Together. Interdisciplinary. Diverse.
Drawing and shaping, pixels and polygons, games and experiments: this is how practically and concretely our Bachelor's programme begins for all students in the studios and workshops on the new campus. The basic subjects provide a solid basic design training that teaches students the traditional arts-and-crafts skills as well as giving them initial experience in the areas of design and conception, project work and brainstorming. The primary aim is to gain as much experience as possible with the various materials, processes and techniques.
A good basic education gives you self-confidence
The basic subjects are of particular importance on your way to earning a “Bachelor of Arts”. In practical and concrete terms, it forms the basis for the further course of studies. Thoroughly learned artistic skills and understanding do not only give students self-confidence. They also facilitate the decision-making process for later specialisations in the chosen fields of competence.
Criticism and Self-criticism
One of the important goals of the basic subjects is to develop the students’ language competence with regard to creative content, criteria and processes. In communicative exercises, they provide stimulation and guidance for critical and controversial debates and a constructive discourse on creative, strategic, conceptual and aesthetic issues.
Games and Experiments
During the basic study phase, it is already important for students to recognise the nature of creative processes, in each individual as well as in a team: games and experiments, association and intuition, desire and mood – all of these are essential factors in finding and shaping ideas. By working on smaller, practical projects, the path is experienced as a method - and each result as a station.
More information about the basic subjects
Drawing – whether it is digital or conventionally analogue – is still the most basic technique for "creating images while thinking and thinking in pictures". To draw means to basically see the understanding of form, function, context and essence of the real world and the spiritual, mental inner world. As a result, it is the task of the basic studies to treat the most essential aspects of the discipline, such as studying nature, perspective, isometric representation, figurative drawing, drawing nudes, drawing animals, architectural drawing, etc., in a logical selection of basic techniques, themes and motifs. This challenging task is accomplished in the short time of only one semester by a four-person team of full-time professors and external freelance artists who design the respective accesses in powerful, inspiring and playful exercise units.
One of the main aims of Basic Sculptural Design is to familiarize first-year students with a variety of different materials, techniques and procedures in such a way that they can gain an overview of the most important three-dimensional design possibilities, develop their own skills in this regard and playfully explore their personal preferences and talents. In concrete terms, the optional materials are wood, metal, clay, plaster, concrete, paper, cardboard as well as plastics and "ready-mades". The technically correct use of these materials provides insight and understanding into the basic processes of any plastic design: modelling, sculpture, various forms of construction as well as mould construction and casting. Of course, all these experiences and exercises involve superordinate creative competences such as composition, proportion, variation, conception and the diversity of the creative process itself, which are discussed and practiced. All this takes place on the basis of a multitude of partly very free tasks, which move in the area between design-oriented and artistically free topics.
Colour unites characteristics from all the human senses and thus forms a meta-level that dominates all forms of visual communication. Colour influences the effect of typography and illustration, analogue and digital graphics, photography and film, brand messages and corporate identities, advertising, product and packaging design, metal design as well as exhibitions, interior design and architecture. In various surveys, consumers regularly cite colour as one of the most important decision criteria for a product.
Similar to language, the meaning of colours is something that we have learned to a large extent. But not by consciously handling letters and words, grammar and syntax, but for the most part by unconsciously observing and internalising the world, which we absorb with our innate senses. As a result, the meaning of colour is incomparably more subtle and difficult to decipher than written messages. Seeing colour is like seeing a language that we somehow understand, but whose grammar we do not know in most cases. The Basic Theory of Colour gives you an interdisciplinary approach to the conscious use of colour in the areas of digital, analogue and applied arts.
Finding ideas, visualising ideas: From the idea to the picture, all you need is the right tools – one might think. But far from it! Finding an idea, from the first briefing to brainstorming, research, mood board, scribbling, analysing, discussing, weighing, deciding and – very important – “not giving up” ... all this needs to be learned. The mere realisation that “brainstorming” is a work step in itself and can be practiced, that output also needs input, is a new and very facilitating experience for many first-year students: genius does not fall from the sky. But the most beautiful idea, of course, is of no use if you don't know how to express it: In the Basic Theory of Graphic Design, students try out a first palette of graphic presentation techniques and expressive possibilities – in the analogue and digital field. They experiment with image compositions – discuss the aesthetics and conciseness of images: Why can the ugly be beautiful and the beautiful ugly? What does form have to do with content? No one has to be able to answer all these questions after just one semester – but you will have taken the first step towards an independent and responsible designer personality.
