‘CommDe’ is a name that is becoming increasingly popular amongst students looking to pursue higher education in Thailand. But what exactly is it, and why is it becoming more and more sought out? Let’s venture into the creative and diverse world of design in Thailand and find out.
Situated within the confides of Thailand’s oldest and renowned university, Chulalongkorn University, lies a world of imagination, innovation and inspiration. For anyone looking to explore the design landscape and accumulate creative skills, adopt design thinking and systematic processes, CommDe is the place to be.
CommDe is an international Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts (BFA) programme in communication design. This programme focuses on the myriad fields of communication and the ability to portray it through the use of a multitude of design methods.
Whether it be publishing, print, graphics design, illustration, animation, digital design, time-based design, sound design, all the way to new media communication, emergent and future media. There is no one way to achieve successful communication, but there are good ways, and extremely effective ways. But first, you will need to be equipped with the adequate tools and knowledge to do that.
There are four main areas
you will explore in this programme
Creative Process
Learn communication design through both creative and systematic processes through divergent and convergent thinking: generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions and examine synthesis and singular answers to a problem.
Research Experiments
Explore new conceptualizations and technology through field research & experimentations and test your design outcomes.
Practical Skill
Develop necessary practical design skills that can be applied to real-life situations through lectures, workshops, demonstrations and one-on-one tutorials. Discover the importance of self-direction and personal responsibility for outcomes.
Expanded Vision
Engage in field trips both locally and overseas to expand your personal vision and all-around knowledge in design and communication, as well as exchange programmes with many international universities.
This programme is spread out across 4 years, in which you will create a strong foundation and build up upon it as you progress. The first year will focus on laying that foundation, by equipping you with all the basic design knowledge and tools, creating understanding of design elements and how to use them. The next years you will advance into the various fields of design, putting the knowledge and tools you previously learned to use. This is to make sure you will have an all around knowledge and understanding of design. You will gradually learn to adopt the design thinking process until it eventually becomes part of your DNA. Then comes the fun part (even though everything up until now has always been fun). You will start to know what you like and what you are good at. Now, you will have the chance to choose the specialty areas you wish to master in, as well as explore advanced design fields that you have never had the chance to encounter. The final stage of your journey is when you put everything you have learned and translate it into one, final, one-year project. This, itself, is a whole journey in its own right. This final masterpiece will be something that really reflects you, your journey, how much you have grown, and how much you have achieved.
By the time you have reached the end, you will be more than ready to venture into the real world and embark on your career journey.
The professional careers you can pursue after completing this programme is endless. It can range anywhere from 2D designs to print, to 3D animations, to being somewhere in the movie industry, to working in sound design, to events and exhibitions, the list just goes on. And because it is an international programme, the syllabus is up to date with world trends – this is key and vital if you want to be a designer in this rapidly-evolving digital world.
From my personal experience, I can tell you that it will be a journey of blood, sweat, tears and sleepless night with energy drinks and caffeine. It will be hard, and it will push you to your limits, but it will make you grow and it will transform you, and most importantly – it will be worth it. That, I can promise you.
