Industrial design teaches the fundamentals of industrial design and aims to translate visions of the future into concrete, comprehensible concepts and test them in prototypes in the context of complex social change processes. The focus is on developing an understanding of how form has a cultural impact and how design shapes everyday life, behaviour, value attributions and the lived environment.

Durable, sustainable products are created through the interplay of function, aesthetics, strategy and the responsible use of resources – including questions of how products are positioned, further developed and transferred into real-life application contexts.

Design and materials are central to this. This includes understanding the properties and feel of materials, using them experimentally, processing them aesthetically and being able to anticipate how they will change during the manufacturing process. In addition to technical and craftsmanship skills, reflection and insight processes are encouraged: industrial design is viewed as part of social, technological, political, economic and ecological contexts, taking into account social needs and perspectives from sociology, philosophy, economics, sustainability, future studies and materials research.

An important focus is on the examination of classic and experimental design processes. In the process, students develop their own methods, a precise conceptual language and individual approaches that support the entire design process. Ideas are not only formulated, but also tested in various media and made communicable – as sketches, models, digital simulations, films or texts; functional products such as services or systems can also be the subject of the work.

Production is understood as a complex, interdisciplinary and communicative process – at the interface between technology, artistic aspirations, user needs, market logic and sustainability. Accordingly, skills are developed to collaborate with different actors (e.g. companies, engineers and other user groups) and to communicate design in a comprehensible way. Cooperation with industry is specifically sought and promoted as part of this practical implementation.