We aim to educate designers who show a great awareness of the world around them, or their context. In the 21st century, designers can no longer just design and make things. Our current global situation asks for a generation of designers that are able to question the social and ecological relevance of their projects and understand the context in which they (want to) operate. They explore and express the position the (industrial) designer can take in relation to the industry and the world at large.

The course offers a variety of perspectives, methods and approaches for research, aiming to broaden and deepen the designers research practice and connect it to his/her design practice. It encourages to explore research applying the skills and qualities as designer. Therefore, the programme is designed to encourage the connection and exchange of making and reflecting, collecting and prototyping, writing and sketching, collaborating and peer reviewing. Collectively and in conversation, we aim to “create an educational environment, in which the transformative pleasure of searching, finding things out, experimenting and bringing into relation are central”.

Designers require the ability to work with a wide range of discourses, to engage in dialog about the underpinnings and assumptions at play, and to work with theoretical concepts as tools to reflect on their work, to question their ethical framework, and to communicate about their work with a wide audience. The course offers a issue-based curriculum, with texts from the fields of the philosophy of technology, economics, social design and digital cultures. The aim of reading texts is to cultivate a certain way of thinking, reasoning and questioning with the students, not so much to work on a body of explicit philosophical knowledge. To critically examine a thought process, make it explicit; either in spoken or written word. We practice group dialogue and discussions, site-specific visits, (free, but founded) writing, co-hosting and peer interviewing.

We aim to educate designers who can knowingly tap into their creative potential and apply their design skills within different contexts and media. Grounded in the context of the Royal Academy of Art, the course offers approaches to deepen and build on the artistic vision of the designer. Through workshops and projects, a critical understanding of methods, form, materials and techniques is being expanded. Aiming for an articulated physical design work.

We aim to educate designers who actively seek relevant (interdisciplinary) collaborations. Since designers will most likely not operate solo in the (future) design field, collaborative projects can train them in the role and position they can take. Design often leans heavily on science, art and other forms of knowledge and research. We aim to educate designers who celebrate interdisciplinary cross-pollination. The curriculum is built on collaborative projects with partners outside the institute to connect to ‘the real world’, to urgent topics, recent insights and research and other kinds of knowledge and ways of working. Each semester the content of the program is being developed in close teamwork with partners outside the institute.

We aim to educate designers who are critical, interesting and respectful partners in dialogue with their colleagues, their public and their clients alike. Designers should know how to get their message across; they need to know how to differentiate between different ways of communicating with different audiences and varying forms for different messages and subject matter. The course provides a wide variety of input strengthening the designers’ communicative ability, ranging from spoken and written word to visual and multimedia means.

We aim to educate designers who show openness and resilience and persistence in the face of disappointment, resistance, (conceptual) challenges and critique. There is often no growth without such experiences. We set out to design an educational context in which designers feel safe and challenged to develop themselves (professionally). Offering a learning community in which we perceive students as well as tutoring staff as equal in their learning (ad)venture and openness to share expertise and experience.