The Master’s Programme in Design teaches experienced designers to present and explain their solutions to customers, supervisors and colleagues. The two years of part-time studies aim to equip the students to handle new challenges in a profession that has changed profoundly in recent years. The programme is now accepting applications from prospective students.

By Anders Klebak, journalist

In June 2009, when Lisbeth Kamstrup-Holm completes the Master’s Programme in Design, she has acquired a new language. That is how she describes her benefit from the two-year programme.

In her job in the design department at the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, she is involved in developing insulin pens for patients with diabetes, among other things. In that capacity, she is regularly required to explain and argue her case. To external designers who propose solutions as well as internally within Novo Nordisk, she must be able to justify why one solution is superior to another. And here, her new skills are essential.
“It’s easy for two designers to discuss the benefits of a design, but it’s another thing entirely to explain things to people with a different background,” she says. “The reason why I applied to this programme was precisely that I needed a language to explain why one solution works while the other one doesn’t.”

The seminars at the Master's Programme in Design involve a mix of lectures, discussion, reflection, workshops, individual assignments and feedback. Photo: Erik Hansen-Hansen

A Diverse Group of Applicants

The Master’s Programme is still relatively new. It accepts new students every two years and is currently inviting applications for the third time.
“The students who are accepted into the programme will learn about theories and methods that expand their knowledge about user-involvement and target groups, business aspects such as branding and innovation, and the social context that designers work in,” says Assistant Research Professor Mads Nygaard Folkmann.

The programme, which is developed and run by the Danish Centre for Design Research and provided by the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, attracts a diverse group of applicants, including independent designers with years of experience from running their own business and people like Lisbeth Kamstrup-Holm who work in large companies.
“The mix of design people with very diverse backgrounds adds a nice dynamic to the groups and also makes it possible to establish network,” she says.

Many of the students are looking to expand their qualifications in areas that supplement their original training.
“One of the goals is to enable designers to see their work in a larger context,” says Mads Nygaard Folkmann. “Designers increasingly have to cooperate closely with people from other professions, and that’s difficult if one doesn’t grasp, say, the jargon used by marketing people.”

Increasing Demands

The business sector is also happy with the new programme. Kim Meyer Andersen, a co-founder of the design firm Kontrapunkt and a member of the programme’s advisory board, calls the Master’s Programme a success. He believes that designers have a growing need for additional training in order to meet the increasing demands from businesses.
“The level is rising constantly, and the designers have to keep up if they want to be able to communicate with highly educated businesses executives,” he says.

In a parallel trend, the global development has caused many industrial companies to move abroad, and many of the traditional design tasks in product development have gone the same way. That has left room for designers to use their competences to address tasks in the service sector and take on a broader role in innovation processes.
“For example, being able to help a service provider develop a better product,” says Kim Meyer Andersen. “And it takes training and broad theoretical and methodological knowledge to equip designers to be able to adapt the traditional design approach to the more abstract and immaterial tasks.”

The students in the Master's Programme in Design meet in four intensive two-day seminars each semester. Photo: Erik Hansen-Hansen

Theory Enriching Practice

Students in the programme are introduced to a wide range of research-based knowledge, and in Mads Nygaard Folkmann’s experience, the students are hungry for this knowledge.
“Much of the theory that we review is actually very close to design practice. But it’s new to our students, and it’s my impression that they have several ‘aha!-experiences’ throughout the process. We can see from the feedback that it enriches their understanding of the field,” he says.

Lisbeth Kamstrup-Holm can already see the effect of the additional training.
“I’ve become better at briefing the external designers we work with and describing what it is we’re looking for. I’ve also become better at discussing the emotional qualities of the design,” she says.

And that is essential in a company like Novo Nordisk, which has typically taken a more traditional approach to the design of medical equipment, where the main emphasis has been on technical feasibility.
“We’ve become better at perceiving the patients as whole persons, who have a relationship with the things they use. And this needs to be incorporated in our design solutions,” she says.

Mind Design #16, 2009