The Master of Design and Production offers you the skills, knowledge and hands-on experience necessary to successfully take on an array of contemporary design and production roles across the stage, screen or graphic design industries. It achieves this by honing and expanding your craft skills, by broadening your conceptual capabilities and by encouraging experimentation and collaboration with your peers.

This structured coursework program provides you with an enriched and comprehensive pathway into professional design and production roles. In addition to theory, the course encompasses workshops and studio-based learning where you will explore the role of graphic design, stage design or production design for screen. 

Guest lecturers from the industry and staff who are also experienced practitioners ensure the training is professionally relevant and current. Through placements on productions mounted within the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), students in the stage and screen specialisations will gain practical experience and develop a portfolio of work that may include film, theatre, dance, and opera. In the graphic design specialisation, students will work on live briefs with partners in the Melbourne arts precinct, and may participate in a student-led design studio. Industry placements allow you to test your skills in professional contexts, where you will gain insight and experience to guide you towards career pathways and contacts. You also have the option of undertaking a thesis, providing a pathway towards PhD research in your specialised area of study.

A core principle of the program is collaboration. In developing this skill, you will interact with other creative practitioners at VCA. As such this course provides a unique opportunity to develop creative partnerships that can lead to future professional collaborations.

The Master of Design and Production offers three distinct specialisations:

Production Design for Screen

Production Designers build the worlds where screen stories take place. This specialisation equips students with the skills needed to take on a variety of art department roles, including production design, art direction, set decoration and graphic and set design for screen.

Students in the Production Design for Screen specialisation develop a portfolio of work including production design and art direction for graduating VCA film projects, and complete industry placements on film and television productions to expand their professional experience and industry contacts.

Learn more about specialising in production design for screen

Stage Design

Set and costume designers are responsible for developing the visual language of live performance.  Students learn key skills to successfully conceptualise and document their designs for a variety of live performance artforms, including theatre, dance and opera.

Through placements on productions mounted within VCA, students in the Stage Design specialisation gain practical experience and develop a portfolio of realised works. Industry placements allow them to engage with professional designers and productions with leading arts companies.

Learn more about stage design

Graphic Design

Graphic designers plan and present ideas and experiences with visual and textual content across a wide range of media. With a focus on applied skills and the encouragement of an experimental practice, students discover and articulate their own graphic voice, challenging the conventional and discovering new approaches and visual languages.

Students work on live briefs with partners in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, engage with internationally renowned student programmes such as the ISTD (The International Society of Typographic Designers) and RDI (Royal Designers for Industry, UK), and have the opportunity to work in a student-led design studio.

Learn more about the graphic design specialisation

Who is this course for?

The Master of Design and Production is for those who want to develop their creative practice in a range of collaborative artforms.

It provides intensive training in design specialisations to a cohort from diverse backgrounds of training or practice, which may include architecture, visual art, graphic design, interior design, film or drama studies.