The Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice has been an independent state institution of higher education since 2001.

The school was founded as a branch of a Wrocław institution in 1947, and later functioned as part of Poland’s oldest art university in Kraków. 

The Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice has two faculties: the Faculty of Design comprising the Department of Graphic Design and Department of Design, and the Faculty of Art comprising the Department of Painting and Department of Graphic Art.The qualities we value and emphasise in our teaching:

• independence and individual development;
• shaping the awareness among designers of new challenges posed by civilization;
• fostering a sense of social and professional responsibility in designers;
• openness and the ability to debate one’s point while respecting other approaches;
• interdisciplinarity: being able to work across disciplines and to be part of a team;

• Research-driven Design
• The Academy’s unique quality is its research-driven approach to design. One day per week is reserved for learning about and testing contemporary research methods useful in graphic design, from those with distinctly laid out procedures, those employing participative design, those researching user needs, to those including project interventions/happenings/installations and speculative design.
• Learning about the contexts, broadening perspectives and open discussions about contemporary challenges are as important as knowing the designer’s toolkit and methods.

Graphic Design graduates: The variety of possibilities includes editorial and typographic projects (including font design), designing visual identification, exhibitions, data visualisation, digital publications, UX and UI interfaces and the new media (animation, film, installation, VR). Some of our graduates specialise in multimedia projects (animation, video clips, video spots, video credits, post-production, film editing) and in creating artistic illustrations. 

• Design graduates:

The programme prepares its graduates to work as designers of products, services, interactions, public spaces, and design consultants.