About the study program

The Graphic Design / Communication Design program is a diploma program with a standard period of 8 semesters. Interdisciplinary, all students of the AdBK Nuremberg initially take 2 semesters of the Basislehre, in which artistic production and reflection are the subject. In order to learn in the workshop and media courses basic techniques of the individual design disciplines - from plaster casting to film editing. However, the events in the Graphic Design / Communication Design class and the weekly class meeting may and should also be attended from the beginning.

Events such as workshops with changing guest lecturers, seminars, study trips to design offices and art colleges, or lectures open to the public at the university with renowned artists and designers make the course of study varied and focal points can be set individually. There are also regular opportunities to realize real projects for clients from culture and business or to participate in competitions. The study structure as well as the discourse are open, so that students can develop their study focus and professional identity in a self-determined way. Cooperation between classes and students is encouraged. Students are supervised by professors Holger Felten, Friederike Girst and lecturer Peter Wendl.

Philosophy

For many centuries, design meant nothing more than depicting, "designare". Then, in the 17th century, it was used in English language for preliminary drawings for a work of art or the sketches of a building plan. Since then, the disciplines have proliferated: Industrial Design, Multimedia Design, Graphic Design, Software Design, Fashion Design, Technology Design, Food Design and Open Design. Design is an open, instinctive process, fluid, accessible to everyone, and increasingly popular in its expanded terminology. The AdBK Nuremberg takes on this ( historically ) grown complexity as the only art school in Germany with the specialisation "Graphic Design / Communication Design".

At the threshold of the 21st century with all its unpredictable technical changes, the further development of the media and consumer society can certainly be predicted. Today, the purchase of digital and real-world consumer goods is associated with many promises and anticipated experiences, some of which even function to create identity. Communication can mean the mutual exchange or the one-way message of thoughts, mostly in the form of words and images, and its power should not be underestimated.

For students and teachers in the Department of Graphic Design / Communication Design, it is therefore important to remain critical in the design of these messages in the form of posters, books, magazines, websites, apps, fonts and so on. They should do justice to the content and reach a recipient.

This aspiration and the goal of learning the necessary technical, aesthetic and conceptual skills are promising prerequisites for a successful degree.

Pavilion 16 and the architecture of the Academy, designed and built by Sep Ruf in 1954, promote these principles of transparency and exchange - the buildings are one-storey, light, and democratic.

The degree Diplom in the academic freedom of a non-modularized course of study is corresponding with the basic understanding of the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg to be a free space for the development of theoretical and practical skills.