The areas of Product Design are as diverse as the world of objects around us. Products can be created by hand or manufactured industrially in serial production. They can be the result of digitalized drafting, planning and production processes, and to an increasing degree, a combination of several methods.
The four professors responsible for the Product Design degree programme do not teach the disciplines of product design in the traditional sense. Instead they initiate and supervise projects which focus on a variety of areas, such as industrial or hand-crafted product design, interaction design, design and management, mobility, product and environment, stage design and exhibition design.
This degree programme is taught by the following professors:
- Design and Management: Prof. Gerrit Babtist
- Material and Evironment: Prof. Martin Kuban | Currently substituted by Guest researcher Katrin Krupka
- Industrial Design: Prof. Andreas Mühlenberend
- Interaction Design: Prof. Wolfgang Sattler
Study product design at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Produktdesign studieren an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
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The degree programme Product Design offers the following courses:
| Standard duration of programme | Deadline for application | Application |
|---|---|---|
| 8 Semesters | 31 March | How to apply |
The design criteria have an aesthetic, semantic, symbolic, stylish, technical and material-related character. The design pieces are generally developed and created through research, conceptual consideration, free sensual investigation, sketches, experiments, material testing, digital design tools, presentations, models and patterns.
In addition to the product‘s aesthetics, understandability, necessity and attractiveness, product designers are also expected to consider related issues, e.g. sensible production methods, energy efficiency and resource conservation, and offer possible solutions.
Electronic technologies, in particular, which are firmly anchored in product design and manufacturing, require cooperative working methods and individuals who can reach a compromise without diminishing the quality of the final product. Product distribution, media-driven marketing activities, integration of products in material cycles and consumer behaviour are all fundamental components of design. The field of design must also respond to problems that the academic concept of art fails to resolve.
This pragmatic focus requires students to search, reflect, experiment, discuss and collaborate.
Following the prescribed duration of study of eight semesters, students obtain the »Bachelor of Arts« degree, the first-level certificate of professional qualification.
Application for the aptitude test in the Undergraduate degree programmes Visual Communication and Product Design
The aptitude test for these degree programmes is divided into three parts:
- First, apply for the aptitude test in the course of study in question.
- You will then receive an assignment to complete at home within a prescribed period of time.
- You must then take a practical examination, come to a personal interview and present of up to 10 original samples of your design work.
Your completed assignment will be evaluated to determine whether you may take the practical and oral part of the aptitude test (pre-selection).
To apply for the aptitude test, there are two ways:
1. Fill out the registration form online. You will then receive a confirmation of receipt by email as well as the task for the due date.
- » To online registration for the aptitude test in Product Design
- » To online Registration for the aptitude test in Visual Communication
or
2. Submit the following documents and post it to arrive no later than 31 March of the year:
- an informal letter of application that identifies which course of study you are applying for or the following » form
- a stamped, self-addressed C5 envelope (with the correct amount of postage)
You will then receive the task by post.
Address:
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Fakultät Kunst und Gestaltung
Bewerbung »[title of degree programme]«
Geschwister-Scholl-Straße 7
D-99423 Weimar
Candidates who are invited to take the aptitude test for the degree programmes Visual Communication and Product Design should bring ca. 10 work samples to the practical examination.
Language requirements:
Please submit a current proof of language proficiency with your application documents, which shows that you will reach the required language level by the time of your matriculation at the latest.
Lessons are taught in German. You must provide proof of German language proficiency with one of the following or equivalent certificates:
- DSH-2 (Deutsche Sprachprüfung für den Hochschulzugang)
- Test Deutsch als Fremdsprache - DaF (mininum 4xTDN 4)
For further information visit the website of the Language Centre.
| Standard duration of programme | Deadline for application | Application |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Semesters | 31 March | How to apply |
Master's degree programme Product Design
The concept of sustainability describes the use of a regenerative system in such a way that its essential characteristics are preserved and it can replenish its resources naturally.
Consequently, in the master's degree programme »Product Design«, the research focuses on expanding the relevant criteria of Product Design to include social, environmental and energetic influences on product culture, and on developing new solutions.
The potential of urgently needed energy-saving measures in our product culture exists at several levels:
- The socio-political circumstances
- The energy expenditures in the material and product cycles
- The customers' and target group's usage behaviour
This approach does not merely entail replacing standards of our product culture with presumably environmentally friendly ones and searching for ways to reduce technical expense, but rather investigating the sense of product systems, their conditions of emergence, their cycles, and optimizing the total performance of these systems.
There are two levels to this evaluation of cost and benefit, both of which complement the other – on one hand, to produce more with less material and energy, and on the other, to sustainably change usage behaviour. The former is an established hallmark for sophisticated design and deserves to be critically and vigilantly developed further.
The latter is a task which design must embrace, because political appeals to moral obligation will only result in an environmentally relevant usage behaviour if, for example, energetically effective product reduction can free itself of the stigma of sacrifice and deprivation. Since qualitative values underlie various parameters in this evaluation, the development of a more energy-efficient design standard must not come at the expense of experimentation and diversity of design.
Design will only have a relevant future if designers continue to detach themselves from function, technology, the market, trends and advertising, and focus instead on confidently pursuing their own provocative positions.
The prescribed period of study, which includes the completion of the master's thesis, is two semesters. Candidates may only enrol in this degree programme in the winter semester.
Application for the aptitude test in the Master's degree programme Product Design
Für die Bewerbung zur Eignungsprüfung sind folgende Unterlagen hochzuladen:
- ein tabellarischer Lebenslauf.
- ein Motivationsschreiben von max. einer DIN A4-Seite, das den Studien- und Berufswunsch und einen persönlichen Studienschwerpunkt erkennen lässt.
- eine Mappe bzw. Portfolio mit eigenen, originalen gestalterischen Arbeiten. Dateiformat: PDF, maximal 20 Folien im Querformat. Die Gestaltung der Folien ist frei.
- eine Zeugniskopie des gestalterischen Hochschulabschlusses (Bachelor, Diplom oder vergleichbarer Abschluss).
- zusätzliche Kopien zum Nachweis der Muttersprachlichkeit / Sprachnachweis Deutsch (Erwerb der Hochschulzugangsberechtigung oder eines ersten berufsqualifizierenden Abschlusses in einem deutschsprachigen Land) oder, alternativ:
Nachweis von Sprachkenntnissen in der Sprache Deutsch auf der Kompetenzstufe C 1 des Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmens (GER) durch Sprachzertifikate DSH-2 oder TestDAF (4 x TDN 4) oder gleichwertig.
- Kopie ihres Personalausweises oder Reisepasses
- Passbild (für die eventuelle Erstellung Ihres Studierendenausweises)
- Erklärung über eigenständige Anfertigung ihrer gestalterischen Arbeiten
Bitte beachten Sie, dass jede Datei eine maximale Größe von 25 MB nicht überschreitet!
Der Upload kann – je nach Kapazität Ihrer Internetverbindung – mehrere Minuten benötigen.
Bewerbungsfrist: 31. März 2021
Die Prüfung der Eignung für den konsekutiven Masterstudiengang Produktdesign erfolgt durch die Prüfung der eingereichten Arbeiten (Mappe bzw Portfolio) und durch das Eignungsprüfungsverfahren (Vorauswahl) sowie ggf. einem Eignungsgespräch. Über das Ergebnis der Eignungsprüfung werden Sie spätestens vier Wochen nach Abschluss der Prüfung schriftlich benachrichtigt.
Für internationale Studienbewerber gilt:
Bitte fügen Sie Ihren Bewerbungsunterlagen einen aktuellen Sprachnachweis bei, der erkennen lässt, dass Sie das geforderte Sprachniveau spätestens zu Ihrer Immatrikulation erreichen.
Voraussetzung für die Zulassung zum Studium sind Deutschkenntnisse auf Niveau C1 (DSH 2 oder TestDAF TDN 4). Bei Fragen zum Nachweis Ihrer Sprachkenntnisse wenden Sie sich bitte an das Dezernat für Studium und Lehre, Frau Johanna Theuerkauf: johanna.theuerkauf[at]uni-weimar.de
The workshops of the Faculty of Art and Design
Die Werkstätten der Fakultät Kunst und Gestaltung
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Product design: insights into the 2018 aptitude tests
Produktdesign: Einblicke in die Eignungsprüfung 2018
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