Facts
Communication Design
Communication Design connects not only with the school’s key values (social inclusion, sustainability, and cultural diversity), but also with its mission to create sustainable futures. All communication requires at least two people. In traditional media theory described as sender and receiver.
During your study the main subjects are: how to inform in an objective way – to improve communication by strategy – to bring awareness or change behavior, or how to deliver an holistic service or experience by interaction.
To load design effectively with value, the programme focuses on the post concept phase: strategy, validation and framing. That’s of course, beside the well known pre-concept phase: research, analysing/synthesising and idea generation.
During the BA study you will explore: drawing, sketching, notation, writing, storyboarding, coding, prototyping, amongst others. The analogue, ánd the digital. Conventional, time based, and new media.
If the bachelor is to broaden, the master is to deepen in either Social Design (including Welfare Design), Sustainability & Design, Play & Design, or Management & Design (in collaboration with the University of Southern Denmark).
We are aware of the blurring boundaries between design disciplines and are encouraging cross disciplinary research.
Since Communication Design is a global collaborative workshop, we position you at the centre, and encourage each of you to develop distinctive profiles by exploring specific individual competences. We expect you to be curious, empathic, and communicative.
Teaching methods
Teaching at Design School Kolding can take many different forms, all according to the discipline, the specific content and the actual design discipline. You learn to work independently, in teams and on projects with your own and shared design assignments. Much of the teaching is practical and geared towards specific design projects, but you will also become acquainted with lectures, seminars and more theoretical processes.
Design School Kolding has a number of open labs/workshops which play an active role in the teaching. This is where students experiment with design and develop their own working methods.
Cross-disciplinary teaching
At Design School Kolding we educate designers to become specialists within their field and to collaborate across fields. You will have joint courses in e.g. drawing, chromatology, design methodology, aesthetics and science studies. You will learn to communicate your competences and get a basic business understanding.
Project work
Central to the teaching at Design School Kolding is project work. Every year, the students complete a number of design projects, which are either set for them or of their own choosing. In connection with these projects, instruction is given in the specific design disciplines, techniques and theories. Initially, the projects are relatively simple and clearly defined, becoming increasingly complex and cohesive as the programme progresses. The students complete the projects individually, in collaboration with other students on the same design programme, in interdisciplinary teams and/or in collaboration with companies. In their project-related instruction, the teachers act both as teachers in the traditional sense and as personal advisers/mentors for individual students. The longer the students' course of study, the more responsibility they have for deriving the optimum benefit from the teaching, and the more they will see the teacher as a consultant and adviser.
Business collaborations and internships
During the course of their studies, there will be many opportunities for students to collaborate with companies as part of their education. Business collaborations provide students with the opportunity to work under conditions and with issues that actually exist in the design professional’s world. In other words, business collaboration can lend substance to a student’s CV which, after graduation, can help to ensure solid, academically relevant employment.
From the company’s viewpoint, a design student can provide the enterprise with new knowledge and inspiration, including fostering innovation and talent development.
At Design School Kolding, practical experience (internship) is an obligatory element of the BA programme. Internship is included because it works – students who participate have an easier time finding a job after they have completed their education. An internship is an ideal way for you as a student to learn about the industry or the area you dream of working in. You can also use the internship to establish contacts and network with people in the industry that may prove invaluable later.
Internationalisation
Design School Kolding has a global outlook and we have outposts in both Brazil and China where you can work with local students and companies. The work is project-oriented and you will learn to work with global issues across cultural differences.
You will be able to participate in international masterclasses and camps in Kolding with students from leading international design schools.
At Design School Kolding you will experience a diverse setting with an international visiting faculty and international students.
Head of Subject
Stephan Saaltink (1953) holds a degree from the Academie voor Beelden Kunsten in Arnhem. He has an outstanding career as a typographic and editorial designer. He started Typography & Other Serious Matters in Rotterdam, and worked at Total Design, the famous Corporate Identity agency in Amsterdam. He joined a leading Dutch newspaper (NRC Handelsblad) and a magazine (Vrij Nederland) and introduced two typefaces, Lexicon (Bram den Does) and Capitolium (Gerard Unger), to a bigger audience. Most recently he has been the vice of the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and a visiting scholar at Western Michigan University i Kalamazoo USA. Stephan Saaltink has been Head of Communication Design since 2014.
