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a five year
journey

Training

Global Designers

CY school of design is a Post-baccalaureate school with a 3 + 2 format.

Registered on the official French Higher Education platform Parcoursup, it welcomes 1st year students, with parallel entries in the 2nd year based on an exam and interview,s and in the 3rd and 4th year based on an application and interview.

It delivers a master degree.

Training global designers

A 7 pilar program

The curriculum of CY School of Design is fundamentally multidisciplinary.
Within the framework of a project-based pedagogy, its "Design Mix" is built on the following 7 pillars:

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  • Culture/ Thinking / Writing

  • Representing

  • Observing / Analyzing / Understanding

  • Creating / Solving / Collaborating

  • Doing / Experiencing / Feeling

  • Understanding human organizations

  • Becoming a professional

formation designer global

Training global designers

It is no longer the time to train vertical specialists, but global designers, capable of positioning themselves on the continuum from material to decision, and ready to join their very diverse talents for the benefit of projects that are always bigger than they are.
There is therefore no specialization at CY School of Design, and the school trains designers who are capable of both participating in decision-making and concretizing the systems and products they induce: thinkers as much as doers, readers as much as transformers of the world, capable of abstraction as much as concretization.
We make this positioning all the more readable as all projects are motivated by the 17 UNO sustainable development goals.

formation designer durable
formation designer global

The curriculum is in a 3+2 format.

  • Years 1 to 3: acquisition of fundamental knowledge, methodologies, practices and techniques of design + general culture + writing + SHS 

  •  Years 4 and 5: deepening and understanding of the functioning of human organisations + SHS + writing.

  • (years in alternation, except for parallel entries or only the 5th year is done embedded in corporations)

 

Free of charge for scholarship holders, the tuition fees for the 5 years are 10,500€ in total for European students  (18,000€ for non European students) : €3,500/year (6,000€) for the first 3 years), with the last 2 years being covered by the companies hosting the work-study students.

A 5 year long curriculum:
A University degree for all

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Years 1 to 3: fundamental knowledge, methodologies
and techniques

The first 3 years of the course are dedicated to the acquisition of all the fundamentals of design:

  • Physical and digital representation techniques ( ~ 50% of the volume of hours over 3 years)

  • Projects and methods (~ 20% )

  • Workshops and Fablab initiation

  • SHS (~ 10% )

  • Culture/Writing (~ 7%)

  • Professionalization (~ 7% )

 

The third year includes a semester abroad.

formation designer

Years 4 to 5: deepening and understanding
human organisations

The last two years of the course are free of technical knowledge acquisition, to focus on knowledge related to the functioning of private or public organisations.

The aim is to prepare you to claim and assume positions of responsibility in these organisations by giving you the codes, knowledge and methods to do so.

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The last 2 years are carried out embedded in corporations.

formation designer

2 embedded work-study years 

formation designer alternance

In order to quickly confront you with the reality of working in human organisations, the 4th and 5th years can be spent alternating in companies (except for the parallel entries in the 4th year).

CY Cergy Paris University has its own Apprenticeship Training Centre, through which such tripartite commitments can be made.

During these periods, the companies pay for the cost of your training and also pay you.

This significantly reduces the total cost of your education.

International semester

In order to prepare yourself to understand the diversity of cultures as well as to project yourself into them, you will have to spend the second semester of the third year abroad:

 

  • Either on an academic exchange 

  • Either as a trainee

  • Either on a study trip

formation designer

Details of the programme by pillars

Cultivating / Thinking / Writing

  • History of art

  • Contemporary history of design

  • History of political ideas

  • Technological cultures

  • Cultures of care

  • Cultures of science

  • Cultures of complexity

  • History of writing

  • Creative writing

  • Narrative writings

  • Documentary research methods

  • Research writings

Do / Experiment

  • Manufacturing workshops

  • VR / AR / IoT workshops

  • Sensory Design Workshop

  • Model Workshop

  • Material, Material, Energy Workshop

  • Coding / programming

Creating / Solving / Collaborating

  • History of design theories

  • Design methodologies (and others)

  • Project Management

  • Engineering Sciences

  • Creative methodologies

  • Collective intelligence

  • Intercultural management

  • Long term projects (14 weeks)

  • Short projects (8 weeks)

  • Workshops (1 full week)

  • Inter-school project

Understanding human organizations

  • Create/Undertake

  • Anticipate

  • Leader/Leader

  • Governing

  • Animate

  • Organize

  • Share

  • Funding

  • Design/Produce

  • Sell

  • Issue

  • Contact

Representing

  • Perspective

  • Sketches

  • Paint/Colour

  • Illustration/sketch

  • Living model

  • Typography

  • Graphic design

  • Sculpture

  • Story Boarding

  • Mind mapping

  • Graphic facilitation

  • Relational cartography

  • Photoshop

  • Illustrator

  • InDesign

  • Rhinoceros

  • Premiere

  • After Effects

  • Coding

  • Photography

Observing / Understanding

  • Philosophy

  • Anthropology

  • Sociology

  • Ethnography

  • Semiotics

  • Economy

  • Cognitive Science

  • Psychology

  • Political Science

Becoming a professional

  • English

  • Oral communication

  • Visual Communication,/ Book

  • The creative body

  • Professional support

  • Group workshops

  • Individual coaching

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