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 curricula:
  • the bachelor’s degree curriculum in Industrial and Digital Product Design
The updated 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. The Bachelor programme is 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. See what we have been up to on our Instagram and Facebook.

News and events

Tootedisainerid Tokyo Ülikoolis — Tootedisaini tudengid DLX Lab töötoas Tokyo Ülikoolis.

Product Designers in Tokyo: A Week on the Border of Science and Design

In mid-January, 12 EKA product design students boarded a plane with more questions than answers and a rather vague idea of ​​what awaited them. Their destination was the DLX Design Lab at the University of Tokyo, a place where design and science merge in a creative yet practical way, and where they’d get to jump into the hands-on workshop. This is an international design research lab where ...
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Rapid Thinking in Times of Crisis: International Design Sprint at EKA Tackles Defence Challenges

In response to evolving security challenges in Europe, the Product Design Department of EKA hosted an international design sprint, Rapid Defence Tech Design Sprint, from March 24–28 as part of the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP). The sprint brought together students to rapidly develop practical, scalable solutions for both defence and civil protection contexts. A total of 22 ...
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Design and Engineering Met on the Quay

EKA product design students set out to solve how to deliver electricity to ships in the city center. Our recently held Design Diagnostics masterclass brought together product design students from the Estonian Academy of Arts and engineers from Estonian maritime technology company ShoreLink to tackle an increasingly relevant challenge in urban ports: how to deliver electricity from the quay to ...
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Zen and Cenote: How EKA Students Designed Wise’s New Meeting Rooms

The technology company Wise invited students from the Estonian Academy of Arts to take part in designing the interiors of its new office in Tallinn’s Krulli quarter. The result: two meeting rooms that combine the deep-blue serenity of Mexican cenotes with the calm of the Mediterranean — spaces that are functional, cosy, and artistically bold.  “We wanted to create something that wouldn’t feel ...
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EKA Students Won the Grand Prize at the Ars Electronica Festival Campus Exhibition

Under the collective title “Systems of Unrest,” students from the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) and Aalto University joined forces at the Ars Electronica Festival, which took place from September 3 to 7 in Linz, Austria. EKA students won the grand prize at the media art festival Ars Electronica Campus for their work “Threshold State.” The collaborative exhibition brought together five ...
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Estonian Academy of Arts Students Once Again at Ars Electronica

Systems of Unrest: Estonian and Finnish Art Students Respond to Contemporary Anxieties For the first time, the Estonian Academy of Arts and Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture join forces at Ars Electronica Festival 2025, presenting "Systems of Unrest" in the Campus exhibition area from September 3-7 in Linz, Austria. This collaborative exhibition brings together five ...
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“I Got a Great Lick of It Before It All Melted” at ARS

The exhibition "I Got a Great Lick of It Before It All Melted" is an exhibition by students of Graphic Design and Product Design at the Estonian Academy of Arts, which reflects on choices and experiences. Opening 24 April 6 PM ARS Art Factory - Studio 53 ja 98 Entrance from the courtyard We all have a certain number of experiences in life, on which we build the next one. It is like an ...

Student Work

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