Design for Play

MA Programme / focus area

Choosing your focus area

In the Master's programme, you take the expertise from your bachelor's degree as your starting point. We work based on the following 5 subject areas:

  • Accessory Design
  • Communication Design
  • Fashion Design
  • Industrial Design
  • Textile Design

In your application you must choose the subject area in which you wish to advance and develop your design projects, as you will receive professional sparring, guidance and be challenged on your practical skills within that specific subject area.

Along with your choice of subject area, we ask you to choose between 3 thematic focus areas:

  • Social design (Design for People)
  • Sustainability and design (Design for Planet)
  • Play and design (Design for Play)

The focus areas are a unique opportunity to link and develop your subject area and your learning to topics and industries that you are passionate about and see yourself contributing to in the future.

Below you can read more about what to expect if you choose Design for Play as your focus area.

Why should I choose Design for Play?

Design for Play is for students who like to explore new paths and challenge themselves and others through playful experiences.

You will become a frontrunner for new ways of designing in a society and job market that is increasingly requiring more and better creative competences, and where more than half the jobs needed in the future are not even invented yet.

The programme was established with the LEGO Foundation and the LEGO Group and is the world’s first, exclusive two-year international Master’s Degree programme within Design for Play.

Students from all of the school's own bachelor programmes as well as students from other disciplines will be accepted provided they meet the admission criteria by showing design understanding and technical/creative design skills equivalent to the level of a bachelor’s degree in design.

What will I learn?

The Design for Play programme introduces you to the concept of play in relation to design.

You will experience play as a motivational factor in design and development processes and get to design meaningful play experiences for people of all ages.  

The programme enables you to build on your basic design discipline and design for play using current and relevant knowledge and various tools, methods and approaches.

You will have the opportunity to learn to:

  • analyse, identify and design specific play experiences
  • use play to support development, learning and experiences 
  • design relevant play as seen from a children’s and user perspective
  • be aware of different play cultures
  • develop and intervene in processes using a playful approach
  • work with play systematically and through research and theory 

You will learn to work in cross-disciplinary groups and on various levels with external partners, companies, organisations and the public sector to ensure a high degree of relevance. 

The Design for Play curriculum is qualified with the help of leading international institutions such as Stanford, MIT and Cambridge.

Courses

The courses support and expand on the knowledge, competences and skills that you bring from your BA training

Click the course titles below to read more and see examples of student projects. 
To view the formal course descriptions, use the link "Curriculum and course descriptions".

Play Experiences
An introduction to the field of play in relation to the design of new products and services that provides play experiences.

Applied Play
Addresses the field of play as a catalyst for acquiring specific knowledge, skills or new behaviours, in the field of learning, sustainability, healthcare, etc.

Child-Centred Design
Focusing on designing play from the perspective of children, including understanding child development, child culture and co-creation processes with children.

Playing with Futures
Proposes play as a mode of speculating and applies critical design and speculative design to create prototypes that make us reconsider our current world and the futures we want to design for.

Play-based Intrapreneurship
Focuses on the effects on introducing play into the processes of companies and organisations in form of interventions, to increase engagement, collaboration, creativity and innovation.

Deep Research
Exploring design research through qualitative research methods like fieldwork and design experiments to contribute with new knowledge within the field of design in form of a written academic paper.

How will I learn?

The instructors at Design for Play are highly qualified Danish and foreign personalities with experience from research and practice and with a broad professional spectrum and substantial interest in and knowledge about play.

The instruction comprises class teaching, lectures, group work, workshop instruction, supervision and project work. You will learn alongside fellow students of different design backgrounds, languages, cultures and nationalities, which reflects the world you will engage with after your studies.

The courses are completed in close relation with organisations and companies, including The LEGO Foundation and The LEGO Group, in various forms of collaborations.

The instruction focuses on play, development, engagement and co-creation with different users and stakeholders to support the playful human being throughout the process as well as the final design.

The programme is one of a kind. It is based on Scandinavian design and an international outlook. We regularly invite national and international researchers, play heroes and design practitioners in to teach to make sure the programme is relevant and diverse.

Why is Design for Play important?

Design for Play puts play on the agenda and educates ambassadors who can help open the eyes of the world to the value design.

Play supports creativity and innovation, and therefore at Design School Kolding we design play, we design for play and we design with play.

Play helps release human potentials, which contributes to the artistic dimensions of design. Along with technical skills and user and business understanding this makes us able to produce better solutions and meaningful products, services and systems.

At Design School Kolding we design through play, and we design possibilities for people and communities to unfold.

What jobs can I get?

As a Play designer you can get jobs in many types of industries and organisations depending on your interests and competence profile.

You can design children's products, for instance at LEGO, HABA, Kompan, Ikea and Toca Boca.

Or you can design playful experiences in museums, experience parks, schools and hospitals.

You will be able to contribute with playful approaches in design companies and design agencies at product, process and strategy levels.

Your experiences with play for all ages will make you a suited ambassador for play within NGOs such as The LEGO Foundation, UNICEF, etc.

The programme also qualifies you to pursue an academic career in universities and design schools, and to become a facilitator, teacher or communicator in design and play. 

Career stories

Apply now

We are looking for highly talented and motivated students with a relevant degree (BA or equivalent).

The application deadline is 1 March.

Admission and FAQ

Design for Play Student Scholarship

In order to create a diverse team of students two scholarships for special talented non-EU students who need financial assistance are offered. The scholarship consists of a paid tuition fee. Please, find the link to the description of the scholarship and the application form to your right.

Mød to play-designere

Meet Play Designer Rebecca Houmøller
Meet Play Designer Bryce Duyvewaardt

Play Based Intrapreneurship in Columbia

Colombia

MA projects 2022

Design for Play reinforces and challenges the fields of industrial design, fashion design, textile design, accessory design and communication design and enables you to immerse yourself in the cross-disciplinary specialisation.

We have selected a few of our MA projects, which reflect the academic breadth and depth of the programme.

MA projects 2022

Workshops at Design School Kolding

Design School Kolding's workshops allow you to work with materials and manufacturing of prototypes and provide a space for you to constantly develop your talent in relation to your speciality.

Workshops

Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species, alongside language, culture and technology. Indeed, without play, none of these other achievements would be possible.

Dr. David Whitebread

Play enables us to explore, practice and try out ways of tackling similar challenges in the real world. Skills like problem-solving, creativity; empathy, communication and teamwork all have their foundations in play.

The LEGO Foundation

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct.

Carl Jung, Swiss psychoanalyst (1874-1961)

Creativity and innovation are now driving the economy, reshaping entire industries and stimulating inclusive growth.

The 2014 OECD Forum

Creativity will be the 3rd most important work skill by 2020

World Economic Forum, 2016

LAB and Q&A

The Danish tradition and our track record

In Denmark we have a great motivation to create good play experiences because in our culture play is perceived as a way to develop ourselves. Through play, we acquire our social, intellectual and creative competencies, which are crucial for thriving and succeeding in today’s rapidly changing world. There is a growing body of evidence to confirm the importance of play, and we need to develop this knowledge further and facilitate the translation into practice.

Thus, Play & Design has been a strategic focal area for Design School Kolding for years. It is a dedicated research theme with currently two PhD students. In our Lab for Play & Design we have completed a number of projects and activities and worked with leading partners to investigate and define the unique Danish DNA for designing play. We have also identified possibilities, challenges and barriers for designing ”good play”. This has enabled us to establish a large network within play practice and play research, nationally and internationally.

Together with Capital of Children and the LEGO Foundation, we run the Play User Lab. This is an initiative that works to strengthen the performance of companies working with play, learning and creativity by increasing their innovation skills and user focus in order to enable them to lead the way in how to design for future play.

Related news and more

News

Related

Contacts and teachers

For questions regarding admission, please contact Karina Sørensen and Ester Fuchs.
For questions regarding collaboration, please contact Lene Nyhus Friis and Karen Feder.

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