Accessory Design

Bachelor programme

Facts

Duration of studies
6 semesters (180 ECTS)
Location
Design School Kolding
Application deadline

Quota 2: 15 March at 12.00 noon
Quota 1: 5 July at 12.00 noon

Entrance examination
Yes
Enrollment
September
Language of instruction
Danish

Why should I choose Accessory Design?

The Bachelor Programme in Accessory Design will provide you with tools to translate visual, sensual and factual information into concepts and objects that concern the relationship between identity, body and object.

As an accessory designer, you will design jewellery, handbags and footwear, not only with the purpose of designing objects with a functional and aesthetic relationship to the body and to the individual, but also objects that meet the individual's need for self-expression. It will be an educational and challenging experience that requires effort and commitment – in workshops, study spaces and during field work as well as in conversations with people outside the educational sphere. But there is still plenty of room to have fun!

What will I learn?

You will enter the programme with extensive creative experience and you already possess a high degree of competence. During your first year of study you will build on those skills through courses that will provide basic key competencies.

Your core as a designer is built on the basic disciplines of design: exploration, process, design, composition, colour and material understanding. You should be able to apply aesthetic tools in an intelligent and conscious manner and be adept at developing ideas and concepts. You will also be required to master the programmes Illustrator and InDesign in particular.

The programme includes a wide range of workshop disciplines that will train you in design. You will be taught traditional crafting techniques, including processing of metal, leather and fur. In addition, you will be working with digital tools such as scanning, 3D programmes, digital design and 3D printing. You will be making your mark on your own specific field of design, since certain elements of the courses are based on a framework that allows you to design footwear, jewellery or handbags, respectively.

Along the way you will also acquire a solid theoretical ballast, which will make you more conscious in your work as a designer and you will learn to work with design thinking. This is bound to spark your curiosity about the people and the problems that your design is addressing – expanding your horizon tremendously.

Finally, you will gain knowledge about the value added properties of design and thus the significance of design for business.

During the course of the study, you will meet the school's own, experienced teachers and guest lecturers from the industry who are going to be your employers after graduation. You will also have the opportunity to study at a design school abroad, which may offer courses within your specific area of interest.

What is the best way to learn?

The best way to learn design is by practicing it. Therefore virtually all courses consist of a certain amount of theory, methods, instruction and inspiration – and then lots of opportunities to design in practice.

The Accessory Design programme emphasises curiosity regarding the individual, its senses, body and identity as well as the currents in society. We translate this through explorations, experiments and processing of materials. Your design focus will be to transform your own and others' impressions into aesthetic expressions through visual means and through objects to wear on the body.

You will be working with physical materials and analogue techniques and thus absorb knowledge through your fingers, which will enable you to create designs with a different expression.

You will realise that you actually learn just as much from being curious and experimental as from listening and reading. Thus it is not always the end result that matters the most, but rather the process that made you smarter. And therefore you must be good at pushing yourself further than we are able to do in our teaching.

When you don’t have classes, you can work independently on your projects. You will have your own study space that you can decorate and personalise, and you are surrounded by your fellow students. There will also be group projects, where you can jointly collect knowledge within and about society. You will also learn from each other and hone your skills at the intricate art of collaboration, which will contribute to an enhanced design appreciation. The projects during the first couple of semesters will be limited and relatively simple, but further along in the programme they will become more challenging.

During the course of the study you will have the opportunity to join a study trip abroad and work with students from local educational institutions on common design projects. It is enormously exciting and worthwhile – also because each one of you arrives with his or her own background and culture. You will gain knowledge about the world and about yourself.

Design School Kolding is small enough that you can get to know most of your fellow students. We cultivate cross-disciplinary collaboration between the fields of study whenever it is meaningful, and you will find inspiration from areas you would never have imagined.

What job can I get?

Accessory design is a relatively broad field. The most obvious work is as an independent entrepreneur, working freelance or as a designer employed by brands within the domains of jewellery, footwear or handbags.

However, based on your basic skills as a designer, you will be able to work within a wide range of design disciplines. In terms of basic skills, you could focus on classic disciplines, where you can work with trend material, exhibitions and visual identities among other things. Your perception of how materials and objects stimulate our senses, as well as your understanding of form in relation to the body and also your ability to empathise with other people and their emotions could open up job opportunities in the healthcare sector, possibly with the design of prosthetic devices and other artefacts that extend the body with functions that the individual has lost or may never even have had.

You can also work directly with the method and process understanding embraced by design thinking. This could lead you along totally different paths, where you work, for example, in a more consultative role and guide other people through processes of strategy development or innovation. You could also become a design anthropologist who investigates user needs and pursues answers to social issues that others – or you yourself – can then work on.

So there is a plethora of job opportunities, but you need to be up-to-date and ambitious as far as your education is concerned and acquire the optimal skills within the area of design you find the most fascinating.

Galleri

Selected BA projects

Ba-projekter

Selected projects 1st year

Projekter

Udvalgte projekter på 2. år

Projekter

Selected projects 3rd year

Projekter

Værksteder

Udveksling

Important to know when you apply

There’s joint application and admittance to the Accessory Design and Industrial Design programmes and joint teaching during the 1st semester.

This is because the disciplines overlap in some fundamental aspects – and this way you will know which programme and specialisation matches your motivation and way of working, and be able to decide the direction for you, with the guidance of your teachers. 

Accessory Design and Industrial Design both focus on spatial sketching and formgiving using analogue and digital tools such as 3D computer design. At the same time you will be trained in developing concepts, products and business ideas, which are sustainable, commercially valid and socially responsible. 

Aesthetics and sensuousness characterise both disciplines, but where Accessory Design typically focuses on expressive and conceptual products with a direct relation to the body, for instance shoes, bags and jewellery, Industrial Design focuses more on functional products that relate to people in a wider contextual perspective, ranging from the utility items in your home such as lamps and electric kettles, to products applied in professional  contexts. This could be blood pressure monitors or equipment for the robotics industry. 

Admission

Do you dream of becoming a designer? Take the first step and apply for admission. The deadline is 15 March at 12 noon for quota 2 applicants and 5 July at 12 noon for quota 1 applicants. Apply via optagelse.dk 

PLEASE NOTE: The language of instruction is Danish

Ansøgning og optagelse

Studiehåndbogen

Programme Manager

Liv Johanne Eskholm was awarded an MA degree in Textile Design from Design School Kolding in 2007. Since then she has worked in the jewellery industry, both freelance and independantly and as part of a company's permanent staff. In 2015 she became part of Design School Kolding's Laboratory for Sustainability and Design where she works as a project manager and facilitator. The focus of the Lab is to help small and medium-sized companies create change through design thinking. Liv Johanne Eskholm is also head of programme for Accessory Design where she is responsible for the structure of the course curriculum.

Øvrige studieretninger

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