Integrated Design (M.A.)

The teaching area 3D Design – Products and Systems is dedicated to the analysis, development and design of the three-dimensional, human-made environments and artefacts, regardless of whether they are for private or industrial use, whether they are analog or digital. The focus is not on the products themselves, but on the relationships between people and products and between products and the environment. 

The teaching area promotes critical and complex thinking in structures and qualifies you to create solutions not only on a product level, but also on a meta or system level.

Images communicate differently than text. Moving images communicate differently than still images. Time-based media, moving images and sound have their own set of rules governing time, movement and montage. On the one hand, the everyday presence of digital media has given us a strong intuitive sense and awareness of how moving images work. On the other hand, however, we are also subject to the hypnotic pull that films can create, causing us to forget our surroundings.

In digital and online media, images, written language, speech, music, sound and noise enter into new relationships with one another. Designers and artists must sometimes incorporate viewer interaction into their concepts.

The specialisation in Moving Image seeks a contemporary artistic approach to the medium. The central concern is to make the creative aspects of the dimensions of time, movement and sound tangible, to gain an understanding of the medium’s power and to understand its hidden codes. By combining creative/artistic conception with experimental use of technology, students gain decision-making skills in the complex field of new media. In practice, they should be able to communicate and represent their creativity and professional competence in collaboration with technical experts. We do not work with a specific technology, but use the entire range of analogue and digital working methods.

In basic courses, you will create practical film experiments and mini-films that deal with the phenomenology and design possibilities of movement, time and the montage of image and sound. In advanced modules and in the Master’s programme, you will develop independent projects. These can be in different film genres and formats (or hybrid forms of these formats), such as documentary film, essay film, short film, experimental film, music video or video installation.

In addition to the practical work, theoretical input events take place in parallel to the courses. In a broader context, the development of the media and their influence on our perception of everyday life are critically examined.

Information will follow soon.

The study programme Photography is based on the photographic image and the phenomena connected to it. Its expression must be convincing and formulate a credible statement. It is irrelevant whether the photographic image describes or interprets the space between the author of an image and the world abstractly or concretely, symbolically or semiotically.

The ‘fundamentals of design’ are neither existing, ready-made knowledge nor specific skills. Rather, they are about enabling learners to conduct independent research in the field of form development.

Starting from a given task, a wide variety of design options are explored in different directions. To do this, students must formulate their own questions. This means selecting a small, representative area from the infinite number of possible forms. This section of a space of possibilities must now be explored and formulated in detail in terms of design, i.e. made tangible and visible by means of models and drawings. The aim is to independently develop procedures for generating a sequence of interrelated forms. In addition, students should train their ability to compare these forms on an aesthetic level.

It is important to train the ability to oscillate back and forth between a playful, intuitive approach and a rational, analytical approach. Often, it is the playful mode that creates breadth, while the analytical mode enables depth. Of course, it is also necessary to learn the vocabulary required for describing form and to expand and deepen the associated concept of form.

Operating freely between the different directions in the disciplines of visual communication and fine arts, Illustration at the HfK Bremen pursues a multidisciplinary approach, which ranges from advertising, editorial and book illustration to comics and animation to sculpture, painting, installation, film and performance. We practice a wide range of technical exploration, from the archaic origins of drawing to the most sophisticated digital techniques, but always remain grounded in the art of analogue drawing. The subject is taught with a focus on a professional career or further studies in the field, also with regard to illustrative qualities in relation to related subjects in the field of art and design. 

As a study programme, Interaction Design is dedicated to the design of digital and digital-analog ‘interfaces’ between people and technology, data, objects and spaces. 

The increasing digitalisation of our world and the associated, continuous transfer and transformation of human actions into the digital sphere create completely new challenges and potential for designers. 

Communication is a breath-taking, creative world full of energy that needs holistic attention at every moment. A meaningful space of creative thinking and making, research and application in the context of social developments. What that means? Find ideas. Passionate. Unconventional. Develop strategies that create identification. Feeling expression and identity, making it aesthetically visible and tangible – individually and collectively. The process challenges us and requires sensitivity, judgment and intuition. Visual communication must be open – for the unknown, for communication and change. With and for people. With character. Do it and experience responsibility and design.

Geometry is one of the fundamental subjects taught in classical design education in art, architecture, graphic design and design. For over 5,000 years, knowledge and insights gained from geometry have been applied in almost all areas of design. Geometric skills are therefore essential for analysing and understanding existing concepts and developing new ones. Training and practice in spatial awareness and constructive drawing provide a rational basis for navigating the products of the past, present and future.

Research focuses on the connections between geometry relevant to design, architecture, graphic design and art

• Geometric design methods
• Centre curves
• Conic sections
• Transformation studies
• Dynamic geometry, motion studies
• Perspective – the geometry of vision
• Form development from developable surfaces
• Free triangulation and polyhedron development
• Geometry in surface, space and time

Laboratory Creation and Practical Project/Open Chamber are teaching formats in which larger performance projects are developed in conjunction with music, theatrical means and installation. 

The aim is to deepen and conceptually use the body, gestures and objects in design projects that are located at the interface of music, new media, composition, performance and the cultural scene.

As a field of teaching, ‘General Sciences’ combines all courses on the theory and history of art, design, media, aesthetics, and philosophy. The offerings address the arts in their entirety: phenomena from high & low culture, from prehistoric to postmodern, from analog to digital, are analysed and reflected upon. Traditions of critical thinking and perception are also integral parts of the courses – with a focus on critiquing colonialism and diversity, sensitive to identities and gender, as well as fostering awareness of ecological and climate awareness.

Students on all study programmes within the Faculty of Art and Design attend these courses together, across semesters. Five professorships and rotating teaching assignments offer an interdisciplinary and interculturally oriented curriculum that allows students to make choices according to their own interests.

The various focus areas offer foundations of historical and contemporary knowledge and overviews that deliberately go beyond the Eurocentric-Western tradition, incorporate global and transcultural perspectives, and are particularly oriented towards understanding and deepening awareness of contemporary art and culture.

‘Clothes have much more important functions than just keeping us warm; they change our view of the world and the world’s view of us.’ Orlando – novel by Virginia Woolf, published in 1928

Today, the creation of clothing has developed into a multi-tonal, complex phenomenon of interpersonal communication, transcending gender and generations, universal in the self and in the collective. Clothing, jewellery, hairstyles and cosmetics are among the traditional surfaces of fashion design. Bodybuilding, body shaping, body forming, trivial works of art such as tattoos, piercings and branding bring the deeper layers of the self to the surface. Clothing is our second skin; fashion performs our extended self. Fashion with which a person can identify. While function and utility are generally at the forefront of clothing, the messages conveyed by fashion always have a deeper meaning. Developing fashion therefore means understanding the fundamental values of interpersonal communication and transferring these insights into your own design themes.

The practical process of model development is the top priority in teaching: How can two-dimensional fabric be transformed into three-dimensional body architectures using different methods? Further development steps include: an aesthetically independent view of the diversity of human representation within the framework of multifaceted cultural worlds. Equally important is the conscious choice of materials and materiality, which goes hand in hand with the integration of new technologies in view of dwindling resources, sustainability and recycling.

The basic course, which can also be taken as a cooperative course, involves creative exercises experimenting with form, material and colour. However, priority is given to the relationship to the body and body-related products. Methods and strategies for finding ideas and designs are tested analogously and digitally in 2D and 3D. Based on research exercises, the results are discussed and evaluated together.

In advanced courses, students experience a complete design process in individual or team projects, from research to specific implementation in the workshops. Depending on their previous experience, they create realistic one-to-one models or prototypes, as well as experimental collections including accessories. The projects can take place in internal or external collaborations. Ideally, the courses are accompanied by a coordinated programme of theory and science.

In the Master’s programme, all study projects are individually supervised. The aim is to develop and consolidate an independent creative identity. On the one hand, in-depth specialisation in fashion is encouraged, for example in model development, collection design or the conception of an own label. On the other hand, individual project supervision aims to forge new links between disciplines and fields of activity, such as the interdisciplinary positioning of fashion with various interfaces and opportunities for cooperation with other forms of design such as product, space, still and moving images, illustration, graphics or performance.

Fashion is constantly renewing itself and can react quickly to social developments and events. In this dynamic system, a strong and critical attitude, sustainable action and comprehensive theoretical, visual and practical research are fundamental. This results in individual concepts, relevant contexts and complex design processes. Knowledge of textile materials and the corresponding processing or manipulation also has a decisive influence on the design of body-hugging products and two-dimensional patterns.

The Product Design/CAD department accompanies the entire product development process, from the initial task definition to implementation.

The quality of a product is assessed based on its practical and product-related functions in relation to the stresses and strains to which it is subjected. Sustainability and economic aspects therefore play just as important a role as formal aesthetic considerations, for example.

An understanding of natural sciences, technologies and materiality is necessary in order to develop products that can actually be realised beyond the conceptual stage. This naturally requires accompanying tools, such as CAD programmes, and manual skills, such as drawing and model making. Students must have an aptitude for these factors.

Courses are usually supported by workshop leaders in their practical implementation. Particular emphasis is placed on manual and computer-aided design and model making, including digital manufacturing techniques, as well as in the wood, metal and ceramics workshops.

Cooperation projects with other universities, institutes and companies take place regularly, allowing students to gain realistic practical experience, engage in professional exchange and expand their personal networks.

Students who participate in the interrelated courses in the Product Design/CAD department should be able to independently develop complex three-dimensional products as authors or service-providing product designers.

The study programme Professionalisation offers teaching on the basics of economic existence and reflections on the framework conditions of the creative industries, promoting key skills and building professional networks as well as the future viability of the design professions. The aim is to develop the ability for independent and economically sustainable positioning in the contexts of choice.

With the aim to critically reflect space as a temporary category, the interdisciplinary field Temporary Spaces deals with historical, political, social, technological, and aesthetic aspects of spatial production. Beyond disciplinary conventions and medial boundaries, this area of teaching engages in practices that include experimentation with space, in different scales, from urban interventions to video, installations, performances, objects, models, sound, and text. Based on research into critical, feminist and queer theories, architecture history, socialist architectural utopias, as well as ancient philosophy, the projects in the field of Temporary Spaces develop reflexive aesthetic experiences.

Typography makes language legible and influences the message of a text, whereby the term ‘legible’ must be constantly renegotiated. In this respect, typography is a powerful tool and is critically reflected upon at the HfK. The expressive possibilities of typography are constantly being developed and expanded. Contemporary experiments in the field of typography respond to the complex needs of global, intermedial communication and inclusive areas of application as well as the use of different writing systems. At the HfK, type is moved, digital, three-dimensional, knitted, drawn, painted, printed and developed in various interdisciplinary contexts. The media used are just as diverse as the projects and depend on the respective context. With regard to language and type, Editorial Design is an area at the HfK in which the interactions between text and image in print, digital and hybrid areas are researched. The examination of the history of typography, which is closely linked to the respective tools used or technological developments, as well as to societal, political and social changes, is integrated into the respective workshop and project programmes.

The focus of the teaching area is on enabling students to act effectively in design processes of a wide variety of orientations. A core element of this is designing with experimental drawing methods and strategies. Drawing = designing encompasses classic drawing in the broadest sense – analogue and digital, collage-like and also in an extension of 2D sketching into 3D and 4D. Through the act of drawing, ideas are generated, recorded, refined, discussed and communicated. This can be applied to all disciplines, even if the focus here is on people, their clothing/fashion and body-related products.

Another focus is on collection development and collection design, with increasing complexity in line with experience and, where possible, with the development of the students’ own materials. In addition to individual projects, students’ creative identities are challenged and encouraged in simulations of realistic work situations in teams (common projects) or in collaborative projects with external partners. The aim is to find out who you are, what you stand for and what your work stands for – and also to be able to recognise and name what you have to offer.

Fashion presentations and performances, fashion publications, exhibition and shop design/visual merchandising are often created in cross-course projects in and with various related disciplines. Ultimately, these not only generate publicity for your own work, but also sharpen your understanding of your own work during the development process, through exchange, external evaluation and new contextualisation. Ideally, the role of fashion as an influential platform in culture and society is also understood and used in a forward-looking way.

Cooperation projects at the interface with product design on topics such as material design, textile interiors or shoe/sneaker design challenge students to respond flexibly to more specific challenges and to acquire the necessary technical skills independently.

Teaching in Drawing can be roughly divided into three categories. In specific teaching situations, these categories often come into play simultaneously. 

Aesthetics and perception
This is about developing an understanding of visual perception and the representational and affective function of lines, surfaces, drawn objects and space. 

Artistic experiences and skills
Drawing is also a craft. When drawing, illustrators rely on their own implicit and embodied knowledge. They develop this knowledge through frequent drawing. 

Conceptual and responsible work 
An attempt is made to create a framework in which students can consistently develop their work.