Design, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts (Art and Design)

Design is not linked purely physical objects but digital experiences and abstract concepts as well, enhancing its power to shape the world. Embracing these opportunities, the Bachelor’s Programme in Design prepares students for designing future products, services and systems in a creative and critical manner. The programme also provides students foundation to define themselves as creative professionals throughout their studies, each finding their own ways of working and direction when exploring problems, developing solutions and forming opportunities.

Upon graduating from the programme, students are able to:

• identify and generate material, interactive and speculative responses to future phenomena in society from a reflective design practitioner perspective.
• recognize and apply emerging tools and practices for design and digital media, as well as participate in the construction of new ones.
• create commercial, public and self-initiated proposals in relation to personal and societal values and evaluate and discuss the broader impact of their work.
• plan, execute and organize their own professional practice within transdisciplinary conditions with a variety of stakeholders.
• document their own work processes and results in both visual and textual form and contextualize it in relation to existing information sources and research.

After completing their bachelor studies, students also are admitted the right to continue their studies in one of the five majors on the master’s level offered by the Department of Design and Department of Art and Media that are associated with the programme.

Major Description

The Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture is one of the most prestigious design schools in the world and the leading design school in Northern Europe. The Bachelor’s Programme in Design builds on the ethos of Finnish and Scandinavian design: developing solutions that are human-centred, societally relevant and environmentally conscious. Drawing from this Nordic approach to design and media education, students are encouraged to find their own identities, ways of working and professional niche as designers. Graduates have:

• A professional worldview. Graduates are highly context-sensitive, asking what, how, and particularly why, as they propose new directions for how to shape the world around them.
• Unique and personal professional identities. Graduates carve out their own identities and creative ways of working as designers and media professionals.
• Comprehensive design and media toolboxes. Graduates are trained to use contemporary tools, methods and processes for design as well as conduct research in design and media.
• Ideation and prototyping skills. Graduates generate strong ideas, are able to bring them into life and materialise their solutions regardless if they are approaching or embracing business, cultural or societal problems or opportunities.
• Expertise and knowledge of design in different areas. Graduates are trained to work with the design of creative products, services, systems and the synthesis of all three.
• Teamwork, co-creation and facilitation skills. Graduates thrive in working with different people, cultures and world views, enabling them to pursue a variety of professional careers.
• Impact consciousness. Graduates are informed about their responsibility to respect sustainability, the environment and social values in their design.

Upon graduation from the Bachelor’s Programme in Design, graduates will have a strong foundation to reflect the world and shape it for the better: figuring out what could be, proposing how it could be, and explaining why it should be.

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