Basics in Design

The Basel School of Design specializes in professional design education for the applied arts. The “Vorkurs“ lays the foundation for further studies at universities of art and design in Switzerland and abroad. The school also offers its own professional courses of study, as well as postgraduate programmes in textile design, typography, and graphic design.

 

The Basel School of Design invites students, professionals, and teachers to apply for study in the famous foundation programme, the “Vorkurs“, for either one or two semesters, and to concentrate on essential aspects of process-oriented and form-oriented basic design.

 

Since 2005, the Basel School of Design, in cooperation with Wolfgang Weingart, has offered a three-week summer programme dedicated to basics in design and typography. For more information: http://basics.sfgbasel.ch.

 

Students from all over the world participate in the intensive summer programme, delving into the four areas of drawing, colour, spatial design, and typography. Instruction follows the core approach of the Basel School of Design: to create, to observe, and to evaluate, using only hand, eye, and intellect; no computers involved!


The enthusiasm of our summer participants has made us aware, yet again, how much the aspect of basics is missing from current design education. This encouraged us to establish in addition to the summer school (which continues as before), a programme for designers from abroad called “Basics in Design“. The programme offers the option of either one or two semesters of study in Basel during the academic year.

Although “Basics in Design“ is concerned with graphic design issues in particular, participants from other visual art and design disciplines are welcome, as we believe our methodology can be applied to a variety of fields. The emphasis is very much on the manual and the visual experience: the use of digital tools is limited.

 

Through investigations of colour, drawing, letterform design, spatial design, and the development of serial forms, “Basics in Design“ fosters:

  • the refinement of visual perception 
  • the clarification of form
  • the in-depth investigation of form-oriented design processes
  • the development of strategies for making design judgements
  • the enrichment and differentiation of visual vocabulary 
  • the creation of effective visual messages through a successful combining of forms
  • the understanding of design as a continual process of investigation.