Undergraduate Degree in Design (UPF)

Presentation and objectives

Branch of knowledge
Arts and Humanities

Degree
Graduate in Design – Bachelor’s Degree in Design, accredited degree awarded by the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF)

Specialisation
Graphic design
Product Design
Space Design
Design of Interactive Experiences

Duration
4 years

Idioma
Catalan / Spanish
Some subjects in English

Credits
240 ECTS
(60 ECTS per academic year)

Price
157 €/ECTS
Financing and grants

At Elisava we believe that you must decide your own path. In our Degree in Design we will rethink together the limits of design and all its disciplines so that you have all the necessary tools, knowledge and resources to make the most of your time at the School. We want you to boost your abilities and build the profile of designer or designer you want to be step by step.

We believe in "doing" as an engine for change and innovation. Therefore, our educational model is based on project work, where all disciplines coexist and combine to obtain the most original and disruptive results possible. In the Elisava's Degree in Design you will learn to generate ideas and overcome challenges that shape new paradigms and realities. We think of the School as a hub of connections and, therefore, we encourage and strengthen relationships with the business and institutional fabric, the design and engineering professionals and our alumni. Thus, you will have at your disposal a network of national and international contacts of first line, whether are taking an internship, participating in projects or doing an Erasmus programme.

Are you one of those who spend the day drawing on the margins of napkins? Are you interested in the analysis of color, light and shape? Do you like to rethink spaces and their functionalities? The Degree in Design of Elisava is made to your needs.

The Degree in Design puts at your disposal all the tools for you to become a designer or designer capable of solving problems and meet the needs of the individual's relationship with their environment, as well as using design as a tool for reflection and personal positioning. During the four years of training, you will develop your skills and aptitudes to be a design professional with the ability to decide and create new communication elements, products, services and social environments that improve people's daily lives, as well as the ability to dialogue with experts from other disciplines and to face current and future challenges.

Competencies and specialisations

These are the main competences that you will develop during your four years of training at the Undergraduate Degree in Design:

Developing a creative attitude of experimentation (drawing, building, expressing, testing, prototyping ...) with the aim of drawing conclusions and exploring relevant and innovative contributions.
Knowing how to detect and question the needs of users and interpret the historical, social, cultural, economic and technological context to obtain a personal and creative vision of design, with which to configure new realities that anticipate future problems.
Preparing a design project that is consistent with a personal positioning to express concerns (social, environmental, political, ethical and aesthetic).
Identifying the potential to value it and also detect the shortcomings to improve them, in addition to learning to work autonomously and in teams, in an organised manner and optimising the available resources.
Resolving complex design projects dialoguing with professionals from other fields (engineers, architects, artists, anthropologists, sociologists, etc.) and managing their own knowledge of other disciplines in a decisive way.

The Undergraduate Degree in Design specialisations to choose are:

Graphic Design

This specialty of the Undergraduate Degree in Design will train you as a competent professional and will allow you to acquire the necessary knowledge and experience in the field of graphic design and visual communication. You will be able to deepen in areas such as art direction, corporate image, editorial design, web and application design, data and information design, packaging, illustration, typography or signage.

Product Design

If you study this specialty of the Undergraduate Degree in Design you will obtain a wide knowledge in the product design and/or industrial design. You will delve into fields such as furniture design, lighting, automotive, packaging and objects and accessories, as well as in the design of products, systems and services.

Space Design

You must choose this specialty of the Undergraduate Degree in Design if you want to become an efficient, competent professional in the design of interior spaces –homes, bars, restaurants–, or in stand design, exhibitions, public space interventions, set design events and shows, ephemeral assemblies or shop window design.

Interactive Experiences Design

Choose this specialty of the Undergraduate Degree in Design if you want to become an expert in interaction design and interactive experiences (web design, audiovisual design, multimedia design, user experience design, digital interface design, product design and interactive environments).

The Undergraduate Degree in Design specialisation will be chosen before the beginning of the second year. During the third course you will be able to delve into the discipline that you have chosen or create a more polyvalent profile by taking subjects from other specialisations.

Career Opportunities

Upon completion of the Undergraduate Degree in Design you will have the necessary knowledge and skills to develop your work activity in a wide range of sectors and areas, participating in all phases of the design process:

Spatial Design (interior spaces - bars, restaurants, homes ... -, design of stands, exhibitions, interventions in public space, scenography, ephemeral assemblies, window dressing).
Product design and/or industrial design (furniture, lighting, automotive, packaging, objects and accessories, as well as all types of products, systems and services).
Graphic design and communication (art direction, corporate image, editorial design, web design, application design, information design, packaging, illustration, typography, signage).
Design of interactive experiences and interaction (web design, audio-visual design, multimedia, user experience, design of digital interfaces, product design and interactive environments).
Education and research in design (criticism, research, theoretical and pedagogical design development).

90% of the students find work in the months following the end of the Degree and most are satisfied with their current job (score: 8/10). In addition, almost 80% would take the degree again*. *Source: estudis.aqu.cat/dades/Web/Inici

Internships and projects

The collaboration with the business and institutional sector is part of the day to day of the School. That is why, during the four years of the Undergraduate Degree in Design, you will have the opportunity to participate in academic projects, workshops and other activities carried out in collaboration with companies and institutions such as Hard Rock Café, Sony, Swarovski, HP, Desigual, Danone, SEAT, Santa & Cole , Sónar, Mira, MACBA, Fundació Arrels, Desis Network and Victoria & Albert Museum. In addition, from the 3rd course (or when you have 120 credits), you will have the opportunity to take curricular and/or extracurricular internships in frontline companies so that you can enter the labour market with all the necessary knowledge and resources.

Find all the information here

International mobility

At Elisava we believe that the exchange and mobility of students and professors enrich university education and, therefore, we promote the international relations of the School with other educational centres, universities and research centres around the world. Currently, we have agreements with more than 70 of the most recognised and influential universities in the world of design and engineering worldwide.

Find all the information here

Study plan

The Undergraduate Degree in Design takes place in four years. The first course consists of basic training subjects where the different disciplines of design are introduced and where you will discover the tools of expression and communication that will shape your own language.

In the second course you will have to choose a specialisation. During this year, you will acquire the tools, know the materials and integrate the techniques of your specialty, as well as the design methodologies applied in disciplinary projects

In the third year, you will be able to deepen the chosen mention or develop a more global profile by taking subjects from other mentions. Also, you will be able to take curricular internships or take a semester in a foreign university with the Erasmus program.

In the last course, you will have to develop two global multidisciplinary projects in addition to the Bachelor Thesis (TFG, by its initials in Spanish), where you will demonstrate your personal positioning in front of the design through a project that integrates and demonstrates all the competences that you will have acquired throughout the year.

PDF Download the table of subjects here

20190213-cuadro-asignaturas-gdis-cast_1.pdf

Study plan Degree in Design UPF (curriculum between 2018-19 and 2020-21 courses)

1st Course

2nd Course

1st term

Taller I
Proyecto I
Contexto Global. Contexto y Usuario I

2nd term

Taller II
Proyecto II
Contexto Global. Tecnología y Diseño

3rd term

Taller III
Proyecto III
Proyecto Transversal I
Contexto Global. Nuevas tendencias

3rd Course

1st term

Experimentación I
Proyectos Optativos de Mención I
Contexto y Usuario II

2nd term

Experimentación II
Proyectos Optativos de Mención II
Teorías críticas I

3rd term

Experimentación III
Proyectos Optativos de Mención III
Proyecto Transversal II
Teorías críticas II
Prácticas curriculares

4th Course

1st term

TFG research
Technology and Society
Global project I

2nd term

TFG Transversal Workshop
Global project II
Design Management

3rd term

Final Degree Thesis
TFG dissemination

Study plan Degree in Design UPF (curriculum before the 2018-19 course)

If you started the Degree before the 2018-19 course, this is the curriculum that follows your Degree and the subjects that you will study.

Course 1 (in extinction)

1st Quarter

Methodology of the design
Mathematics for design
Fundamentals of the project I
Principles of drawing

2nd Quarter

Applied geometry
Form, materials and techniques
Fundamentals of the project II
Services and consumer society

3rd Quarter

Matter and science
Fundamentals of the project III
Objects, figures and spaces
Architecture, design and modernity

Course 2 (in extinction)

1 Quarter

Architecture, Design and Contemporaneity
Physics for Design
Projects I (Graphic Communication)
Projects I (Product and Space)

2 Quarter

Digital Laboratory
Projects II (Graphic Communication)
Projects II (Product and Space)
Graphic techniques and communication
Techniques I (Product and Space)

3 Quarter

Drawing for Design
Processes and Sustainable Products
Projects III (Graphic Communication)
Projects III (Product and Space)
Techniques II (Graphic Communication)
Techniques II (Product and Space)