You can study Industrial Design and Transportation Design as a bachelor or master student at the Braunschweig University of Art:
Conventional perceptions of the design profession are currently undergoing dramatic alteration. Digital design and implementation technologies have expanded the process of product development considerably. Needless to say, modelling and visualisation are likewise affected, and furthermore, it is observable that the profession is splitting off into two different directions: On the one hand, boundaries between formerly specific vocations are becoming increasingly indefinite as qualifications become more universal, while on the other hand, the demand for experts with evermore exact specialisations is growing in many sectors. The HBK confronts these developments with a B.A. programme especially adapted to these developments.
The HBK supports an extended definition of design; an understanding of industrial design not just in terms of conventional technical expertise, but also in terms of critical reflection and the studied analysis of meanings in the object world and its systems in relation to society. More and more, industrial design entails immaterial processes, which naturally places an emphases on the conceptual aspects of design and development.
Degree Structure
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The B.A. makes it possible for students to receive a vocationally qualifying university degree after six semesters. In addition, students select either transportation design, communication design, time-based media, or media studies as a minor subject, and thus complete their studies with a comprehensive degree profile. The knowledge and skills students acquire during their bachelor studies makes them more than able to carry out design projects independently. Furthermore, B.A. graduates qualify for enrolment in post-secondary programmes such as the master's degree in transportation design at the HBK.
Study Content
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Industrial Design studies at the HBK are organised into complementary focus areas: draft and design & technique and reference theory. In the primary stages of this degree, particularly the concrete aspects of the design process are focused upon in lectures and seminars. Higher semesters involve exceedingly complex impromptu design tasks and long term project work, which prepares students for the rigours of the bachelor exam. Professional design competence is brought to a level of academic-technical dexterity as students deal with real-world design issues in project work. Project components are accompanied by courses where students become versed in prevalent drafting and design techniques, and students are systematically imparted with implementation and presentation skills throughout the programme.
Students learn to use the tools of the design trade, not only in computer aided modelling courses, but also by means of hands on experience in the university's carpentry, metal and plastics facilities. Technical knowledge (e.g. construction, material science, electronics) receives equal attention at the HBK, not only during the bachelor programme, but also as part of the master. Courses revolving around the sciences and theories related to design, such as methodology, copyright law, economics, design history, communication research, and psychology, make up the third column of the HBK's Industrial Design programme. The goal behind this aspect of the degree is the imparting of reflective and systematic competencies, which help students in citing current research issues during project conception, and which will also prove indispensable in facing the everyday challenges posed to professional designers.
Studying step by step
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In addition to being introduced to the methods, theories, and tools of industrial design, and attending seminars on psychology and sociology, students generally spend their first year acquiring art-technical core competencies and software dexterity. Students first begin a minor subject in their 3rd semester, and are free to choose between a minor in Transportation Design, Communication Design, or Time-based Media. Usually, students complete the minor subject by the 6th semester, which allows them time to focus on their main subject as they approach the conclusion of their degree. The final semesters are comprised of fewer course obligations, thus appropriate time is set aside for the draft and design of the bachelor examination project.
Admissions
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The number of students that are admitted into the industrial design bachelor programme is limited and studies only commence in the fall term of each year. Applicants need to either provide proof of completed secondary schooling, or evidence of working art practice that would qualify them for successful industrial design studies. On the premise that these requirements are fulfilled, candidates then take part in an examination to determine the level of their artistic capabilities. This examination takes place once every summer semester, and the minimum age for participation is 16. Currently, it is not necessary to have completed schooling in order to participate in the entry examination. Foreign students are additionally required to pass a German language proficiency test, which is officially recognized by German universities.
Important Note: Please check out the deadline for applications here. A noteworthy portion of the application process is the portfolio of original artworks created solely by the applicant. Applicants can consult professors about their artwork before they submit a portfolio, and can make such arrangements through the main office by contacting the design department's main office.
Applicants are advised to bring a wide selection of artwork to a consultation.
Design influences our daily lives as much as social and technological changes. As a future oriented discipline it is permanently subject to change. The process of design changes and new techniques are added regularly. Furthermore design is the ultimate tool for innovative processes. Creative professionals not only design new products but also give the consumers guidelines for the values of tomorrow’s world. Designers are expected to have creative competence, to play a mediating role between various disciplines and to form design processes.
The Masters Degree Course for Industrial Design at the Braunschweig University of Art requires students to closely examine the future. This course which lasts for 4 terms encourages students to deal with and look at design in a critical way. It helps to mould students into independent and decisive personalities. This course starts in the summer term 2010 and includes the disciplines design, design science, engineering and social sciences.
Our understanding for design is shaped by our regard for social and technical-economical requirements and the demand for the competence in reducing complexity in design. This includes the design of systems and services as well as products. One aim, but not the only one, of design work is to come up with unusual and exciting products of a high aesthetic quality. The Master Study Course also offers the opportunity to continue work on projects with the focus on mobility as well as individual research projects within the subject of Industrial Design. The focus on mobility has for years been the focal point of training in Braunschweig. The Institute for Transportation Design, a research institute of the HBK, is responsible for the Masters Degree. Since the year 2007 researchers have looked into the future to see what types of mobility will be available then. A team of designers, sociologists, psychologists and engineers investigate how new concepts of mobility could be designed. What demands do designers of the future need to take into account in order to design vehicles and services that in the long run will satisfy the globally growing demand for mobility? What demands does our future society have? What ecological conditions are going to influence the designs of the future? What technological advances can be taken into account? In short: how are we going to live in the year 2030?
Hence, every project, every design research project and every design concept not only requires a technical solution but also an answer to socioscientific and economical questions. Without those solutions no sustainable products can be designed. Here the ITD with its multi-professional team offers an exciting cooperation and experienced help with the inter-disciplinary finishing process of projects.
The lecturers of the Masters Degree Course teach this holistic approach to design that can have a reference to mobility but can also contain other references as well. The HBK understands design as an alternating communication process that demands a high methodical competence. The course teaches this and builds on the skills and tools that the students have already acquired. The demand of this scientific and inter-disciplinary study concept is to turn designers into "pilots of the future" who can initiate innovative processes and become creative managers for tomorrow’s world.
For further information: Admissions Office
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