LABASAD opens applications for its next cohort of online master’s students

The creative industry is changing faster than ever, and so too is creative education. LABASAD, Barcelona School of Arts & Design, looks to complement its perpetual evolution and rethink what design education can look like, placing industry experience, practical work and critical thinking at the heart of how it operates. LABASAD’s October and November 2026 intake, applications for which are now open, offers creatives around the world the opportunity to study online without compromising or interfering with their professional practice. In fact, LABASAD’s setup integrates the two.

Whilst based in Barcelona, LABASAD has built an internationally recognised reputation around its digital-first model, connecting students with practising designers, illustrators, photographers, creative directors and other specialists spanning the industry. Across its 30 online master’s programmes, combined with our Spanish-speaking programmes, the institution opts to incorporate education and professional practice, encouraging students to build out their portfolios with work that responds to real-world briefs.

This approach feels especially relevant as AI becomes a bigger and bigger part of creative practices and the wider industry as a whole. As we spoke about earlier in 2026, LABASAD has been embedding AI across its master’s programmes while keeping the emphasis on judgement, craft and original thinking, very much considering the technology a tool rather than a substitute for creative, original thinking. The school has since expanded its AI offering with the launch of its Online Master in Cinematic & Audiovisual AI, under the direction of by Fred Grinstein, alongside additional AI-focused modules being debuted in other disciplines.

Alongside newer areas of study, LABASAD continues to develop its long-established Online Master programmes, including Graphic Design, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Motion Design, Digital Product Design & AI, Editorial and Advertising Illustration, Interior Design and Hospitality, Brand Strategy, Advanced Graphic and Digital Design,New Documentary Photography, and Generative Artificial Intelligence for Creatives. Across every course, the emphasis remains on making work, championing the act of making, and utilising this experience to better one’s professional practice. LABASAD’s evolving approach – epitomised by its 2026 campaign line, Lead the Change – continues to reflect a broader shift in creative education that favours professional and creative flexibility and embraces new technologies without losing sight of creative judgement, preparing students for an ever-evolving industry that they too can shape.