Product Design

Programme for exchange students Product Design

Course descriptions

1. Click on this link.
2. Select your exchange programme under 'EXCHANGE MODULES' on the left side.
3. Alternatively, copy and paste the module codes into the 'course ID/name' field.

Minor 'Not Only Design' in short

• You learn how to conduct investigative design by means of creation experiments.
• You work with an open view, with curiosity and an interest in the unknown and the unexpected.
• You work in a studio and gain access to all our workshops and technical knowledge and skills.
• This minor is available in semester 1 (1 Sept 2024 – 1 February 2025).

Course information

In the minor Not Only Design we offer you six months time to find out what is possible if you investigate your own profession and work field from the perspective of a designer.

We offer you a small but diverse group of participants from various sectors (including from courses outside HKU), a studio to work in, and access to all our workshops and technical know-how. In your research, you are supported by designers and artists, but we can also (if necessary) bring you in touch with writers, philosophers, cultural anthropologists, biologists and psychologists.

You work on your own research question but make use of the standard approach that we apply at HKU Design: quick creation experiments that are constantly questioned on the new possibilities they bring with them.

What you'll be learning

Our designers and artists at HKU Design work from a restless curiosity about what would be possible when you break the rules of your profession or field or work. A curiosity about what happens when you combine that which may not be combined. And about what is possible when you dare to take risks; to let go of working towards a guaranteed result, but instead trust that your exploration will always get you somewhere, even if it’s not where you initially expected to end up. Our designers constantly question their own methods and practice in order to get towards innovation. They do so by looking, investigating, reading, thinking, but above all: creating.

The minor ‘Not Only Design’ allows you to give free rein to this restless curiosity for six months long. To find an answer to the question what becomes possible when you choose to research your own profession or sector through designing.

Learning goals

Assessment is based on participation and on whether you enter a work process, as made visible in a portfolio and a (visual) research report. This portfolio and (visual) research report provide the documentation of a range of design experiments and the reflection on them in their mutual coherence. The design experiments may all have failed, as long as the approach (and the reflection on this approach) proves that you have the attitude of a designer and experimenter. The minor is graded with a rounded whole or half grade.

Place in the curriculum and related courses

This course is an elective minor in year 3 of the Bachelor of Product Design.

Students

Please note that within this minor students from different HKU programs and students from various art and design programs from other institutions in the Netherlands will participate as well as 3rd year HKU Fashion Design students.

Language

Please note that the Bachelor programme is mainly taught in Dutch and exchange students are expected to be able to understand some Dutch. It is quite common that exchange students don't understand Dutch on a high level when they start at Product Design and you will of course be supervised in English.

During the Exchange period students get a buddy who will help them finding their way in the curriculum & school and will translate the essentials of classes.

More info?
Would you like to know more? Please check out this page.