As a graphic designer, you give shape to information with the goal of communicating a message or story to a specific audience. Your work connects your fascinations and observations to those of your clients, other designers and specific user groups.
Studying Graphic Design at WdKA means developing and refining a set of media skills, while strategically relating to social, cultural, political, commercial and technological issues of contemporary society. You will explore the powers and responsibilities of graphic design through experimentation, observation, (visual) research, prototyping/testing and peer-to-peer collaboration.
The profession of graphic design has a long tradition. The basis of the discipline is the design of cohesive visual identities and printed publications (books, posters, etc).
In recent decades, graphic design has expanded to include different forms of media such as websites, apps, film and video, interactive installations, exhibitions and interventions in public space. These developments mean that the practice of a graphic designer is fluid and rarely clear-cut, with much space for exploration and invention.
At the WdKA Graphic Design programme you learn to embrace this wide variety of media and find out where this expansion of the field might lead you. You are trained to understand the full potential of analog, digital and hybrid media formats.
We expect students to show an open attitude and continuous self-reflection towards a subject, society, the media, and themselves. As studies progress, you learn to claim your own methods of making, but also of positioning yourself in the graphic design field. This happens thanks to the WdKA Practices: a part of the curriculum that guides students into the roles their work can play in today’s world.
Our WdKA Graphic Design alumni are actively working both as independent creators and as valuable team members in various professional contexts: social, commercial and autonomous.
Cover image: Light Space, graduation project by Victor Koste (2021) www.studiocoste.com
Open Days & Recruitment activities
Want to know more about life at the Willem de Kooning Academy?
Check out our extended programme, full of (online) activities and interaction with student ambassadors and tutors via this link.
Every era contains the conditions for providing a rebel.
Career opportunities
- Graphic designer within an infinite variety of practices
Stations
Most study activities take place at the Stations (Workspaces). All students, regardless of their bachelor programme or year, are welcome to work at the Stations. These are places where students can test their ideas and figure out how to turn them into fully functioning creations. They can experiment with tools, techniques, materials, and equipment, and receive support and inspiration by working with fellow students, tutors, and instructors.
For more detailed information about our Stations, please visit this webpage
Dual Degree programme
Are you artistically talented, and at the same time thirsty for academic knowledge? The Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) and the Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA) offer you the possibility to combine theory and practice within a five-year Dual Degree programme. Students completing the RASL programme obtain two bachelor degrees: one from the EUR (Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science) and one from WdKA (Bachelor of Arts).
