Masterstudio Design MA

Core Moduls

The basic module “Design Culture” deals with topics and specific features of different design disciplines and questions them in a critical, culture-scientific context. Students apply theories and discourses to explicit examples from contemporary culture and inspect them from the perspective of their own design work. “Design Process” examines alternative modes of approach, deviating design concepts and the concept of design as an ongoing process. “Design Research” teaches the basics of design research and introduces students to research-oriented project development; thereby they apply the methods of design research, sound the function of experiments in design processes, and familiarize themselves with the latest approaches in critical research.

Studio Moduls

In the studios, students explore the creative interplay between imagination, reflection, and expression. They work on self-initiated projects or on projects suggested by a studio, either individually or in teams. In the process, they get to practise their skills in conceptualization, design-focused translation, and critique, applying newly gained knowledge as they proceed.

Graduates are qualified to work as designers in cultural or business settings and assume responsible positions in full-service design agencies; they can set up their own business, either alone or in a team, or they can choose to pursue a career in teaching and research. Students with an MA degree command cross-disciplinary skills that qualify them for professional work as a designer in a design agency, for a career in teaching and research, for free-lance work, either alone or in a team, or to set up a business of their own.

With its studios and central Campus.Workshops, HGK offers ideal conditions for combining craft curiosity, the acquisition of technical skills, and the necessary digital know-how. In addition, all students have their own 24/7 workspace in one of the spacious studios. In addition, the programme Interior Design & Scenography features an analogue and a digital workshop. The facilities are open to students 365 days a year.

The Studio Experimental Design offers a future-facing design education that fundamentally questions designs of our current life worlds. . We critically investigate  contemporary design processes and aim at translating norm-critical and post-disciplinary attitudes into an experimental design practice. A research-based confrontation with social and ecological challenges such as such as climate change, social inequality, demographic change, and technological transformations of life worlds are fundamental to students' design practice.

We foster a post-disciplinary understanding of design and explore new methods in exchange with external experts. The research carried out at HyperWerk and the Critical Media Lab frames and informs the students’ practice-oriented project work. In this context, experimental design means developing an independent and research-based design practice that is relevant for different domains of social life..

The Studio Experimental Design programme addresses designers interested in augmenting their design skills with a critical and explorative perspective and university graduates who want to apply their subject-specific knowledge in experimental and creative ways.. Our students enjoy working in trans- and interdisciplinary project teams and are prepared for their opinions and world views to be challenged in the course of their studies.

Our graduates command an independent, research-based design practicethat opens up new fields of activity. They curate and moderate, publish and communicate, think ahead and educate.. Thanks to a feedback loop between study program and the research activities pursued at the Institute IXDM, the MA programme also paves the way for a career in academic teaching and research.

The advanced study programme “Studio Industrial Design” advances the students’ high-level, individual, professional, and research-based qualifications to give them a decisive advantage in an increasingly competitive professional environment. The programme is pursued in collaboration with other design-based disciplines. In an interdisciplinary context, students work on their personal professional profile and get the chance to prove and assert themselves in new professional fields of activity in an international design environment. They are accompanied and supported not only by experienced in-house mentors but also by renowned international design experts working exclusively for the Institute of Industrial Design. In the MA thesis, the emphasis is on complexity, research relevance, and the candidate’s personal professional future career. Students work on a project that creates significant added value for the respective cooperation partner – and, depending on project, also for their clients, target groups, or their own business.

Specialization at the Studio Industrial Design targets three areas: design for innovation, design for markets und design for a better world. Teaching and research revolve around the integral function of design in processes with regard to conceptualization, planning, production, distribution, and usage of innovative products and services. Students engage with new professional fields of design activity – from the perspective of research, critique, business, and culture, and a reflected understanding of the term innovation. Teachers and students pick out relevant societal issues in order to test their response at a practical and outcome-oriented level.

Within the framework of project work and as an introduction in their first semester, students are offered the chance of participating in an international collaboration. Working on a project abroad and the seminar series “Advanced Design Methods” complement the offer in the second semester, followed by the completion of the MA thesis in the third semester.

The offer is aimed at holders of a BA degree in Industrial or Product Design, at experienced designers as well as at engineers with an affinity for design with the ambition of advancing and expanding on their technical skills and knowledge.

The advanced degree programme founds on the holistic concept of “Doing Fashion”. Here fashion is understood as a cultural design practice that critically reflects on social change and drives it in a responsible and sustainable manner. “Doing Fashion” means engaging with this practice – in a radically different way, and based on viable vision of design and a conceptual footing in the contemporary fashion scene.

Different forms of implicit knowledge acquired through design experimentation, the acquisition of craft techniques, and bodywork are fundamental to this holistic approach to fashion design. Based on a sound understanding of “knowledge of making” and “embodied knowledge”, it is not only the standard tailor’s bust but the whole person and the perception of each individual body that become the canvas of a design vision.

In small groups of up to six, MA students embed their own fashion practice theoretically. The reflection on artistic procedures and conceptual elaboration constitute a standard part of the MA programme. Under the heading “Look Therapy”, every individual performance is viewed as a complex interplay of see and to be seen.

Renowned “critical friends” and external judges are asked to give a critical feedback concerning the expressiveness and relevance of the students’ design visions. The actually designed products are presented as inspiring “showing moments” at www.doingfashion.ch. For the graduates, this brings international visibility and a potential extension of their professional network.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is an aspect that is explicitly encouraged in the Studio Fashion Design. Students also get the opportunity to complete their MA thesis as a team, for example, if a group of students wishes to create alternative action spaces in a fashion context together. The offer is aimed at textile and fashion designers who wish to enhance their position in the fashion world and to extend their network internationally.

In the Studio Scenography programme, students advance their skills of translating complex contents into walk-in spatial images and to inject narrative quality into staged spaces. Alongside getting to know the tools and methods of designing staged spaces, the students are given the opportunity to work on hands-on projects together with renowned experts.

The aim of the Studio Scenography is to teach students in their role as independent designers how to assume progressive positions in the context of scenography. Relevance in the sense of “social scenography”, the efficient use of the means at hand, and the application of state-of-the-art production techniques constitute the framework of this kind of project-based, research work. In the first two semesters of Studio Scenography, students propose creative projects regarding currently topical issues on the basis of which the tools of orchestrated, spatial-dramaturgical – in particular the scenographic score and the storyboard – are introduced and tested. Students are familiarized with the parameters of scenography as developed by Prof Uwe R. Brückner in his concept of “creativ(e) structure(e)” – the object, content, space, viewer parameters – with the aim of developing project-specific, memorable spatial dramaturgies and tracks.

In the course of the second semester, students begin to engage with and conceptualize the subject of their upcoming MA thesis. They have the choice of whether they wish to conclude the project-based, written and practical MA thesis in one (full-time) or two semesters (part-time). The students get to choose the format of their project – exhibition, installation, performance, stage-set, etc.). The choice of supporting mentors depends on the content and requirements of the chosen project format.

The offer is aimed at interior designers, architects, set designers and designers in general who wish to advance their skills in creating dense spatial narratives and to explore new application opportunities and spheres of activity in the field of scenography.

The programme is open to applicants with a degree from a Swiss Academy of Art and Design or a University of the Arts. It is also open to applicants with a degree from a correspondent foreign university or academy.
Graduates with a degree in the Humanities or a technical degree are also eligible. Transfers from other universities or academies are possible but subject to individual review. Admissions “sur dossier” are subject to a special assessment.
The languages of instruction are German and English. German-speaking students are expected to have CEFR Level B2 proficiency in English. Evidence is to be provided in the form of a certificate or in the context of the entrance interview.

Here you will find everything you need to know about the enrolment process at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design.

Here you will find everything you need to know about the enrolment process at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design.

Prof. Heinz Wagner, aGVpbnoud2FnbmVyQGZobncuY2g=

Prof. Armin Blasbichler, YXJtaW4uYmxhc2JpY2hsZXJAZmhudy5jaA==

Dr. des. Ralf Michel, cmFsZi5taWNoZWxAZmhudy5jaA==

Dr. Christine Schranz, Y2hyaXN0aW5lLnNjaHJhbnpAZmhudy5jaA==

Prof. Dr. Jörg Wiesel, am9lcmcud2llc2VsQGZobncuY2g=

Prof. Dr. Bettina Köhler, YmV0dGluYS5rb2VobGVyQGZobncuY2g=

Prof. Uwe R. Brückner, dXdlLmJydWVja25lckBmaG53LmNo

Prof. Priska Morger, cHJpc2thLm1vcmdlckBmaG53LmNo

Prof. Werner Baumhakl, d2VybmVyLmJhdW1oYWtsQGZobncuY2g=

www.masterstudiodesign.ch

FHNW Academy of Art and Design
Institute Contemporary Design Practices
Freilager-Platz 1
Postfach

CH-4002 Basel

FHNW Academy of Art and Design
Institute Contemporary Design Practices

Freilager-Platz 1, Hochhaus: D 4.05
4142 Münchenstein / Basel

T +41 61 228 40 66
F +41 61 467 48 85
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