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Department of Design

Do you want to use design to make a difference in the world? Then this is the right degree for you. At the Department of Design we work with students interested in making change in the world through design.

The Department of Design is made up of four programs: the Bachelor’s program in Design+Change, the Bachelor’s program in Visual Communication+Change, the Master’s program in Design+Change and the Master’s program in Innovation through Business, Engineering and Design. The programs are delivered in English and we welcome students from all over the world.

In shaping our futures, designers will face unprecedented challenges compared to what conventional designers faced during the twentieth century. In fact, the role of the designer will and should change. Our programs focus on making sustainable change through design to prepare you for a number of emerging and established careers in the world where you can use your creative skills in relation to your understanding of the complexity of sustainability.

Recent graduates from our programs work in design companies, artistic and cultural organisations, human rights organisations, NGOs, political parties, publications and with initiatives run by local communities or municipalities. Students have also gone on to start their own companies and many are currently attending graduate studies at prestigious Swedish universities. 

Why + Change?

Doesn't design already imply change? Yes, through design we give form to new products (and books, campaigns, services, systems and much more). Through these we also shape and change behaviour, attitudes and even worldviews.

Today the critical state of our ecological and social systems is globally recognised. We also know that human activities, especially the overconsumption often associated with design, drives unsustainability. In our + Change programmes we want to emphasise the very potential for design to affect and create change through approaches of adaptation, evolution and revolution. To affect change through design can be about initiatives directed at products, systems or worldviews. We can choose to use design to affect change locally, regionally or globally, and with a focus on ecology, economy, human health and equality, or all of this simultaneously. Altogether + Change means purposefully using design, and its inherent creativity, in order to build towards a more sustainable future.

Education

Our programs are highly international. As one of the 150 students you are part of a group characterised by diversity and are well prepared for an international design career. Students will meet international teachers and practitioners during their studies in these programmes, and we also facilitate student and teacher exchange through a number of international agreements.

You can find out more about our programs and the application processes for each by clicking on the links to the programs that interest you. Students are accepted through a specific admissions process which involves portfolios and sometimes also interviews. Upon successful completion of studies, students receive a Degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design or a Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Design (one year & two wears).

+ Change Societal Collaborations+

Change Societal Collaborations is a selection of projects within the + Change programmes at the Design Department, Linnaeus University in Växjö, Kalmar, Sweden. The projects put critical questions forward in society and have been conducted throughout the years in reciprocity with a variety of societal actors. Learn more about the project.

More information about the
Department of Design

The teaching staff at the school consists of about 30 designers, art historians and artists. The department also has a large number of guest lecturers, specializing in fine arts, design, the history of art, sustainable development, ecology, media and technology, sociology, ethnology, philosophy, history, engineering, economics, marketing and other subjects.

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