Design for Planet

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 Planet as your focus area.

Why should I choose Design for Planet

Design for Planet is for those who are professionally bold and curious and who want to direct their practice towards sustainable agendas.

The education emphasises experiments, creativity, empathy, ethics, cooperation and one-on-one engagements in and with the world. You must have a strong design-based grounding to which a thematic and multidisciplinary approach to working with sustainability design will be added.

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?

Design for Planet adopts a comprehensive approach to design thinking and 'doing' and builds professional gravitas, which enables students to challenge and rethink existing solutions through design.

To support these visions of design, we apply innovative practical working methods within a wide range of topics such as: past use and production practices, user studies, material driven design, speculative prototyping, critical design, holistic systems, circular and sharing economy, design activism and cultural intervention.

Design for Planet offers the opportunity to work with design of materials, products, services, systems, experiences and cultural changes. Hence, throughout the course, students will be acquainted with different design contexts and designer roles.

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".

Material Narratives
Focusing on materials as a translator of values and concepts

Learning from the Past
Understanding how design arises from situated contexts 

Preferred Futures
Challenging our notion of the future through imaginative prototyping

Holistic Systems
Mastering complexity, dynamics and collaboration through direct engagement

Behavioural Change
Exploring design as a cultural impactor 

Deep Research
Advancing the designer as producer and communicator of new knowledge

How will I learn?

Design School Kolding is a frontrunner in the field of sustainability and we have worked with dedication on the topic for more than 20 years.

The instructors at Design for Planet are highly qualified Danish and foreign personalities with experience from research and practice and with a broad professional spectrum. 

Changes through design cannot occur in isolation, and therefore Design for Planet collaborates with external actors such as museums, companies, production sites, organizations, associations and institutions.

Generally speaking the programme has a practice approach to design. However, since we consider theoretical and methodological anchoring as essential for the designers of today and tomorrow, a number of written elements are associated with the project work. Furthermore, you must be interested in and be prepared to engage in literature.

In addition to the thematic instruction anchored in Design for Planet, the basic disciplines of textile design, communication design, fashion design, accessory design and industrial design will be continuously developed. A strong professional foundation is a good starting point for learning from each other and discovering opportunities across professional disciplines. Therefore it is possible to work in an interdisciplinary fashion throughout the course.

The instruction comprises a mixture of lectures, workshops, individual and group-based project work and seminars.

Why is Design for Planet important?

Design for Planet addresses one of the most important challenges of today: Creating a more sustainable world ecology for the Earth and all its residents.

Design for Planet views the value of design as a means of generating changes in the way we do things. Hence the programme − both directly and indirectly − addresses the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which call on all countries in the world to assume a shared responsibility and be prepared to produce, consume and act sustainably.

Sustainability is a complex subject and there are no easy answers. Design for Planet encourages free and critical thinking in relation to the sustainable agendas it addresses and the programme embraces an understanding of the designer as a transformer of what exists here and now as well as a generator of novel solutions so that design can contribute as much as possible to a more sustainable world.

What jobs can I get?

An MA degree in Design for Planet focused on design and sustainability enables you to work in many fields and organisations depending on your interests and expertise.

Either as an employee in a company, an organisation, or an institution or as self-employed, you can design and develop products, including communication, that focus on sustainability.

The programme also prepares you to have a systemic approach to working with sustainability in production and use. This could involve circular economy, product lifespan and new services in the private and public sectors. This enables you to help develop sustainable strategies and change within companies and organisations throughout the value chain. 

Your experiences with holistic thinking and process planning in relation to many types of approaches to sustainability along with your experiences with cross-disciplinary collaborations could also make you a valued consultant. 

In addition, the programme prepares you to pursue an academic career in a university or design school and enables you to become a facilitator, teacher or communicator of design and sustainability. 

Career stories

Alumni stories

Ansøgning og optagelse

MA projects 2022

Design for Planet 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.

Afgangsprojekter 2022

Afgangsprojekter

Se alle afgangsprojekter

Meet Ashna Patel

Ashna Patel was named Talent of the Year at the Salling Future Friendly Fashion Award 2020. The reason was her graduation project, which focuses on local production, natural materials and design based on consumer insights.

Studiehåndbogen

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 at Design Shool Kolding

Laboratoriet for Bæredygtighed og Design

Relaterede projekter

Contacts and teachers

For questions regarding admission, please contact Karina Sørensen and Ester Fuchs.
For questions regarding content and collaboration, please contact Karen Marie Hasling.

Gå til Design for People

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