Department of Product Design

The Estonian Academy of Arts Department of Product Design is engaged with human-centred design. We have been training professional designers here for more than 50 years. Historically, product design study has focused on industrial design. The rapid development in the ICT sector has now broadened the term product design, and a new field – digital product design – now complements the previous field of industrial design (furniture, electronics etc.).

Our department allows study on the basis of two curricula:

  • the bachelor’s degree curriculum in Industrial and Digital Product Design,
  • master’s degree curriculum in Product Design.

Theupdated bachelor’s degree programme has two areas of specialization: industrial design (previously called product design) and digital product design. During the first semester, our students study together; then they can choose one area of specialization.

Due to labour market demand for digital product designers, in autumn 2018 we opened our digital product design area of specialization. This gave designers interested in the IT field the technical knowledge and digital design skills they needed.

In the Product Design master’s degree programme, we focus on design of objects. (Creation of digital solutions can be studied on the basis of the Academy of Arts Interaction Design curriculum).

Both bachelor’s and master’s programmes are practical in their nature: we solve real-life product development challenges in cooperation with businesses. In the 2017/2018 academic year, we designed a package drone for Cleveron, helped Europe’s best student company Festera with product development and created a vision of an e-donor environment for the North Estonia Medical Centre donor centre.

 “Design is a practical, interdisciplinary, human-centred, creative process that seeks for the best solutions for existing problems.” Martin Pärn, industrial designer, partner with the Iseasi design bureau.

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News and events

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Student chairs in Võru Suhvli

The Southeast Estonia Innovation Center opened the Suhvli discovery center dedicated to the former Võru furniture factory and the wood industry there. Next to the history of the region, furniture and material samples, a selection of chairs from the students of the EKA Faculties of Design and Architecture reflects the modern design concept. Most of them have been completed in the joint ...
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6-10. In February, EKA’s product design department will be represented at the Stockholm Furniture Fair.

Slow Design Studio The keyword for the studio is Slow Design, highlighting the contemporary need to reduce mass production and consumption, as well as the importance of local thinking. The philosophical center of the studio is on Post-Anthropocene as a concept and the chosen material is peat. Collecting ideas, histories and stories, this material presents a possibility to experiment with ...
Kristin Silm

Product design form: Kristin Silm

Kristin Silm is an active multitasker who does it all, all the time. Name: Kristin Silm Position: Student Relationship to EKA: 2nd year digital product design student, student council member, protolab assistant 1. What projects are you working on at the moment? In the autumn semester we are working on a collaboration project with Swedbank, where we aim to create more valuable experiences for ...
Kaisa Uik

Product Design Form: Kaisa Uik

Name: Kaisa Uik Position: Future UX designer, design workshop facilitator Relation with EKA: 3rd-year digital product design student What projects do you have on hand at the moment? At the moment, I am in a phase, where all exciting projects have recently been completed and new ones are slowly starting. In the fall semester, we are working on a service design project for the National Library ...
Erik on siin pildil

Product Design Form: Erik Heiki Veelmaa

In April, we will introduce you to Erik Heiki Veelmaa, who is approaching the final stretch of his BA studies. Name: Erik Heiki Veelmaa Position: Transportation Designer at Auve Tech Connection with EKA: Bachelor’s 3rd year student 1. What projects do you have on hand at the moment? At the moment, I am working most diligently on my diploma thesis, which focuses on Estonia’s shrinking small ...
Päisepilt

Exploring Conditions for Community Care in one Neighborhood

How might peer support and community engagement enable a new approach to increasing low-cost and accessible mental health services in Estonia?  This was the central question of a 10-month research project supported by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund and Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) as a joint development grant, which identified gaps in the existing mental health services for young adults ...

Student Work

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