B.A. Product Design and M.A. Design Futures in the Industrial Design department
The Folkwang University of the Arts is one of the largest art and music universities in Germany, offering courses in music, theater, dance, design and science. The Department of Design is located in the city of Essen on the grounds of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein and offers courses in the fields of product design, communication design and photography.
The B.A. Product Design and M.A. Design Futures courses understand design and artistic processes as a place of transformative material and social possibilities. Design is understood as an attitude and as a tool that enables students to critically engage with the complexities of our world and to intervene in them through design.
Increasingly complex global challenges demand greater professional flexibility and mobility, conceptual, strategic and interdisciplinary thinking and action from future product designers. We therefore see design as a process that leads to the generation of innovations by bringing disciplines together. The aim is to train creative personalities - with generalist professionalism and specific expertise in product design and with solid competence in the independent implementation of design processes.
Through the "Space for Sustainability by Design", which was created in the department in 2023 and with which the university was awarded and is funded as an "Innovative University" by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Joint Science Conference, a special focus of teaching and research is on sustainability through resource-conserving and circular design. (Website: https://sbyd.space / Instagram: @sbyd.space)
Applications for the BA Product Design and MA Design Futures degree courses can be submitted annually by March 15 to start in the winter semester (from October).
Website of the degree programs: https://id.folkwang-uni.de
Instagram: @folkwang_id