
The master's program "International
Design Strategy"
Degree: Diplôme de design Bac +5 : Postgraduate studies / Master's level degree
Prerequisites: 3 years of undergraduate studies in design
Admissions: On our application site
Location: in France or abroad
Teaching language: English of French
The master's level program degree taught within the school's studios, in France or abroad
The “International Design Strategy” master's level degree program offers long-term immersion to discover and understand different cultures and work in an international or intercultural context. By the end of the program, students will be able to support companies in developing their innovation strategies in a global world.
L'École de design Nantes Atlantique's Bac +5 diploma is made up of undergraduate and graduate studies. Subject to successful completion, this program leads to the "Bac +5 Design Diploma" (RNCP level 7) approved by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and conferring the Grade de Master.
International Design Strategy” theme
L’École de design Nantes Atlantique teaches the “International Design Strategy” master's level degree program in its studios in France and abroad:
In France
L'École de design Nantes Atlantique offers students the opportunity to complete their Master's level degree entirely in English at Studio France in Nantes. This program welcomes students from different nationalities: a fantastic opportunity to carry out design projects in multicultural teams. Students will work on strategic projects in the fields of Care Design, City Design, Digital Design, Food Design et Media Design.
Abroad
L’École de design Nantes Atlantique offers a number of master's degree programs taught in its international studios in Benin, Brazil, Canada or in China.
These programs offer long-term immersion and a great opportunity to discover and understand different cultures and to evolve in an international context.
The master's program
The Bac +5 design diploma is structured around a 3-year undergraduate studies combining creativity, collaboration and collective emulation, and a 2-year master's program focusing on the strategic dimension of design (project management, diversification of learning contexts, transversality, in-depth study, etc.).
Postgraduate studies corresponds to the 4th and 5th years of the 'Bac +5' diploma. It offers in-depth training to prepare students to become expert and innovative designers.
- Students are trained to have a “T-shaped” profile, with cross-disciplinary business expertise and a thematic and management approach. Over the course of 2 years, students deepen their professional expertise (graphic design, digital design, space design, product design), while at the same time delving deeper into the chosen Master's program theme (such as 'International Design Strategy'). By the end of their program, designers trained at L'École de design Nantes Atlantique will be specialists in a particular field, but also generalists who have broadened their field of expertise.
- Students work on innovative projects and complex issues, in collaboration with industrial and institutional partners to explore new creative approaches.
- The program emphasizes research, experimentation and innovation, encouraging students to propose design solutions that respond to contemporary issues and integrate a responsible and sustainable approach.
The Master's level degree program includes lectures, practical teaching, a final project supported by a dissertation, and a period of professionalization in a company through a long internship. To work on the final project, students are supported throughout the master's program by a network of experts including designers, industrialists, researchers and professionals.
The Master's program is divided into two years, each of which is validated by 60 ECTS credits. A significant amount of personal work is expected for each module.
4th year of the diploma (1st year of the master's program)
For students entering the 'International Design Strategy' program at Africa Studio, Brazil Studio, China Studio or Studio Montréal
External students (with a Bac +3 from another higher education institution) who join an international studio in the 4th year of the Bac +5 design diploma (master's program) follow a first semester of studies in Nantes at Studio France, with classes taught in English only.
Students who have completed the undergraduate studies of the school's 'Bac +5' design diploma complete a minimum 13-week internship abroad as a junior designer.
Prior to the internship, they take part in a welcome and methodology seminar on transculturality, as well as language and local culture courses.
The aim of this semester is to highlight and broaden their professional experience in the context of another culture.
Studio Montréal's program differs from that of other international studios. The first year alternates between week-long internships and week-long courses (21 weeks of courses and 18 weeks of internships over the year).
For students enrolling in Studio France's 'International Design Strategy' program in Nantes
External students (with a Bac +3 from another higher education institution) who join Studio France in the 4th year of the Bac +5 design diploma (master's cycle) spend the first semester learning the school's working methods in a multidisciplinary approach: methodology seminars, positioning the designer in the company, creativity, marketing, projects, language courses, interculturality...
Courses:
- Integration and technical skills
- Creativity
- Methodology
- Marketing
- Storytelling / Usage scenarios
- Prospective project / International workshop
- Tutoring - Personal project
- Professionalization
- Competitive examination preparation
The program is structured around projects, mainly carried out in collaboration with companies or institutions, workshops, lectures, conferences and professional meetings.
Students learn to:
- Manage complex design projects
- Deepen their knowledge of the economic, social and cultural aspects of the theme addressed in their program,
- Build and apply a methodology
- Support their final project, the subject of which they define themselves.
Courses:
- Design and complexity project
- Final project definition workshop
- Prospective design project
- Methodologies seminar
- Innovation seminar
- Intellectual property
- Seminar specific to the program theme
- Introductory research workshop
- Professionalization
- Preparation for a competitive examination
- Preparation for final year project, complementary seminar
- Thesis preparation workshop
- TOEIC preparation (according to profile)
Optional courses:
- Foreign language teaching (Mandarin Chinese courses are offered to students enrolled in the China Studio and Portuguese courses are offered to students enrolled in the Brazil Studio).
- Double Diploma in Management and Business Administration offered in partnership with Nantes IAE only for the “International Design Strategy” master's program taught at Studio France in Nantes. Find out more about our double degrees.
5th year of the diploma (2nd year of the master's program)
Students pursue and finalize their end-of-studies project, which synthesizes all the professional skills they have acquired. At the same time, they write a thesis on the project's theme.
This final project may be carried out in collaboration with a company and/or the research laboratories of a partner university. It must be linked to the master's level degree theme chosen by the student.
Supervision is provided in the form of workshops, under the direction of a referent designer, with the involvement of occasional guest lecturers.
Through the final-year project, students learn to :
- Define and follow the various stages of project management, from drawing up specifications to completion.
- Choose the methodological and technical tools best suited to project development.
- Assert personal positioning and innovative strength.
- Project the theme envisaged in the professional field of the chosen thematic program, in a dimension of social, economic and cultural reflection.
Courses:
- Introduction to management
- Introduction to law
- Final project follow-up workshop
- Thesis follow-up workshop
- Professionalization
- TOEIC preparation (depending on profile)
- Preparation for a design competition
Optional courses:
- Foreign language teaching (Mandarin Chinese courses are offered to students enrolled in the China Studio and Portuguese courses are offered to students enrolled in the Brazil Studio).
- Double Diploma in Management and Business Administration offered in partnership with Nantes IAE only for the “International Design Strategy” master's program taught at Studio France in Nantes. Find out more about our double degrees.
At Studio Montréal, the pace of the program differs from that of other international studios. The second year alternates periods of one-week internships with weeks of classes (15 weeks of internships and 18 weeks of classes).
The program includes an internship lasting a minimum of 16 weeks (up to a maximum of 6 months) with a company in France or abroad.
Depending on the student's professional project, this internship can also take place in a company the student wishes to set up, or in a research laboratory.
During this period, students work as junior designers and are responsible for all or part of a project. They are expected to demonstrate their ability to integrate into a team, manage a project and successfully complete each stage of its development.
This time spent on the job enables students to link their entire course of study with what will be their first professional experience.
Would you like to enroll in the academic master's program in Nantes (in French)? Go to this page.

In this programme, taught in French, students will work in multicultural teams on projects focusing on societal, ecological and environmental issues.

The Brazil Studio offers a bilingual program that allows an accelerated acculturation to Portuguese and the Brazilian context.

Throughout this master's level degree, students will learn to decipher the local behaviors and understand the Chinese market to offer a coherent project, adapted to users, with an anthropological...

This program aims to immerse students in the world of technological and cultural entrepreneurship in order to understand how it works and its particularities.

Postgraduate studies / Master's level degree 'International Design Strategy / Le Studio France' to carry out design projects in a multicultural context.
International studios
L'École de design Nantes Atlantique has been exporting internationally for several years, with the opening of its international studios, backed by local partners (higher education institutions or incubators).
Back in 1999, L'École de design Nantes Atlantique decided to deploy an ambitious strategy of global outreach. Since then, international development has been part of the school's DNA. While the answers to users' problems are local, design practice is part of a global context that takes into account the major global issues of today and tomorrow:
- Economic interdependence,
- Societal advances,
- Cultural influence,
- And of course, the great ecological and environmental challenges.
With its international studios, L'École de design Nantes Atlantique allows future designers to confront realities different from those experienced in France.
5 good reasons to do your master's level degree in an international studio
- Leave your comfort zone and acquire more independence and maturity by confronting a different environment and a new culture. A two-year long immersion abroad is a catalyst of emotions that you must learn to manage.
- Operating in a strong intercultural context in everyday life, but also during the training, helps the student to appropriate the codes and customs of the host country.
- Develop an open-mindedness essential to the design profession and confront other visions of design: learn to deconstruct your prejudices and develop empathy.
- Discover a reality in the field with issues specific to the place of immersion: a designer must be able to question and challenge the solutions found to the problems addressed.
- Open the doors to an international career: the studio programs are deliberately very professional. Students develop their ability to adapt, which is absolutely essential in design, and they become highly sought after by companies.
Contact
Do you have a question about admissions to the master's level degree program? Contact us at international@lecolededesign.com or call (+33)2 51 13 50 70.
Discover the international studios
While the degree to be prepared is the same in each studio, each has its own unique characteristics, both in terms of environment and context.

- Opening date: 2008
- City: Shanghai
- Partner site: Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University
- Topics covered: cohabitation between traditions and technologies, architecture and heritage, changing economy

- Opening date: 2017
- City: São Paulo
- Site: Mackenzie Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning
- Topics covered: urban change in a context of population density and social disparity, cultural heritage, environmental issues

- Opening date: 2018
- City: Montréal
- Partner site: Centech incubator (Centech - medical technologies, microelectronics, intelligent objects)
- Topics covered: entrepreneurship, technological innovations, creative industries

- Opening date: 2019
- City: Nantes
- Topics covered: within this program, students work on projects linked to the 3 main topics: interculturality, international and interdisciplinarity. They work in design management projects, linked to european partners or projects proposed by the school's Design Labs.

- Opening date: 2023
- City: Cotonou
- Partner sites: Africa Design School, Sèmè City
- Topics covered: urban planning, societal design, digital transition
Contact us
Do you have a question about our programs?
Degree: Diplôme de design Bac +5 : Postgraduate studies / Master's level degree
Prerequisites: 3 years of undergraduate studies in design
Admissions: On our application site
Location: in France or abroad
Teaching language: English of French