The Gradient Skies: Beckmans Designhögskola

   Beckmans College of design is renowned institution, located in the central Stockholm, near Östermalmstorg.
Beckmans offers full time artistic education on a bachelor level within the fields of Visual Communications, Product & Interior Design and Fashion. As well, they offer Night Courses in all of the fields above. The Night Courses serve as a educational platform for both professionals, who wish to widen their education base within the field and as a preparation for younger students, who wish to enter the college full time later on.
   As Beckmans College of Design claims to be firmly rooted in an artistic foundation, all students of Beckmanns College attend Art classes outside their specialised couses, including drawing, colour, photography, animation, three-dimensional and spatial design, visual communication, and the exploration of various methods and processes. The study programme in Fashion aims to develop a highly artistic and individual, reflexive approach of the students towards their work.
   Thanks to cooperation bettween Beckmans and Fashion Studies on Stockholm University, my class spent a day here with the staff and students from the Fashion department, exploring the environment of the college and looking for possible ways of cooperation between the two institutions.
   The day was a mixture of presentations and lectures on a topic "Fashion Design Today". It started with a lecture by a former student of both Beckmans and Fashion Studies, Maria Olofsgård Jegeus, who discussed her experience in fashion education, connecting it to her work at H&M, where she was firstly employed as a fashion designer, and now works as a recruiter of young fashion designers. During her talk, she defined the contemporary role of a fashion designer and design in general nowadays, as comprehended by Beckmans. There have been many interesting ideas, however, the one that resonates the most is that the designer´s role is to "challenge the trend". The day continued with an interview with the Swedish fashion designer Anders Haal, who has worked as main designer at Ann Sofie Back for a couple of years and has recently started his own brand Anders Haal. Later on, we took a guided tour through the studios of fashion design students.

Vysoká škola designu Beckmans sídli v centre Štokholu, neďaleko Östermalmstorg a poskytuje bakalárske štúdium Vizuálnej komunikácie, Produktového a interiérového designu a Módy. Organizujú aj Večerné kurzy, ktoré poskytujú platformu pre profesionálov, ktorí majú za cieľ rozšíriť si obzory a ako príprava pre mladších študentov, ktorí sa plánujú neskôr prihlásiť na štúdium full time.
   Beckmanns College of Design má korene v umeleckej tvorbe, takže študenti okrem špecializovaných prednášok pre vlastný študijný program absolvujú hodiny umenia: kresby, farby, fotografie, animácie, 3D a priestorového designu et cetera, podobne ako u nás na VŠVU. Študijný program v módnej tvorbe má za cieľ podporovať vysoko umelecký a individuálny prístup študentov k svojej práci.
   Vďaka spolupráci medzi Beckmans a Fashion Studies na štokholmskej Univerzite sme tu ako trieda strávili deň s tunajšími profesormi a študentami módy a objavovali sme možnosti hlbšej spolupráce medzi našimi školami.
   Program bol kombináciou prednášok a prezentácií na tému "Módny design dnes". Deň začal prednáškou od bývalej študentky Beckmans a Fashion Studies, Mariou Olofsgård Jegeus, ktorá opisovala svoje skúsenosti so vzdelávaním v oblasti módy a jeho prepojení na svoju prácu pre H&M, kde pracovala najskôr ako designérka a kde je súčasne zamestnaná na pozícii, na ktorej zháňa designérskych nováčikov, často študentov a zamestnáva ich pre H&M. Počas svojej prednášky definovala rolu súčasného módneho návrhára a designu všeobecne, ako ho chápe Beckmans ako vzdelávacia inštitúcia. Zaznelo mnoho zaujímavých myšlienok, ale najviac zarezonovala tá, že úlohou designéra je "spochybniť trend a pretvoriť ho na niečo stále". Deň pokračoval rozhovorom so švédskym módnym designérom Andersom Haalom, ktorý pracoval pre Ann Sofie Back a neskôr si založil vlastnú značku Anders Haal. Na koniec sme sa šli pozrieť na ateliéry študentov a vypočuli si o ich procese tvorby od jednej zo študentiek.