Arts & Culture: Design Cultures

The specialisation in Design Cultures focuses on how our world has been designed. Interiors, fashion, artefacts, graphics and digital design coexist in our society. They affect nearly every area of our lives and therefore require adequate analysis. Design Cultures takes a humanities perspective and explores design history and theory in connection with contemporary issues such as identity, sustainability and multiculturalism.

The opportunities for collaboration between the design sector and cultural institutions in Amsterdam are endless. In our wide-ranging academic courses, you can explore the dimensions of these contexts and combine them in unique and exciting ways. You will have plenty of opportunities to develop your own personal interests, for example, in fashion, industrial design or graphic design. The specialisation in Design Cultures will deepen your insights into 20th- and 21st-century developments in design as a practice, a product, a discourse and a cultural environment. You will learn to identify and analyse crossovers within and between the different design disciplines in a wider social context. You will also learn to put theory into practice as a writer and researcher, as well as during your internship at a cultural institution.