Product Design (Diploma)

Design permeates our everyday lives. No matter what people do, they are always accompanied by products: Whether as technical devices, industrial products, in the form of furniture, clothing, accessories or even analog and digital spaces and entire systems - design is omnipresent and is often responsible for how people structure their everyday lives, how they maintain social relationships and assign value to experiences.

Against this backdrop, the profession of designer has professionalized into a complex field of activity. In the past, the design of everyday objects was primarily a matter of tradition, but today it is considered a cultural technique that requires a wide range of skills. Inventiveness and craftsmanship are combined with a broad knowledge of materials, technologies, manufacturing processes and aesthetic developments - and last but not least, a critical knowledge of social, societal and political conditions is required! The Product Design course at the Kunsthochschule Kassel integrates all of these areas. In projects and seminars, students learn how things are designed, tested in prototypes and finally realized. They work closely with the professors on the course, have access to a variety of workshops and digital tools at the art academy and are thus given the opportunity to gradually develop their own ideas. An endowed professorship on the work of Lucius Burckhardt and a project professorship awarded annually to an outstanding international design personality complete the range of courses on offer.