Arts and Culture - Design Cultures

Overview

Interiors, fashion, artefacts, graphics and digital design define affect nearly every area of our lives. Design Cultures takes a Humanities perspective and explores the history and theory of design in connection with contemporary issues such as identity, ecology and inclusion. Other programmes train students on how to design objects. 

This Arts and Culture - Design Cultures MA programme offered at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam raises the following questions: What makes a design iconic? How is design used to construct national identity? How can we approach design from a post-colonial, ecological and feminist perspective? How do designers think? Why does the very same object mean different things to different users?

Entering the job market

After finishing your Master's programme, you can work in various job fields. Our graduates have careers as:

• project managers (Modemuze, Dutch Design Foundation)

• editors at design and fashion magazines (Vogue NL)

• book authors (nai 010 Publishers)

• lecturers in design history and theory (Hogeschool Willem de Kooning, Rotterdam; Hogeschool van Amsterdam; University of Technology, Sidney; The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague)

• museum curators (Vitra Design Museum, Art and Design Atomium Museum in Brussels (ADAM), Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich)

• PhD candidates