Master of Arts Integrated Design
Master's programme (4 semesters)
This programme is tailored to enable students to develop their own distinct position, while also equipping them with the necessary professional expertise. Thematic studios coupled with interdisciplinary and experimental research help students to hone their individual focus in the wide-ranging fields of Fashion, Product and Communication Design.
Overview of modules
Master's-Studios
Master’s Studio: “Culture and identity – imagery and text as cultural practices”
Supervisors: Prof. Andrea Rauschenbusch, Prof. Peter Bialobrzeski (10/2012—4/2021) / Gastprof. Andreas Herzau (SoSe 2021)
In this Master’s Studio the dialogue between images and text provides the foundation for the critical exploration and development of aesthetic strategies for photography and visual communication. Within a framework of applied research and experimentation, students participating in this studio will discuss and develop artistic strategies, aesthetic qualities and visual concepts focussed around forms of narration, communication and publishing across a range of media extending from the artist’s book to corporate communications.
The tasks and projects undertaken by participants in the context of this studio, which will feature intercultural elements as well as team and solo work, will also provide students with a framework to reflect upon their roles and abilities as independent designers and photographers within the social, political and economic contexts of their professional activity.
A blend of creative, conceptual, and practical work will form the basis for the development of independent research projects / case studies.
http://cultureandidentity.hfk-bremen.de/
Master’s Studio: “Fashion, Society, and the Individual”
Supervisors: Prof. Kai Lehmann, Prof. Dorothea Mink, Prof. Ursula Zillig
Social function and narrative fiction meet in contemporary fashion as it explores, interprets and redefines both generational and gender identities. Located at the intersections of art, design and everyday life, this Master’s Studio is an interdisciplinary trend laboratory; a platform that bridges the gap between markets, media, and fashion discourses. Promoting an approach to fashion design – from apparel to accessory design – that is both independent and experimental, we will develop new strategies for the human body and its effective contexts. This programme will range from experimental to pattern design and collection development; and from men’s fashion through to interdisciplinary forms and formats of presentation. This Master’s Studio will provide students with close personal support as they develop their creative identities and prepare for professional practice.
Master’s Studio: “System and Interaction”
Supervisors: Prof. Detlef Rahe, Prof. Tanja Diezmann
The Masterstudio System + Interaction in the Integrated Design Program at HfK Bremen is dedicated to the design of complex analogue and digital systems as well as intercation and between people and systems.
The world is becoming increasingly complex, which produces a high impact on the processes for the design, development and use of products and systems. The design of processes, structures and interactions is decisive for the applicability and satisfaction of use and users, for the recipients and actors.
The aim of a deep discussion and new creation of systems and their structures as well as related interaction processes are not products or systems per se, but their design and effect on humans as well as participation in and the sovereign utilization of systems.
The Masterstudio System + Interaction concentrates on the research, analysis, conception and design of interaction processes and media in complex structures and processes. Spatial, architectural, technical and digital systems as well as social, procedural and programmatic structures are just as important.
In the studio we train and delevlop:
- critical reflection
- fact-based analysis and research
- creative design and design strategies
- design methods
- presentation, documentation and simulation
- moderation of complex individual and team-projects
In the 4-semester master program, realistic and practically relevant projects (often in cooperation with partners and project providers) alternate with visionary and free projects in order to promote the interaction of individual interests and the public-orientated future design with reference to real societal, technological, social or ecological conditions.
Special attention is paid to the Human Factors and User Experience. Interaction, cognition, ergonomics, user behavior and identity, as well as social, communicative and ethical aspects form the basis of a human-oriented design.
Applicants for the studio should have a strong interest in and experience with complex products or systems. As designers or 'creative problem solvers' they have a high degree of sociocultural awareness and aesthetic flair as well as an independent critical design attitude. Applicants should develop the ability to work together and teamwork, to lead and organize working groups in science or practice and to solve challenging design projects for the future.
The Studio is driven by:
Prof Tanja Diezmann | Interaction Design
Prof Detlef Rahe | 3-dim. Design, products and systems
Website Master´s Studio System and Interaction (formerly "System and Structure"):
School of Visual Combinations
Supervisors: Prof. Tania Prill (Typography), Olav Westphalen (Drawing)
The Master Studio School of Visual Combinations is an interdisciplinary research and development studio that opens up the areas of typography, drawing, editorial design and publishing, which we teach as focal points at the HfK, to try out new languages in both digital and analogue fields. In doing so, we experiment with the means of communication media available to us today in order to test and create meaningful content connections of visual design possibilities.
In the course of today’s technological development and the general availability of our means of communication, language and image systems are emerging which respond to global networking and multilingualism. Text and image enter into different relationships with each other: instead of a written communication, a predominantly iconic understanding will develop. In order to bring these novel systems into harmony with those that already exist, an understanding of how the increased technological complexity determines the capacity for abstraction of our perception is required.
In dealing with the Internet and social media we are confronted with generative processes of language systems and the production of image content. This circumstance influences our intuitive understanding of pictorial representations. We are required to develop an understanding of the communication intentions behind algorithmic systems and to critically question them.
The Master’s programme School of Visual Combinations offers a cooperation with all courses in the field of integrated design, liberal arts and digital media at the HFK Bremen.
Master’s Studio: “9D”
Supervisors: Prof. Asli Serbest, Prof. Samuel Nyholm, Prof. Beat Brogle
