Preface
The Future is now!
After three semesters of intensive investigation, driven by the individual Master projects, the 2017 Master of Arts in Design graduates are ready for future challenges. Which means, for them the future is now! With the presentation of their Master thesis results in the Degree Show, we too get a glimpse of the future, now! By anticipating the potential of aesthetics, the next steps in the use of technology, upcoming trends in life style, and prospective concepts for society, the graduates show us tomorrow today. Each Master project debates the role of the designer today, shows how disciplines blur, and asks designers to deal with emerging challenges and open questions.
Our graduating Master students combine their knowledge of science, culture and society with the claim to be at the forefront of future design solutions in different disciplines and environments.
Most of the graduates look back at long and intensive processes that were not always easy to cope with. Not only did they have to deal with numerous expectations from outside, but they themselves defined the most demanding requirement: «I will achieve the best possible result». However, none of it would have been possible without the critical and technical support of different people involved in the whole process: the associates, the assistants, the professionals from the various labs and workshops, the lecturers, mentors and professors, and above all — the classmates. Now they leave ZHdK with the Master Diploma in their hands, to face an exciting future, one in which all these benefits won’t be so readily available. But that’s the game of life: the future is now yours!
Professor Michael Krohn
Head of the Master of Arts in Design
Specialization
The Master of Arts in Design at the Zurich University of the Arts offers designers and individuals from related disciplines an outstanding opportunity to further develop their individual expertise and attain cutting-edge excellence. The programme, which runs for one year and a half, requires students to be self-driven, innovative, and to have a genuine interest in interdisciplinary approaches, as well as in acquiring and applying various research methods.
Master students deepen and expand not only their specialist knowledge and skills, but also create particular career opportunities for themselves. With these goals in mind, our programme focuses on the individual student and is project-driven.
Based on their experience and personal interests, students major in one of the six partially overlapping specializations:
Event
Developing, enacting, and designing social or commercial events, cultural interventions in media, urban, and social spheres.
Communication
Conceiving and designing new forms of visualization, narration, and transfer of topical and complex matters: Identity & Brand, Information Design, Editorial Design, and Knowledge Visualization.
Game Design
Conceiving and designing games, serious games, ludic games as well as collaborative, and virtual worlds.
Interaction Design
Developing concepts and systems in the fields of embodied interaction, interactive experience, and reactive materials.
Product
Conceiving and developing innovative and speculative products, services and systems for the future.
Trends
Identifying, visualizing and conveying cultural as well as socio-economic developments, and implementing strategic design concepts.
Imprint
master.design.diplome.zhdk.ch/2017
Zurich University of the Arts,
Master of Arts in Design
Degree Show 2017
Concept and Editorial by Karin Zindel
Graphic Design by Patrik Ferrarelli
Web Development by Dominik Ogilvie, Avant la lettre
Video Portraits by Flavio Cury, Karin Zindel
Proofreading by Sprachling
With special thanks to:
Prof. Michael Krohn, Head Master of Arts in Design
Stefano Vannotti, Head Minor Programme
Karin Zindel, Research Associate
Ivia Kellenberger, Assistant Master of Arts in Design
Prof. Dr. Sarah Owens, Head Communication
Patrik Ferrarelli, Assistant Communication
Prof. Bitten Stetter, Head Event & Trends
Larrisa Holaschke, Assistant Event & Trends
René Bauer, Head Game Design
Dr. Mela Kocher, Senior Researcher Game Design
Max Rheiner, Head Interaction Design
Mona Neubauer, Assistant Interaction Design
Dr. Sharon Baurley, Head Product
Annina Gähwiler, Assistant Product
All mentors, lecturers, and people that contributed to it