2-Year Master of Arts in Strategic Design
The 2-year Master of Arts in Strategic Design provides an interdisciplinary education at the intersection at the intersection of design, strategy, and entrepreneurship.
Language: English | Start: October
2-YEAR MASTER OF ARTS
Duration 2 Years
Accreditation MUR/Italy
ECTS 120
Strategic Design shapes change and turns strategy into action. It combines vision, expertise, and direction to create meaningful impact.
The new Master of Arts in Strategic Design offers an interdisciplinary educational experience to guide students through the dynamic intersection of design, strategic leadership, and entrepreneurship.
The Master of Arts in Strategic Design offers an interdisciplinary educational experience, guiding students through the dynamic intersection of design, strategy and entrepreneurship to address complex contemporary challenges.
The students will become agents of change, launching businesses and leading companies and organisations, mixing methodologies and tools from various disciplines.
They will develop a design-driven and ethically conscious mindset applying creative and strategic skills to create impactful businesses and solutions.
The Strategic Design MA Programme focuses on:
• Business Innovation by Design
• Entrepreneurial Culture and Design Leadership
• Systems Thinking and Complexity
• Futures-Oriented Strategies and Scenarios
• Interdisciplinary solutions addressing complex business, environmental and societal challenges
The programme cultivates a design-driven approach to frame strategic issues, navigate complexity, identify emerging trends, and translate interdisciplinary insights into future scenarios and opportunities for business and society alike.
The Master of Arts in Strategic Design equips participants to act as change-makers, ethical leaders, and futures-ready entrepreneurs, shaping unconventional visions and transforming existing realities through design.
During the programme’s first year, you will engage in theoretical-practical courses and workshops exploring design as a strategic capability. True to Domus Academy’s DNA, the “learning by designing” method will enable you to apply research methodologies, frame complex challenges and develop responsible strategic responses through practical design projects.
You will begin by exploring Strategic Design, Innovation by Design, Business Design, Design Methodology and Service Design, developing tools to shape strategic visions, business models and meaningful services. Alongside these workshops, you will discover Italian design culture, its creative entrepreneurs and its evolution towards contemporary practice.
In the second semester, you will explore ethical Design Leadership and prototype future organisational models. Generative AI and emerging technologies will expand your practice, alongside Identity and Branding, Corporate Communication and Digital Media Art, connecting strategy, narratives and experiences.
This structure equips you to navigate complexity and guide organisational transformation, combining research, experimentation and strategic thinking. You will learn to connect business opportunities, stakeholder needs and responsible innovation while developing coherent visions for organisations and their futures.
During the second year, you will develop business ideas through Entrepreneurship by Design and explore future scenarios through Design Futures. You will also choose an elective: Accelerator, to develop your venture; Design for Sustainability and Social Impact, to address societal challenges; or Wearable, Nearable, Portable, to explore technologies that enhance everyday life through design.
In the second semester, Systemic Design will introduce tools for mapping complexity and developing interventions, while Regenerative Business explores models that replenish human and natural resources. You will then choose Marketing and Management, examining markets and organisational growth, or an internship or project learning experience, applying your knowledge within a practical professional context as part of your studies.
The master’s programme culminates in an individual degree project, allowing you to frame original research, develop your proposal with a supervisor, and present and defend your final thesis.
The Strategic Design Master of Arts programme aims to help students:
- Encourage design exploration by applying creative design processes and methods to investigate innovative business contexts and models to develop new propositions.
- Design organisational strategies that enhance decision-making, futures-readiness and adaptation to change.
- Develop innovative brand and product strategies for customer engagement and market impact.
- Foster socially and environmentally impactful business solutions at various scales of complexity, employing cross-disciplinary approaches.
- Promote an entrepreneurial culture by effectively managing all phases of the design process, from problem-setting to solution implementation.
- Cultivate leadership skills and engage in interdisciplinary collaborations, preparing participants to lead companies and organisations by integrating approaches from diverse disciplines, while emphasising an ethically conscious strategic mindset.
Students/professionals aiming at:
- leading design-driven processes, blending creativity and strategy within corporations and organisations
- launching business ideas with an ethically conscious strategic mindset
- exploring critical thinking and research methodologies from both academic and professional perspectives
- driving innovation and organisational transformation
- navigating complexity through systems thinking and interdisciplinary approaches
- identifying trends and shaping futures
The programme addresses students and young professionals from business and design who seek to create impactful solutions for organisations, the environment and society through interdisciplinary strategic practice.
This programme prepares you for a career in the following roles:
- Strategic designer
- Design leader
- Design entrepreneur
- Creative director
- Venture builder
- Innovation consultant
- Social responsibility expert
- Regenerative business consultant
It also prepares you to begin a PhD programme in design leadership, strategic and business design areas.
The 2-year Master of Arts involves the following costs, in addition to the payment of a Degree Fee to be paid within one month before the course start date, equal to €540.
Important notice for the 2nd year: the full tuition fee shall be increased at a fixed and pre-determined rate of max 2,5%.
February ’27 fees:
- EU & EFTA STUDENTS
Dual Award Master € 17.200 - NON EU STUDENTS
Dual Award Masters € 22.200
EU & EFTA students fee
First Year
€ 17.500
Pre-Enrollment: € 4.000
Tuition: € 13.500
Non-EU Students Fee
First Year
€ 22.500
Pre-Enrollment: € 4.000
Tuition: € 18.500
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Norway
- Holland
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
Designer and strategist with a diverse background spanning teaching, academic research, and agency projects. Passionate about the design process, she excels in problem-solving, problem-setting, and creating compelling visuals. MEET HER AT THE ONLINE OPEN DAY
Designer and strategist with a diverse background spanning teaching, academic research, and agency projects. Passionate about the design process, she excels in problem-solving, problem-setting, and creating compelling visuals.
As a transdisciplinary designer, she leverages tools from communication, service, to business design. She enjoys building bridges between disciplines and interpreting various design languages.
In 2013, she received a Ph.D. cum Laude from the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano. During her Ph.D., she worked at the MobileLife Research Centre (Stockholm University) on service and interaction design devices, and at the metaLABab at Harvard University in the field of digital humanities.
For over eight years, she collaborated with the master’s degree course in Communication Design at Politecnico di Milano, specializing in designing transmedia systems and experiences to engage users and enhance cultural heritage. She works at Domus Academy as Course Leader since 2016 in the branding and business areas. She also curates and organizes talks and studio events with designers and artists.
FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions
The 2-year Master of Arts in Strategic Design lasts 2 years, starting in autumn. Upon completion of the programme, students receive a Second-Level Academic Diploma (120 ECTS credits), accredited by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR), a qualification that guarantees access to most doctoral programmes in leadership and business design.
The 2-year Master of Arts in Strategic Design is aimed at designers, managers, and professionals who want to lead design-driven processes, launch entrepreneurial ideas with a strategic mindset, or access doctoral programmes in leadership and business design. The course is also explicitly designed for profiles with a managerial background, as well as creative ones. Upon completion, a Second-Level Academic Diploma (120 ECTS) accredited by the MUR is awarded.
A First-Level Academic Diploma in design or related disciplines is required. A good command of both written and spoken English is also required. Check the admission requirements and accepted language certificates in detail to prepare your application.
The first year of the 2-year Master of Arts in Strategic Design introduces tools at the intersection of business and design, the history of Italian design, brand strategies, and innovative organisational models. The second year is dedicated to entrepreneurship, personal branding, systemic design, and regenerative enterprises, featuring intensive bootcamps and the opportunity for an internship. The course culminates in an individual thesis project. Key themes include business innovation by design, design leadership, and business ethics.
The two-year programme trains professionals with a strong strategic and managerial vocation. The curriculum prepares students for roles such as Design Leader, Design Entrepreneur, Brand Manager, Design Strategist, Creative Director, and Regenerative Business Leader.
Yes, you can check the scholarship opportunities available throughout the year and submit your application via the dedicated portal.