Design
The Design department offers both Master’s and Bachelor’s programmes in graphic design, illustration, clothing design, costume design, interior architecture and furniture design.
The department has excellent workshop facilities, and its small classes are highly conducive to training independently-minded practitioners who do not simply regurgitate the academic discourse, but rather challenge it in ways that develop their discipline and society as a whole. This is an important role for a public institution in an educational landscape where the number of design courses is constantly growing.
The Design department started life as Statens håndverks- og industriskole (Oslo National College of Art and Design) (SHKS), founded in 1818. The department is constantly seeking to develop the legacy and craft traditions of the SHKS, and regards its various workshop facilities as central to this effort.
Bachelor’s in graphic design and illustration
The Design department offers a professionally oriented, three-year Bachelor’s programme in graphic design and illustration.
The department regards graphic design and illustration as a single artistic practice. The two disciplines are united by the humanistic tradition, with both owing their origins to the invention of the printing press. As a consequence of this perspective, all aspects of the programme relate in one way or another to publishing and mass media.
In association with the printed word, graphic design and illustration have played a key role in fostering society’s potential for critical thought. In contemporary society, the image is assuming ever greater importance. Graphic design and illustration are all about shaping society’s visual perceptions.
This specialisation runs project sites that presents students’ work and projects.
Apply for admission
Søknadsweb (the application portal) and information about the admission process will be available two months before the application deadline.
Bachelor’s in clothing design and costume design
The Design department offers a professionally oriented, three-year Bachelor’s programme in clothing design and costume design. During their studies, students choose one of these two fields as a specialisation.
The specialisation in clothing design provides the foundation for professional practice. The programme uses a forward-looking approach that explores both the cultural and the commercial aspects of clothing as a form of temporal and social expression. The programme has the ambition to set a benchmark in fashion education.
The specialisation in costume design provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to design costumes for theatre, dance, opera, television and film. The programme emphasises the combining of technique, form, material and concept in a single creative process. The course involves close cooperation with the departments of theatre, opera and dance.
The Bachelor’s programme in clothing and costume design builds on subject-relevant traditions, and involves the interdisciplinary integration of humanistic, aesthetic, technological, scientific and commercial subjects. Close attention is paid to society’s needs for various design services, sustainable development and commercial design.
Apply for admission
Søknadsweb (the application portal) and information about the admission process will be available two months before the application deadline.
Bachelor’s in interior architecture and furniture design
The Department of Design offers a professionally oriented, three-year Bachelor’s programme in interior architecture and furniture design.
We apply a practical approach to teaching, emphasising experimentation in the department’s well-equipped workshops. We are proud to be part of Norway’s largest art college, where opportunities to cooperate with other disciplines encourage academic and critical debate about themes of local and global relevance.
We define an interior as a social space that reflects cultural and social circumstances, and furniture as objects and artefacts in relation to such spaces. Focusing on our common future, the programme encourages the critical study of constructed environments.
Theory and method are well integrated in the programme. There is an emphasis on entrepreneurship and cooperation with industry so as to offer the best possible preparation for activity in the professional sector. The Bachelor’s programme provides the basis for our attractive Master’s degree in design, with specialisation in interior architecture and furniture design.
The programme has good links to an international network, allowing opportunities for student exchanges to some of the world’s leading design schools.
This specialisation runs project sites that presents students’ work and projects.
- Project blog, interior architecture and furniture design
- Instagram, interior architecture and furniture design
Apply for admission
Søknadsweb (the application portal) and information about the admission process will be available two months before the application deadline.
Master’s in design
The Master’s programme in design is a two-year professionally oriented specialisation in one of the design department’s subject areas:
- graphic design and illustration
- clothing design and costume design
- interior architecture and furniture design
Work in the area of specialisation constitutes the main part of the course. Another integral component of the programme is the study of theory and methodology relevant to all the above specialisations.
The Master’s programme in design is experimental and research oriented. The training aims to educate independent, creative and critically-minded practitioners who are equipped to meet society’s needs for relevant and innovative design solutions, forms of expression and ways of working.
Rooted in a humanistic tradition of art education, the programme emphasises solutions that contribute to diversity and quality in society on both the local and global levels.
The Master’s programme in design is project-based and emphasises professional practice and critical reflection. It is committed to transparent and experimental design processes that integrate with the department’s design-relevant research and development work.
Graphic design and illustration
The specialisation in graphic design and illustration explores and discusses the possibilities and potential of this artistic field. The specialisation employs an experimental approach, with a focus on practical projects and subject-relevant reflection. Students are expected to show a high degree of academic independence. They are given time to do research using both their own and standard academic approaches, and receive feedback from the staff and fellow students. The specialisation encourages perspectives that challenge the discipline and have the potential to reshape the discourse around this field of specialisation.
This specialisation runs project sites that presents students’ work and projects.
Clothing design and costume design
The specialisation in clothing and costume design provides knowledge about the design of garments that meet the needs of various end users, from one-off theatre costumes to more widely used articles, considered in the social and cultural contexts. In the specialisation, students generally focus on either clothing design or costume design. Each area offers scope for specialised studies on a variety of themes that require expert supervision.
Interior architecture and furniture design
This specialisation uses an artistic approach to the design of interior spaces and furniture. The student’s own expertise, experience and intuition form the basis for the development of a personal, experimental and critical approach. The specialisation emphasises independent project development, critical thinking, empathy, social awareness and a conceptual mind-set that seeks to serve and challenge society in new ways. Within the framework of individual projects, the student can explore boundary-breaking and interdisciplinary approaches by cooperating with students from the Academy’s various design, art and performing arts disciplines. The Academy has a full-scale Space Lab, advanced digital facilities and material-based workshops.
This specialisation runs project sites that presents students’ work and projects:
- Project blog, interior architecture and furniture design
- Instagram, interior architecture and furniture design
Apply for admission
Søknadsweb (the application portal) and information about the admission process will be available two months before the application deadline.
Student exchange
If you are interested in becoming an exchange student at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, read more at the Student Exchange page.
