Program Overview

MS in Creative Technology & Design: Creative Industries

The professional MS in Creative Technology and Design (CTD) is a 33-credit hour program that teaches you to become an interdisciplinary problem-solver. The Creative Industries track prepares you for a career at the cutting edge, uniquely qualified to succeed in many technology and design roles.

Program Benefits

• Unique Student Experience: Small class sizes offer hands-on project-based learning with mentoring and collaboration. Core classes empower you to build a strong foundation in design, technology, and leadership. Elective options in ATLAS and across campus allow you to deepen your focus in many future-forward disciplines.
• Industry Collaboration: Learn directly from industry leaders. Many courses are taught by working professionals from small studios to large companies like Google and Amazon. We create opportunities to engage with working professionals, including classes, workshops, guest lectures, networking, portfolio reviews, and project mentoring.
• Learn & Work: Most students work at least part-time while in the program, including opportunities for roles at ATLAS, across campus, along the Front Range, and in remote positions. CU Boulder offers many resources to assist you in finding roles, and the course schedule offers flexibility to match your needs.
• Creative Community: Community is one of our great strengths. Invent the future by participating in our vibrant research labs. Engage with industry leaders through roundtables, instruction, and mentorship. Build lasting relationships and foster deep bonds through collaboration, learning, and social events.
• Portfolio Development: Our curriculum leverages project-based learning with an emphasis on presenting your work. Guided by course and project assignments as well as direct feedback from working professionals, we help you develop a strong portfolio that tells the story of who you are and what you do.
• Future-forward Careers: Our students are uniquely positioned for the evolving job markets of the future. No single technology will fully equip students for the field—instead, we help you build a technical toolset and an approach to life-long learning and creative problem-solving as your career evolves.

Course Sequence

Our students take a set of core classes, providing a foundation in three areas: design process, technical fluency, and professional development.

• Semester 1 - (Year 1 Fall)
  • ATLS 5420 Professional Seminar: the Business of Creativity (3 credit hours)
  • ATLS 5430 Design Methods (3 credit hours)
  • Introduction to Programming or Creative Code
• Semester 2 - (Year 1 Spring)
  • ATLS 5410 Creative Technologies (3 credit hours)
  • 2 Tech Focus Electives (6 credit hours)
• Semester 3 - (Year 2 Fall)
  • ATLS 5440 Design Studio (3 credit hours)
  • 2 Focus Electives (6 credit hours)
• Semester 4 - (Year 2 Spring)
  • ATLS 6920 Creative Industries Final Project (3 credit hours)
  • Technology-focused Electives (3 credit hours)

Deepen Your Practice

The Creative Technology & Design program is flexible to your goals, whether you want to emphasize engineering expertise, design skills, or a balance of both. CTD students focus on many areas—here are a few of the most common:

• Game Design & Development
• UX / UI & Human-Computer Interaction
• Product Design & Development
• Experimental Practices

Workshops

To extend your skill development, we offer free workshops throughout the year. The workshop series allows students to explore new areas of interest, gain additional skills, network with industry leaders, collaborate with non-Creative Industries students, and further develop their skills. Recent topics included:

• Figma
• Adobe Creative Suite
• Motion Graphics
• UI/UX
• Bio Meets Computation
• 3D Printing
• Programming in Python and R
• Data Science
• Project Management

Companies Employing MS-CTD Graduates

Our alumni go on to inspiring careers in leading industries. Check out a few doing outstanding work in their field:

• Cassandra Goodby, Design Technologist at Amazon
• Cody Candler, Founder & CEO of EdBoard Technologies
• Maria Deslis, Game Producer of Serenity Forge