Design Academy Eindhoven

Giving Shape to Your Passion

Imagine receiving one of the following assignments:

“Design a new layout for the square in front of the Eindhoven train station,”

“Find a way of shaping the new luxuriousness,”

“Give someone the gift of time.”

If this is the kind of challenge you dream of, and you are ready to work hard for it, then Design Academy Eindhoven is “the place to be”. In your capacity as a designer, you have a considerable impact on the way the world looks. After all, almost all the things around us have been designed. Designers determine what it is we experience within and about a set of surroundings and how we might behave there. When you graduate, you will be shaping people’s everyday lives. This may vary from jewellery, objects of everyday use, the interior of a home, the way we organize care or how we feel in public space.

The world is a complex place. As a designer, you will have to deal with a range of social, economic, and cultural interests. Think, for instance, of the square in front of the train station in Eindhoven. One person may see it as a social space, a place to meet; another as a site that should be easy to reach by car; and a third may want to give it a cultural and economic function above all else. As a designer, you will operate amid all of these forces and interests. Time and again, you will have to consider the pros and cons. Because each design process will see you stumbling upon dilemmas in the fields of sustainability, aesthetics, user-friendliness, and production costs, you will find yourself facing ethical questions.

How much energy will transportation cost? How do you feel about manufacturing in low-wage countries? Is your design healthy? Assessments for which no manual can be written. The situation will be different every time, and opinions on what is right and advisable will change with time. So as a future designer the main thing is that you have an immense interest in everything that moves people. Or as one of our tutors put it recently: “a designer should know a little bit about a lot of things”.

Design Academy Eindhoven is the only University of Applied Science (HBO) in the Netherlands that is fully specialised in design. In its 65-year history the academy has developed into an internationally leading school for design. At the same time, the city of Eindhoven has become a magnet for the design world. Around 700 Design Academy students, with over 50 different nationalities, are a daily inspiration for one another at the WitteDame building, a disused Philips factory in the city center. The academy exerts a considerable attraction on designers. Many of our alumni establish their businesses in Eindhoven; people like Piet Hein Eek, Ad van Berlo, Kiki van Eijk & Joost van Bleiswijk. And the Strijp district, another part of the former Philips factory grounds, has grown into a creative incubator space. The Graduation Show / Dutch Design Week has mushroomed into a formidable event and the region around Eindhoven has been declared World’s Intelligent Community 2011. In short, Eindhoven now has the ideal climate for the creative entrepreneur.