B.A. in Communication Design

A course of study for all the senses

The often repeated quote “One cannot not communicate” by Paul Watzlawick makes Communication Design a discipline that is of primary importance. Everything we do does indeed involve an act of communication: There is a message in the clothes we wear, in the cars we drive (or whether we drive a car or not), in the newspaper we read, and in every action. Objects and messages are generally based on a thought, an intention, or even (just) a feeling. The understanding of intentions, the meaning of symbols and, last but not least, transforming them adequately in line with intentions are the central concerns of Communication Design.

Studding means teaching and learning as part of an exchange process, being a bit crazy, thinking and doing, experimenting, and maybe even failing and then starting all over again. In any case, it also means achieving a degree of passion and obsession, and developing a repertoire for later on. Students who study Communication Design will benefit from the close proximity to art, fashion, interior architecture and other closely related design areas: our aim is a course of study for all the senses! Language is important, as too are questioning, a keen eye and mastery of the tools.

Nobody can predict the contexts that the designers who begin their studies today will be working in in ten years time. For this reason, it is all the more important to be able to reflect society and the market and to shape one’s own working environment.Communication designers are faced with the complex challenge of isolating the relevant material from a mass of diverse information, of rethinking its structure, and of making these messages accessible and understandable for modern society. Alongside the ability to express oneself professionally in modern design languages, skills in interdisciplinary work and conception for complex information and communication strategies are also developed; the aim is that graduates will be able to take on a responsible role in design and implementation processes in a globalised world.

Prof. Anna Berkenbusch