The BA Design aims to allow students to build a successful career within the creative industries. The digitalisation of design requires motivated and innovative designers and that is what the design training at the Zurich University of the Arts stands for.
Students choose one of the following specialisms:
Cast (multimedia), Game Design, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Scientific Visualization, Style & Design, Visual Communication
Coursework provides students with a solid foundation in the key terms, methods, and issues of their chosen specialisation. It also builds core interface skills through inter- and transdisciplinary projects. The BA Design leads to a first professional qualification and prepares students for the MA Design.
Cast: Cast provides the media design scene with storytellers for the small and short format. They create “short stories for the small screen”.
Focal points of study: Storytelling and Journalism, Marketing and Media economy, Animation and audio/visual media design
Game Design: Between content-rich games and playable content, Game Design defines the virtual worlds of tomorrow.
Focal points of study: Interactive Storytelling, Game Analysis and Conception, Engine Programming, Level Design, Game Art, 3D-Modelling and Animation, Game Sound Design
Industrial Design: Industrial design graduates are equipped with both practical knowledge and a theoretical background for the design of relevant objects of everyday life. They focus on exploration of technologies and materials; usability, feasibility, sustainability, communication and presentation.
Focal points of study: Technically advanced product design, Mobility, Leisure, Sport
Interaction Design: Interaction Design is structured around design explorations, theoretical discourse and technology development that support creation of innovative product and services, such as social media platforms, gestural interfaces, mobile applications, wearable interfaces or web media for users.
Core competencies: Graphics, product and sound design, Human-centered design methods, Society centered thinking and reasoning, Software and hardware technology
Scientific Visualization: Today, visualising abstract knowledge and complex facts in readable and understandable imagery is a high demand that has to consider both classic illustration techniques and the visual potentials of New Media.
Focal points of study: Scientific illustration, Knowledge visualisation, Illusionistic representation methods, History and aesthetics of visual knowledge communication
Style & Design: The results of aesthetic research and critical analysis of trends, styles, and fashions are being transformed into future concepts, products and stagings.
Focal points of study: Trends and prognosis, Conception and marketing, Scenographical and event design
Visual Communication: The basis for professional visual communication of content, context, and information in all culturally or socially relevant areas is, apart from technical skills, the ability to conceptualise, explicate, and “design” human thought, emotion, and action.
Focal points of study: Corporate design, Editorial design, Information design
Besides pursuing the core subjects comprising their specialization, students may choose from a broad range of related modules (complementary design modules, inter- and transdisciplinary courses, inter- and transcultural projects) to pursue their own specific interests.
Employment opportunities
Studying design requires the capacity to develop ideas independently and define implementation and communicative processes suited to attaining the formulated objective.
Typically, designers
- work as creative specialists in the print media and develop interactive applications for communication agencies;
- devise innovative communication strategies and applications for convergent media;
- conceive and implement industrial design processes and solutions for enterprises;
- furnish research documentation and illustration for various fields, including health care and hospitals, archaeology, and historic conservation;
- create scenographies for exhibitions, theatre and museum events, playhouses, television studios;
- develop trend and forecasting concepts, and design styling accessories;
- conceive and design computer games for the game industry or serious gaming.
Upon successful completion, graduates will have acquired the essential skills and practical experience required to meet the demands of working in a team of professional designers. They will implement creative concepts and typically hold the position of Junior Designer.
