Konstfack – internationalizing design education

The University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack), founded in 1844, educates more than 900 students each year. Prominent graduates include designers from Ergonomidesign, known for its focus on accessible design for the elderly and disabled, and Front, a design collective that takes a conceptual approach to its industrial and interior work.

The master’s programs offered by Konstfack were revised in 2007 to bring them in line with the requirements of the Bologna process. The new two-year program leads to an MA in one of nine areas: experience design; industrial design; interior architecture and furniture design; jewelry and silversmithing; ceramics and glass; fine arts; graphic design and illustration; textiles; and critical writing and curatorial practice.

"ShenTi" by Zhou Lu (Ceramics and Glass) and "Design som ett verktyg för empowerment" by Agnes Fischer (Industrial Design). Photo: Konstfack

There are 87 students in the first new master’s class, one-third being international students from 17 countries.

“We are building a new MA-program, bringing the students together and benefiting from their heterogeneity, both in terms of culture and their individual specializations,” says Lizette Gradén, Graduate Program Director at Konstfack.

Breadth and depth in theory and practice

Although each student is affiliated with a particular department, there is a keen focus on building bridges across disciplines. Gradén says they aim to offer both “breadth and depth”, allowing the students to establish a deep-seated and individual studio practice, but also encouraging them to work interdisciplinarily.

“Konstfack has an interesting history of being interdisciplinary, where art, craft and design coexist,” says Johan Wingestad, a student in the ceramics and glass department.

Assistant Professor Rolf Hughes teaches a 10-week introductory course in theory and method for all students at the beginning of the two-year curriculum.

“‘Research through practice’ – an obligatory course – aims to help students articulate their practice to a wider audience while examining the relationship between practice, research, experience, and communication,” Hughes says. “This means that students gain the opportunity not only to extend their own practice, by working in interdisciplinary modes, but also to give an account of the significance of its outcome.”


Ceramics and Glass student Johan Wingestad helps create a clay sculpture in the form of giant wave at a recent exhibition at Konstfack. Photo: Charlotte West

Students participate in the theory courses, as well as interdisciplinary group work, in parallel with their own subject-specific courses.

Hughes says that one of the ways they encourage interdisciplinarity is mixing students up into groups with students specialized in other areas. “We slice up the group horizontally,” Hughes says.

“We’re thrown into different kinds of constellations,” adds Wingestad. “There is a lot of interaction between the departments.”

One of the major challenges of the new master’s program has been finding the right combination of academic courses and hands-on practice. This may be easier for more theory-based courses, but it is particularly important for applied arts students, who “hate not being in the studio,” says Torbjörn Kvasbö, professor in ceramics. He says “the balance between the ambitious theory program and the need to be in the studio” has been one of the biggest challenges of the new format of the master’s program.

However, he says they have worked a lot of kinks out of the new master’s curriculum during the first year, and for a professor used to working with his hands, Kvasbö has quite a compliment for his students. “I’ve never had such material to work with,” he says.

Experience Design

The nine tracks include traditional focus areas one would expect to find at an art school, such as ceramics and glass and other applied arts, but also some surprising and innovative courses that come out of the Department for Interdisciplinary Studies.

One of the specializations is Experience Design, which looks at how we actually experience an object or an event over time. “Typically you focus on object design,” says lecturer Ramia Maze. “Graphic or product design have two or three dimensions. But when you talk about people’s individual experience, their memories and feelings and emotions, what actually makes up an experience, you very explicitly involve the dimension of time.”


MA exhibition at Ädelab 2007 by Oliver Füting, Magnus Liljedahl, Sara Borgegård and Agnes Larsson. Photo: Svante Larsson

Maze says Experience Design is the most international master’s track at Konstfack, with nine students from eight countries. Examples of projects that students work with include the design of a reconciliation ceremony between former prisoners and guards at a totalitarian prison camp. They had two days to come up with a plan that included everything from meals to the use of new media in historical presentation.

“All of these different components make up an experience,” Maze says. “It’s not just designing the tableware, or the furniture, or the architecture. It’s really about choreographing a narrative.”

“It’s an extremely challenging brief, but in a sense it’s a very characteristic project within an extreme situation because it’s about the design of a ceremony over time,” says Hughes, who also teaches in the program. “The ceremony has to start at sunrise and end at sunset, so it’s over the course of a natural day.”

WIRE – critical writing and curatorial practice

Another unique specialization is WIRE – which stands for Write, Interpret, Research and Exhibit – a curatorial and critical writing program. As one of the first programs in the world in design and craft criticism, many of the enrolled students have been working professionals and were attracted to the opportunity to expand their practice.

Annika Enqvist is a WIRE student who has previously worked as a curator. She is looking forward to gaining more experience with critical writing.

“I saw this program as a chance to change direction a little bit or at least broaden it,” she says. “I would like to work more as a writer as well. But I think that coming from a curating background, you need to know both.”

The experienced faculty is another attraction. Theodor Ringborg, another WIRE student, says: “The professors and teachers here at Konstfack have amazing connections and we get a lot of help meeting people.”


"Broderi i offentlig miljö" by Frida Berntsson (Textiles). Photo: Svante Larsson

Designing your own education

Whether students are in the studio or in the classroom, there is plenty of room for them to design their own creative space.

“Konstfack really lets your creative juice flow,” says Yuta Sakane, a Japanese student in graphic design. “The master’s program here is very independent and a lot of times you have a really long project, for which you have a plenty of time to do your own research. They really want you to develop very crisp ideas and then execute them at your own pace.”

Related links

www.konstfack.se — University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack)
www.konstfack.se/master — Information about the master's degree program at Konstfack as well as application instructions.
Sara Kristoffersson profile — Meet students and faculty

Please note that the deadline for applications to Konstfack is March 1, 2008. More information can be found at www.konstfack.se.

Charlotte West

Charlotte West, an American writer living in Stockholm, has written for design publications such as Icon Magazine and covers art and design for The Local, "Sweden's News in English". After writing this article, she’s tempted to apply to art school herself, but if her childhood sculptures with play dough are any indication, she’s probably better off sticking with writing.