Department of Integrated Design
"Integrated Design" as a philosophy
for creating a beautiful society
Discernment and realization abilities for a prosperous future
Breaking down the conventional segmentation of fields, the Department of Integrated Design is a place of new cross-sectional design education encompassing also fields other than those related to communication and products. The department trains skilled designers able to sensuously detect from daily life activities the various issues and complex components that make up society and industry; analyze, visualize, and communicate those; and ultimately, translate them into concrete, actually existing things. Objects and spaces as extensions of the human body; environments as aggregations of those; systems and communications as media connecting them to one another; and interaction of the body with still and moving images – design as an aesthetic in its own right that integrates all these aspects continuously and with consistency becomes a driving force that guides life, society and industry in a positive direction. In order to train such designers, the Department of Integrated Design focuses on students' individual interests while teaching in a "project" format design in a broader sense that integrates various related fields.
Curriculum
Specialized courses are divided into mainly practical work/exercise focusing on "practical/expert skills", and a lecture-based program dedicated to "coursework/theory". In regard to "practical/expert skills", according to our school's tradition as an art university, the basic first and second year courses convey universal fundamental knowledge, and thoroughly train students' creativity involving also fine art. In the first year, students acquire skills in sketching, color/form/material/composition, and basic computer technology. In the second year, they comprehensively learn perspective/technical drawing, typography/structure and configuration/animation/modeling, and acquire programming skills through practical work. In the specialized courses in the third and fourth year, students acquire design skills necessary for materializing abstract thoughts and ideas during the course of multiple projects. From the third up to the first half of the fourth year, students systematically choose subjects from the categories "Projects", "Design Exercise" and "Design Practice", before finally beginning with their "graduation works" in the second half of the fourth year. Therefore, the teachers in charge offer advice for the progression of the students' projects from the respective field of specialization.
Prospects after graduation
Career options after graduation include working for creative departments, planning and development divisions of various companies in industries ranging from manufacturing to advertising and information services, or starting up one's own businesses around design as a core element.