Master’s Programme in Design Ecologies

Video about Design Ecologies with Anna Maria Orrù (Affiliate Senior Lecturer), and Fabian Hardt and Hillevi Hasseldal, examined 2024.

As a student, you will work to create conditions to support socially and culturally resilient communities, biodiversity, and economies operating within planetary boundaries. At our programme, we believe in designing 'with' rather than 'for' as well as developing design proposals (products, services, and systems), that can be conducive to life.

At Design Ecologies, practices are developed on artistic grounds and using ecoliteracy principles. Design ideas are explored in workshops, individually and collectively, by engaging in multisensory aesthetics that include methodological aspects and functional considerations. As a student, you will have the opportunity to challenge and deepen your own professional practice in relation to the field of design and to broaden your social and ecological networks.

Upon completion of the programme, you will be able to:
• work with tools and methods relevant to the field of design
• materialise proposals in multisensory ways
• work with theoretical knowledge and reflect critically through design
• work through design using ecoliteracy principles
• perform with high-level autonomy and accountability
• apply established theories to design interventions
• formulate and make coherent design proposals and present results to different audiences
• design, evaluate, implement, analyse, theorise, and disseminate research that contributes to ecoliterate practices.

Check on social media to get more insight into the bachelor programme Industridesign and the master´s programme in  Design Ecologies.

Language of instruction
All teaching, tutoring, and examinations are conducted in English.

Credits and form of study
120 credits (2 years), full-time, daytime, on campus.

The teaching consists of a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops, exploratory activities in studios, ateliers, and workshops, as well as independent work. You will work both individually and in groups. As a student in Design Ecologies, you will have access to your own workspace at the school.

Degree
Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Design.

After graduation
The Master’s programme prepares students for a professional career and third-cycle studies.

Students who graduate from Design Ecologies work in areas related to sustainable design, such as industrial and product design, service design, and experience design, among others. Some choose to start their own businesses, while others find employment. The program also prepares students for further studies at the doctoral level.

Specific requirements and selection
Bachelor's degree of Fine Arts in Design (equivalent to a Swedish Bachelor's degree of at least 180 credits), or the equivalent. And proficiency in English equivalent to Swedish upper secondary school course English 6/English B.

The selection is made on artistic grounds and is based on assessment of artistic portfolio, project proposal and interview. Read more about requirements and selection here.

Assessment of applicant assignments
In addition to applying via www.antagning.se, you must submit applicant assignments (portfolios/files) to Konstfack's website. If you are applying for more than one programme at Konstfack, you must submit applicant assignments (portfolios/files) for each programme you apply for. Read more about how to submit work samples here.

The artistic assessment is carried out by a special assessment group consisting of professors, teachers, students and representatives from the professional field.

The selection process takes place in two stages. The first stage involves the work samples and statement of intent submitted by the applicant being assessed on the basis of their ability to express themselves artistically and to adopt an investigative and reflective attitude, in relation to social and ecological issues. We also evaluate craftsmanship and technical proficiency (including ability to digitally model/visualise in 3D). Read more about artistic assessment here.

Applicant assignment for the 2025 autumn admission

Your portfolio must be submitted digitally according to the instructions below. The samples of your work must describe results from studies and/or works that you want to refer to. If any sample is not completely your own work, this must be made clear, and you must indicate which sections you have created and your role in them.

Your application must be in English and include the following three (3) compulsory sections:

1. Your own selection of works
Send us documentation of works that you have produced on your own. You can also present work that has been done in a group, if you specify precisely what your contribution has been.
You may have produced the works during your Bachelor’s programme, an internship or while you have been working professionally. You may also include sketches, paintings and/or sculptures if you want to.

To be able to assess your way of working it is required that you present the process of making for at least three (3) of the works that you submit. You may, for example, present different types of sketches (some need to be made by hand), renderings created with a computer, studies, photographs of models, models tested in context, films and/or other images that show how the final proposal evolved. If you have been using imagery generated through AI, or if you have used any other type of AI technology, you should specify how you have used it and for which parts of the work. Explain them with captions in which you describe, for instance, starting points, intentions, task, and other aspects of your thought processes during your work.

All the samples you present should be assembled to form one PDF file of no more than twenty (20) pages in A3 landscape format.  Arrange your sketches, drawings, photographs, and films etc. on these pages. (Films should be represented in your portfolio by one image from the film and its title. The actual films are submitted as separate files.)

The first page must contain a table of contents covering every work in the portfolio. The table of contents should offer a clear summary of the samples of your work submitted with thumbnail images for each of them. The table of contents is used by the selection panel when the applicant assignments are discussed.

Give your PDF file a name using the following format “Surname-Forename-1.pdf”.

2. Declaration of intent
In your declaration of intent you describe why you want to attend the Master´s programme in Design Ecologies.
Tell us how you want to develop and what you want to study in greater depth. What are your expectations of Konstfack? What kind of work do you think you will be doing after graduating, what kind of context would you like to belong to? Do not hesitate to raise any questions you may have about the programme that you would like to ask if you are called for an interview.

Write about two (2) A4 pages, i.e. between 2,000 and 4,000 characters including spaces.
Give your PDF file a name using the following format “Surname-Forename-2.pdf”.

3. List of experience, education, employment, etc. (CV)
Submit a CV in which you list previous education, work-experience, and other information that you think is interesting in your application to us. Please note that the CV will not be used for selection on artistic ground, but solely as a reference for discussions during a potential interview.

Give your PDF file a name using the following format “Surname-Forename-3.pdf”.

Important information about your applicant assignments

Summary, files to submit:
Three (3) PDF-files.

File number 1. Your own selection of works. No more than 20 pages.
Name your file using the format: Surname-Forename-1.pdf
File number 2.  Declaration of intent. No more than two (2) pages.
Name your file using the format: Surname-Forename-2.pdf
File number 3. CV.
Name your file using the format: Surname-Forename-3.pdf

And optional moving images/video.

Your application must be written in English.

Technical specifications
To be able to assess your portfolio correctly, it is important that you comply with these technical specifications.

PDF
The PDF files must not be password-protected or set to force the presentation into full screen.

Video
In addition to the PDF files, you may also submit video with a total length of no more than 15 minutes.
Approved formats for video: MOV, MP4 or AVI
The videos must be compressed using H-264 compression.
Single files should not be larger than 300 MB. In total your portfolio must not exceed 500 MB.
Name the files with moving images/video using the format: Surname-Forename-4 and so on.

The video's title, format and length should be stated on the first content page in PDF-file number 1.

Read more about how to submit work samples here.