A course or workshop at Beckmans Academy can make you rethink and increase the trust in yourself and your role at work. Choose between fashion, design and visual communication, taught by some of Swedens top creatives.
Understanding the artistic tools and developing artistic methods and processes are part of what we teach in our Art classes, which are included in all the study programmes at Beckmans.
Designers, regardless of specialisation, need to be able to move "freely" in the creative span, and to understand their own work, expression and notions, as well as those of others. They need tools to communicate visually with others and with themselves. They need to trust and understand their own artistic process.The College has state-of-the-art computer rooms, sewing and draping studios, a carpentry workshop and studios for art classes and other educational activities. There is also a photo studio and a small screen printing studio. A gallery within the College is reserved for continuous exhibitions by students, teachers and guest exhibitors. The library is still under development. Students also have free access to the excellent libraries at the Stockholm University College of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack) and the Royal Institute of Art.
Since the start in 1939, the College has operated from several locations in central Stockholm. Today, the Beckmans College of Design is situated on Brahegatan 10, a few paces from Stureplan, in a building from the 1960s designed by the architect Carl Nyrén.
A designer is always working for the future. Sometimes this means the immediate future - for instance a garment that will be in the shops in a few weeks or an advertising campaign for next autumn; and sometimes the perspective is slightly longer - a piece of furniture that becomes a design classic, or a building that should last for at least half a century. It is crucial, therefore, that the designer relates to the future and is able to envision what needs may arise round the corner.
But design does not only correspond to current and future needs; as designers we shape future behaviour, attitudes and actions through the ideas and products we contribute to promoting. In this sense, we have an enormous potential influence, and thus also an enormous responsibility. What we produce must be sustainable: for the people and the planet, today and in the future.
Often, design-intensive industries, and especially fashion, are seen as being incompatible with sustainability. At the Beckmans College of Design, however, we are thoroughly convinced that design is crucial, and a necessary resource in creating a sustainable society. But this requires courage, creativity and patience - from designers and, consequently, from us as teachers. We are just at the start of an enormous process, and we learn together with our students and the world around us.
