Fundamentals Year 2

What will you learn?

You deepen your understanding of the design process. You combine your research ideas into a 'personal fascination' question and explore it across disciplines. Working in clear steps, you document your process and translate your findings into a tangible, communicative outcome.

The design process here has four phases: research, conceptualisation, materialisation and presentation. You choose between four programmes, each focused on a specific design expertise.

Keywords

Artistic research, design research, working methods, time based media, architecture and space, graphic design & 2D image, tactile materials. 

What will you learn?

You see how the possibilities and limitations of materials and techniques shape your choices in the design process. Moving through divergent and convergent phases, you develop a functional object, playing with and shaping the appearance of a material or surface. Through models, drawings, sketches and other media, you communicate your ideas and the technical aspects of your production process.

This semester you follow two courses. There are four programmes to choose from, each focused on one type of material and its specific properties and working methods. 

Keywords

Transformation, observation, imitation and interpretation, material, colour, skin and shape, associatively and intuitively, hands-on process, design for movement, material properties, sheet materials, functional products, different production techniques, creative solutions within a strict framework, specific context and user, test models 

What will you learn?

You learn to apply intersectional thinking, situating and critiquing your position as a designer in context. Through a theoretical design research process, you examine global structures and their impact on design histories and knowledge, and read critically how

layered conditions shape design practices. From there, you can articulate how these structures relate to your own work. 

Keywords

Confronting power structures, towards decolonisation, storytelling, worldbuilding, alternative counter-mapping, dictionary of empowerment, pushing design parameters, critically unpacking, pulling at the roots, imagining otherwise, sense of community, alliances, non-linear narratives, staying with troubles.

In semester 2, Design and Production Studies come together in a joint programme. 

What will you learn?

Within a given theme, you work on a project at the intersection of design and production, with a subject of your choice. You make design choices based on the possibilities and limitations of materials, production techniques and formal aspects of design, and develop your own visual language to fit your research outcome. You translate your hands-on research into a design for a realistic context. Together with collaborators, you work towards realisation. Finally, you present your design clearly. 

Keywords

Material agency, performative aspects of materials, graphic, spatial and social understanding of communication in the 2D- and 3D realm, visual communication in space, hands-on, symbiotic relation between materials and production techniques, experimentation with materials and techniques, curiosity, collaborating with peers, crossovers between different disciplines, positioning and presenting. 

What will you learn?

You develop a design research question and a research methodology, situating and critiquing your positionality as a designer. You apply this in your design practice, working with practical research methods and considering decolonial alternatives. Based on your research interests, you build interdisciplinary collaborations with domains outside the design field, expanding your network. Throughout, you take ownership of your process. 

Keywords

Confronting power structures, towards decolonisation, storytelling, research question, personal research methods, collecting, publication, pushing design parameters, critically unpacking, pulling at the roots, imagining otherwise, sense of community, alliances, design collaborations, non-linear narratives, staying with troubles, the self as site of knowledge.