EINA Design Degree
The EINA Design Degree is an official title offered by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
The EINA design university studies are shaped using a designer’s training in the general meaning as a start point to work towards the specialization through the mentions offered:
From the 2nd year itineraries for obtaining the mention are recommended. This will become effective in the 3rd and 4th years, studying at least 5 of the 6 optional subjects that form one of the mentions.
Nevertheless the student could also opt for no specialization or a combination of several mentions becoming a designer with a hybrid profile.
In the same way that a designer’s professional practice requires specialized skills in the aforementioned skills, it also requests generic designers who are able to work on different fields or coordinate specialized designers and establish interdisciplinary dynamics providing a wide range of criteria and approaches. The mechanism of EINA’s Design Degree facilitates this training and therefore allows curricular itineraries outside the listed mentions.
Upon completion of the Design Degree students should be able to:
- Show they have and understand concepts relating design with culture, visual arts, aesthetic trends and the both historical and avant-garde technological and business environments.
- Apply the knowledge acquired to suggest improvements and innovations in the communicative and physical environments based on design conceptualisation and formalisation and work as designers according to the pattern of behaviour proper to the professional environment of this discipline.
- Interpret relevant data that allows to identify usage and communication issues in the daily environment solvable with design, give opinions based on reasoned criteria about relevant social, scientific or ethnic topics that might affect them.
- Transmit their answers in a specialised verbal and visual language proper to design and master the necessary resources and codes to communicate them to the different agents involved (customers, manufacturers, salespeople and lay public.
- Develop a high level of autonomy that enables them to continue learning through advanced professional and research oriented training courses and master’s degrees.
When learning design, very different subjects, concepts and abilities converge, all of them originating from the visual expression and representation and from the technologic and scientific domains or the analytical thinking of the humanities. Design is a synthetic discipline and therefore, any student is eligible to start these studies, regardless of their high school subjects or if they come from other studies that enable them to access university.
However, certain skills and interests may facilitate the fulfilment of these studies. Amongst the most notable ones are the ability to observe, inclination towards innovation, good visual representation command, creativity and imagination, artistic sensibility, motivation to use new technological resources or strong technical abilities.
Design is increasingly important in our society. Nowadays designers participate in the conception and development of any service or product. The work of professional designers is vital in the innovation processes, as it allows the inclusion of social and environmental values and provides the cultural and esthetic quality of the immediate surroundings.
The training in EINA’s Design Degree ensures the learning of the skills needed for professional practice in design, while focusing on its innovative nature, highlighting the entrepreneurial dimension of the job and ensuring the acquisition of meticulous and solid cultural knowledge.
The shaping of the studies provides the resources and knowledge to work in a wide range of professional fields and allows, at the same time, to start guiding the student’s interests and defining the specific fields of the several work interests.
The following are a few examples of the professional fields usually entered after gaining the Bachelor’s Degree in Design:
Visual Creation
Art direction, contemporary artistic practice, illustration, exhibition curatorship, criticism, history, artistic research and teaching. It is also a good access to future studies or positions with a high level of technification, such as photography, audiovisual creation, digital creation or animation.
Design Culture
Cultural management, patrimony, activity scheduling, education, curatorship, analysis and criticism in specialised press, research, design management, design consultancy, project manager, business management in design.
Space Design
Working spaces, commercial spaces, domestic spaces, exhibition spaces, lighting, scenography, fairs, TV sets, localization design.
Graphic Design
Graphic communication and identity for companies, institutions and products, editorial design, creative management, copywriting and naming, art direction in fields like publicity or photography, space applied graphs, packaging, typography creation, design of digital platforms and interactions, animation and motiongraphics, design for audiovisual media amongst others.
Product Design
Inhabited furniture, contract and work spaces, public furniture, products of great consumption, electronics and appliances, domestic equipment, tools, lighting, wearables & IoT, packaging, innovation management, product management, automotive sector and mobility, sports & well-being, health and well-being, children’s sector and toys.
Professional insertion
77% of EINA’s graduate students find employment in less than 3 months (Survey on Employability conducted by the University System Quality Agency in Catalonia in 2017)