The challenges of the modern lifeworld have become to complex to be mastered by single disciplines which is why the Masterstudio applies an integrative concept of design.
The Masterstudio understands itself as a space of experimentation, discourse and production. In ongoing exchange with mentors and external experts, students translate aspects of research, business, technology and culture into future design activity fields. In their role as designers they gain insight into a wide range of disciplines and new perspectives for their professional career.
The programme’s transdisciplinary curriculum is structured around cross-disciplinary core modules and freely selectable specialization courses. This gives you the opportunity to further develop your special interest areas, knowledge fields and skills in an interdisciplinary and inspiring learning environment.
The Master’s course is a full-time programme with a standard study period of three semesters. With exception of the Studio Fashion Design, you may extend the period to four semesters.
The MA degree qualifies you for a transdisciplinary professional career in which you can apply your knowledge and experience as a designer in a wide range of fields, such as in a design agency or as an art and creative director, always with the option of getting your own start-up off the ground in a completely new area of activity.
Specializations
Embedded in the transdisciplinary curriculum, the “Masterstudio Design” offers four specialized study programmes, thus enabling the individual development of interests, specific fields of knowledge and skills in a vibrant learning environment.
With its systematic transdisciplinary approach and its interdisciplinary work method, the Studio Integrative Design reflects the firm belief that the challenges of our complex lifeworld cannot be met satisfactorily by any one single discipline. The Studio encourages a comprehensive understanding of the art and design practice. It addresses critical students who believe that their previous studies or work have not provided satisfactory answers to pressing issues. Marked by the interlinking of individual fields of interest and subject areas, flat hierarchies, teamwork and shared knowledge, the Studio stands as a model of free and reflected development in support of your creative competence.
In collaboration with the Institute of Fashion Design the program focuses on methods of the Knowledge of Making and on Embodied Knowledge, both resembling forms of implicit knowledge acquired through design experimentation, the acquisition of craft techniques, and bodywork. In addition, under the approach of Look Therapy, individual behaviour as a complex interaction between seeing and being seen is examined. With the goal of being able to operate successfully in the international market, one's radically own vision of fashion is theoretically positioned and conveyed into a creative reality through critical reflection of the existing fashion system and in cooperation with the textile industry. Interdisciplinary cooperation is explicitly encouraged for example, if the launch of a joint label is planned.
In collaboration with the Institute of Industrial Design, the programme offers an in-depth MA course in Product Design. The Studio of Industrial Design aims at high individual professional qualification and research competence on the part of its students. It supports the establishment of professional networks and offers you the opportunity to gain project experience in Product Design at an international MA level. The Studio focuses on three areas: International Cooperation, Advanced Design Methods and Associated Professionals. State-of-the-art teaching and learning methods provide the basis for innovation-led projects, from concept development to prototypes to marketable products. You are accompanied and supported by renowned experts exclusively engaged by the Studio of Industrial Design.
In collaboration with the Institute of Interior Design & Scenography the programme offers an in-depth MA course in Scenography & Exhibition Design. In the Studio Scenography & Exhibition Design you further develop your skills in translating challenging contents into walk-in spatial images and staged narrative spaces. Along with learning how to use the tools of spatial enactment, the course offers hands-on, international collaboration projects under the guidance of renowned experts. The Studio Scenography & Exhibition Design’s aim is to bring forth independent author-designers and empower them to occupy progressive positions in the field of scenography. The ideas of Social Scenography, efficient use of the means applied and reliance on state-of-the-art production techniques constitute the project’s framework.
“Design Culture” deals with subject fields and embodiments of different design disciplines and places them in a critical cultural-historical context. You relate current discourses and theories to manifest examples of contemporary culture and review them from the perspective of your own design work.
“Design Process” inquires into alternative approaches and divergent design concepts and examines design as a process-driven method. Supported and accompanied by international experts with rich experience in art and design practices, this core subject is dealt with in concentrated workshops.
“Design Research” teaches you the basics of design research and introduces you to research-driven design development. In the course of the module you investigate the methods of integrative design, explore the function of experiments in the design process and are taught the state-of-the-art approaches in innovation-driven research.
The Master workshops serve as the programme’s experimental production platforms. In the context of an annual theme addressing pressing issues of societal change you develop effective solution approaches in the course of four one-week workshops. Each workshop is devoted to a Studio’s specific perspective.
In the Master projects you explore the creative interaction between imagination, reflection and expression. With regard to methodology you work on the projects alone or in teams, on the basis of self-initiative or following a project proposal offered by the respective Studios. The work provides an opportunity to express your skills at conception, design translation as well as critique.
The specialization module is linked to the project work in the respective Studios and allows you to conduct practical as well as theoretical investigations according to a specific project’s alignment.
Your MA thesis provides evidence of your ability to address complex issues by asking the right questions, to creatively and reflectively elaborate on the subject in a convincing manner, and defend the results of your work against critique. For your MA thesis you can choose between an emphasis on practical design and a theory-based work. The MA programme is concluded with the Master of Arts FHNW degree in Design and in the corresponding field of specialization.
MA graduates from the Institute Integrative Design | Masterstudio
work as holistic designers in the cultural industries or the commercial world of business
hold leading positions in full-service design agencies
establish start-ups in new fields of activity
follow a career as art and creative director
Organizational matters
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.
Application deadline: 15.07.2018 Submission of portfolio and letter of motivation: 06.08.2018 Admission interviews: 13.08.2018 bis 17.08.2018 Beginning of studies: 2018/19 | 17.09.2018
The registration form contains selection menus and is intended to be completed by computer. Download application form (PDF)
Download the registration form and complete it on the computer. You will send the printed and signed application form together with all the necessary documents in paper form to the postal address given in the form and at the same time by e-mail to info.iig.hgk@fhnw.ch. (Hand-completed or incomplete registration forms will not be accepted.)
Upon receipt of the registration form, you will receive a confirmation of receipt by e-mail.
Within three weeks of receiving your application you will be informed about the further procedure.
Insitute Integrative Design | Masterstudio
In research and teaching, the Institute Integrative Design | Masterstudio develops innovative design solutions in consideration of their social ramifications.
