Design is increasingly at the core of the way products, services, brands, and systems are developed, and students now more than ever run into two separate but very similar and confusing academic directions: Design Studies (BDes/MDes) and Design Management (BA/MA). Both are parts of the design world, both appreciate design thinking, and both indicate good career prospects. However, they are training students for completely different roles outside the school.
Realizing the difference early on is a great time saver as it prevents years of confusion and it can be a guide for students to pick the path that is more in line with their thinking, working, and imagination of the future.
At its core, Design Studies is about creation. BDes and MDes programmes train students to think through making, using design as a method to solve problems and express ideas through tangible and intangible outcomes.
The methodology is very much studio based and the main thrust is on the students' work.
There are long hours of sketching, prototyping, testing, repeating, and polishing. They figure out how to smartly mix looks and utility, novelty and user, friendliness, fantasy and real life tech. Be it product design, communication design, fashion, interaction design, or spatial design, the main point stays the same, to design capability development.
The curriculum is designed to blend the two quite hard elements: theoretical and practical learning. In the process of their studies students get to understand the very basics of design, i.e. form, colour, typography, composition, human, centred design etc. Besides they also get to know different research and ideation techniques, user testing, and iterative prototyping. Technical training is extensive software like CAD tools, Adobe Creative Suite, UI/UX platforms, fabrication methods, model making, and increasingly AR/VR and AI driven design systems. Alongside this runs an understanding of design history, cultural context, storytelling, and ethics. The students in this category are those who have a very strong visual or spatial sense.
They are the ones who like to make things, visualize and come up with several solutions to a problem. Most of them, their arrival is always preceded by portfolios of sketches, digital work, photographs, or prototypes and a desire to communicate their ideas through form. When graduating, Design Studies students are capable in numerous ways. They are conceptually, technically, and visually. Their portfolio is their most convincing credential. A career might be a position of a UX/UI designer, product or industrial designer, graphic or visual designer, fashion or textile designer, animator, game designer, motion graphics artist, AR/VR designer, or creative technologist. These are fairly physical jobs, frequently done in studios, tech companies, startups, media houses, or as freelancers.
Design Management (BA/MA): Learning to Lead, Strategise, and Scale Design
Design Management is essentially the discipline of managing design as a strategic resource instead of focusing on the production of design artefacts.
BA and MA courses in Design Management focus on the role of design in organisations, markets, and systems. The emphasis shifts from "How do I design this?" to "How does design generate value, foster innovation, and align with business goals?"
These courses reflect the combination of design thinking with management and business fundamentals. Students delve into marketing, branding, strategy, finance, operations, organisational behaviour, project management, and leadership, all under the influence of design. Design turns out to be a differentiating factor, an innovation driver, and a source of competitive advantage, rather than just a product.
Besides design strategy, brand management, innovation management, user and market research, intellectual property and design law, entrepreneurship, and the financial and operational aspects of creative industries are also covered. Students are taught how to lead creative teams, bring designers and business objectives into alignment, measure return on design investment, and present design value to decision makers.
Incoming students are often analytically inclined, communicative, and interested in both creativity and structure. At the undergraduate level, prior design training may not be essential. At the postgraduate level, many entrants already have experience in design, business, media, or technology and want to move into leadership roles.
Graduates of Design Management programmes typically do not design interfaces or products themselves. Instead, they direct, guide, and evaluate the design process. Career outcomes include design strategist, brand manager, innovation consultant, design manager, creative director, product or innovation manager, business development head, or design entrepreneur. These roles are common in corporates, consultancies, startups, and design-led organisations.
The fundamental difference between the two paths is not about which one is "better, " but more about in which part of the design ecosystem you want to be.
Going through a Design Studies program will get you to think and act as a designer essentially, as a creative problem solver, a prototype developer, a design output deliverer. On the contrary, a Design Management program will get you to think and act as a leader or strategist basically, as a person who decides why design matters, where it should be applied, and how it should be organised and scaled.
Design students come out of their education with highly developed creative and technical execution skills, intermediate, level business acumen, and portfolios that showcase their thought process. Design management students come out with well developed strategic, leadership, and business capabilities, intermediate, level design understanding, and the ability to connect creative teams and organisational goals.
In spite of these differences, the two disciplines share some essential commonalities. Both areas are highly user focused, relying on a deep understanding of human needs, behaviours, and situations. Both fields are based on structured problem, solving and design thinking methodologies. Collaboration and communication are indispensable in both, as is a shared ethical concern about the impact of design and business decisions on society.
Good design managers should have a thorough understanding of the creative process in order to be able to effectively manage designers. To survive and develop, good designers are becoming more and more required to have a basic understanding of business. Usually, the most capable professionals are those that find themselves at the crossroads of these two different worlds.
Choosing the Right Path
If you have a passion for creating, visualising, prototyping and refining ideas through form, a Design Studies degree is your grounding. On the other hand, if your interest lies in leadership, systems, strategy, and decision making, and you want to be a part of how design impacts organizations, your way is Design Management.
Both of these professions are equally aligned with the future. The distinction is not in the availability of opportunities but in the orientation: Do you prefer to design the solution, or design the direction?
