College of Media, Communication and Information at CU Boulder, Studio lives at the intersection of academe and industry. It provides an intellectual and physical space where technology and design professionals and CU Boulder researchers work together to redefine the boundaries of product and service design through collective creativity, design innovation, and to explore the possibilities of digital transformation to shape the future together. All students enrolled in the one-year degree program are required to take the following classes in Product Lab.

Entrepreneurial Design 1: Product Innovation - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Develop student understanding of the product development lifecycle.
• Apply skills in research and analysis to explore problem spaces and develop actionable product insights.
• Develop student understanding of how design fits into and can influence business strategy and the larger business structure.  
• Develop student understanding of product management & product strategy process and approaches.

Booklab - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Develop students understanding of their role as a designer and team leader.
• How to work with, manage, and creative direct teams.
• How to give and receive feedback.
• Provide a focused critique of student work to help them better apply their growing skillsets.
• Support students in continuing to develop their portfolio.

Critical Making 3: Beyond the Web and Emerging Technologies - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Develop student ability to think and create beyond the web with emerging technologies like VR, AR and 3D Printing.
• Develop student skills in current, critical software to develop in VR.
• Deepen student understanding of code structures and approaches.
• Develop student skills in current, critical software for 3D printing.

Spring Semester - 15 hrs

Brand Design Specialization Courses

Brand Design 4: Brandscapes - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Deepen student understanding of visual design concepts and tools.
• Design and manifest brand identities in urban environments, locally, nationally, and globally.

Brand Design Special Topics 2: Making Meaning and Embedding Value in Branded Objects - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Develop student ability to apply developing skills to a range of specialized focus areas, including exposure to industry partners.

Experience Design Specialization Courses

Experience Design 4: Emerging Interfaces - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Develop student ability to apply design thinking and experience design processes in the development of products for emerging interfaces - voice, AR, VR, Web of Things.

Experience Design Special Topics 2: Critical Tactics - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Deepen student skills in critical areas of experience design.
• Explore tactical topics such as accessibility, typography, animations, micro-interactions and prototyping.

Product Lab

All students in the one year program are required to take the following classes in our Product Lab:

Entrepreneurial Design 2: Product Innovation - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Develop student understanding of the product development lifecycle.
• Apply skills in design, business strategy, prototyping, and branding to develop a launchable product.

Booklab - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Develop student ability to think critically about design as a discipline, with the ability to understand and analyze industry trends and issues and develop and communicate informed opinions.
• Continue to guide and support students in the development of their portfolios. Class structure includes open discussion, debate, and analysis among guest speakers, faculty and students.

Critical Making 4: Advanced Product Development - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Deepen student abilities to bring products to life by providing instruction and guidance in support of the products being developed in Entrepreneurial Design 2.

Maymester - 3 credit hours

Design Sprints - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Students apply their skills in 3 week-long design sprints with industry partners.

Summer Session D - 6 credit hours

Entrepreneurial Design 3: Product Innovation - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Complete program capstone project by finalizing, pitching and launching the product that has been developed over the course of the year.

Booklab 4: Portfolio - 3 credit hours

Course Objectives

• Finalize the development of student portfolios in preparation for graduation and job search.

The MSTCM program takes a full calendar year to complete, consisting of Fall Semester, Spring Semester, and Summer Session D.  Accelerated and transformative, the program begins in August of one year and ends in August of the next. The degree program is immersive and, as a result, is repeatedly successful at turning students into design leaders within a calendar year. 

In order to graduate, students must successfully complete 39 credits of required courses in the structured degree program. As a professional program, attendance is mandatory for every scheduled class meeting, along with completion of every project assignment on deadline. Learning in a professional environment, students must participate actively in class discussions, contribute successfully on collaborative projects and create an original body of work represented in their portfolios which must successfully pass a final portfolio critique that takes place prior to graduation. Graduation will depend on the final approval of each student’s portfolio during a critique by our board of industry professionals. Documentation of approval of final portfolio projects must be on file in the APRD department within CMCI––the College of Media, Communication, and Information––to be eligible for degree conferral.

Students must satisfactorily complete their degree within contiguous semesters: Fall Semester, Spring Semester, and Summer Session D, unless given an official extension by the Dean of CMCI. Students are required to remain in good academic standing, per the requirements of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado. 

Please note: Requirements are subject to review and change by the executive director when such change is warranted.

The professional master's degree program in design consists of 39 hours of courses over three contiguous semesters, as follows:

Fall Semester

APRD 5001    Foundations of Strategic Brand Design            

APRD 5002    Experience Design Foundations    

APRD 5006    Introduction to Designing for Entrepreneurism        

APRD 5011    BookLab 

Spring Semester

APRD 5003    A Unified Theory of Brand Equity                 

APRD 5004    UX and the Digital Delivery of Products and Services         

APRD 5008    Access to Tools for Entrepreneurism by Design            

APRD 5014    Advanced Practices and Tools of Experience Design        

APRD 5011    BookLab 

Summer Semester D 

APRD 6871     Special Topics in Brand Design                 

APRD 5015     Brand Design for Sustainable Futures    

APRD 6871    Design Leadership                

APRD 6871    Entrepreneurial Design    

Applications are reviewed on a rolling admissions basis for the MSTCM professional master's degree. We evaluate applications as they are completed, which means acceptances are provided on a first-come, first-served basis for each prospective student. Once an application is complete with all supporting documents, we review it through the online form and follow up within a matter of days from the completion of your application.

Our rolling admissions process provides applicants with a brief wait time from completed application to notice of acceptance for the year-long masters program. We take no more than 18-24 students per year into the program in order for our classes to maintain a student to teacher ratio of no more than 12:1.

Once an application is complete with all supporting documents, we review it through the online form and get back to you within three weeks from the completion of your application.

We will continue to review applications on a rolling basis until the cohort is full. Once a cohort is full we then continue to accept students for the following cohort. This rolling admission process allows students to have substantial time to make plans well in advance for their immersive year-long masters program.

Please note that all applicants to the strategic communication design master's degree program (MSTCM) are expected to hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university, and to have an undergraduate grade point average of at least 2.75. In certain circumstances, we will consider students who discovered design after an unexceptional experience with an ancillary degree like pre-law or business. This is where you write and explain your discovery and path to design.

How to Apply

Your application will be listed under Strategic Communication Design on the Graduate School site. The online Graduate School application is available here. This is sometimes a confusing experience for applicants. We are available to help prepare with the process.

Required forms that are linked to in the application, are as follows:

• Personal Statement
  • ​This statement is an essential part of your application. In a maximum of 1500 words, please supply long-form answers to the following questions:

1. What attracts you to the program at this time? What do you envision as the most compelling opportunities for you as a designer and also a future leader?
2. What particular experiences––personal or professional––have prepared you for work in design?
3. Why is interaction design important to you and how would you use it to change the world?

• Three letters of recommendation.
  • These should come from professionals and/or professors. Personal recommendations are not accepted.
• Unofficial transcripts. 
• Writing Sample.
  • Submit a sample of your writing that you feel is exemplary and representative of your writing abilities.
• Design Portfolio.
• If you have a design portfolio, include a link to in your personal statement. If you do not have a portfolio, use your personal statement to tell us why you would be a good fit for the program and what you hope to get out of it.
• International applicants must have a TOEFL score of at least 600 (IBT 100).
• A nonrefundable application fee of $60 is also required ($80 for international).

Below are frequently asked questions from applicants. If you have additional questions, please ask.  Find our contact information below.

You have a rolling admissions policy? What is that? 

Rather than a single static deadline, we have a rolling admissions policy. This allows us to examine and accept applications as they are received rather than waiting to judge all applications concurrently. Schools with rolling admissions can be great for finding out early on whether or not you are accepted, so you can plan accordingly.

How many students do you accept? 

 Enrollment varies depending on the quality of applicants but we accept no more than 24 students each year. It’s important that we keep our student-teacher ratio to no more than 12:1.

Where are classes held? 

All classes take place in our state-of-the-art facility CMCI STUDIO, located in downtown Boulder. Students have 24/7 access to the CMCI STUDIO including showers, lockers, and a bike room for secure storage.

Can I work full-time while I take the program? 

Some students manage to successfully do free-lance projects but working full-time is not advised

If you are experiencing any difficulties and/or confusion about your application, contact the Graduate Program Manager. If you do not receive a useful response you should write directly to the director of the MSTCM, David Slayden: slayden@Colorado.Edu

The graduate program (MSTCM) is situated within CMCI STUDIO. Located in downtown Boulder, CMCI STUDIO is a collective of designers, researchers, and entrepreneurs whose work transcends the divide between technology, business, and design. It is dedicated to learning, innovation, and exploration across disciplines to reimagine possible alternative futures for a rapidly changing world.

As a result, CMCI STUDIO lives at the intersection of academia and industry. providing an intellectual and physical space where technology and design professionals work together to redefine the boundaries of product and service design through collective creativity and innovation by design. In all of our R&D efforts, we explore the possibilities of digital transformation in business and education––to shape the future together.

An outgrowth of CMCI––the newest interdisciplinary college at the University of Colorado Boulder––we focus on the power of design to leverage the possibilities of a world increasingly shaped by rapid and constant change driven by new technologies. Our studio is located in the heart of downtown Boulder. We leverage our location to interact with the thriving Boulder startup community. But we also work with creative companies worldwide, including Made by Many, Google, Uber, Apple, RGA, Arity/Allstate, and Future Partners, to name a few.

CMCI STUDIO’s efforts range from a nontraditional graduate design program (STCM) to executive workshops, innovative short courses, industry-sponsored projects, ongoing advanced research groups, new product development, and an array of public-facing events from experimental art to performance, music, interactivity, media showcases, popups, and openings.

CMCI STUDIO is positioned to serve as a bridge from industry to academe; together we embrace disruption, challenge disciplines, and cultivate risk in a creative learning culture that encourages innovation to address the challenges and realities of the 21st-century global creative economy.