Pforzheim University School of Design

This unique degree course is the only accessory design program in Germany and responses to an urge of a highly dynamic and fast growing accessory industry with its upcoming, new market places. The subject is defined as an inter- and trans-disciplinary fulcrum, a creative scope between fashion, textile, jewellery, interior, industrial design and smart products. It features not only a wide range of segments like footwear, leather goods, bags, luggage and travel items, eye-wear and fashionable health- and sport-wear, but encompasses a large diversity of elements, gadgets, objects and artefacts up to mini-series and small collections.
In-depth investigations across multiple disciplines provide a critical insight into different design approaches and offer a thorough understanding of process-related principles and their applications. By applying experimental methods, studio teaching and collaborative units stress the cultivation of critical and creative engagement, of working within limitations and interconnecting creativity and commerce. The course underpins a technical expertise, it covers a wide range of key skill sets, excellence, craftmanship, traditional manufacturing, up to contemporary techniques, smart technologies including 3D-processing and –printing.

Jewellery is symbolic function and emotion through material and form in respect to the body. Adorning oneself is inherent to human nature; self-embellishment and the artefacts with which we shape our everyday offer us the opportunity to position ourselves within a certain sociological, historical and cultural reality. A focus on indepth research pushing the boundaries of state-of-the-art digital and traditional technologies and materials, artistic sensibility and critical thinking, fosters new positions between craftsmanship, technology and society. Students are encouraged to question the known and explore the unfamiliar.

Collaborations with the German Museum of Technology, Berlin (UNESCO commemorated project „Manufactory production and design of jewellery“), other design disciplines, visiting artists, design studios and brands and regional and international industry partners sharpen design and industry skills. Students are pushed and mentored to develop an individual creative position on jewellery and objects ranging from one-offs to serial production. Alumni are recognized as highly skilled designers with unique profiles, sensibilities and rigor in their professional practice, ranging from artists and small production studios to designers shaping industry.