I am about to apply among other institutes and to HDK in Goteborg (MA in ID degree). Did any of you ever studied there or heard anything about it?
Thanks for any reply.
nobody ???
I dont know a lot about it, but from what I’ve heard it is extremely self-directed (even compared to most MA degrees).
a friend of mine is there, you can check his work at http://www.polyid.com/
canadian id,
thanx for your response. Actually i am interested in both Umea and HDK and as far as i know Umea is known as a very good institute. Instead i hav enever heared anything about HDK. Is this because it is not advertised as much as Umea or its educational level is lower?
Umea was ranked as the top industrial design education in Sweden. Not sure if this was by the Swedish Industrial Design association or another state run body. Of course, any ranking has certain qualities they are looking for, which may not necessarily be the qualities you are looking for. The only other ID school I have seen in Sweden is Konstfack in Stockholm, and my opinion is that the facilities there were not even close to as good as Umea, but the work is good. Konstfack and HDK, from what I have heard, are regarded with Umea as the top ID educations in Sweden. however, also from what I have heard, they have a more ‘artistic’ approach to industrial design, whereas Umea can tend to be more technical (this is not to say that it isnt a creative place…). As I mentioned before, HDK is very very self-directed in the Master’s program, with little to no instruction or deadlines. Its pretty much a do what you want attitude, but it attracts students who like to work that way, and I think the work is also quite good.
As for advertising, I think that Umea, of all the schools, has put the most effort in to attracting students from around the world and becoming an international institution, and this is probably why you have heard more about it. HDK and Konstfack on the other hand seem to be already well-known in Sweden and seem to mostly attract students from around Scandinavia. I dont think Ive seen any advertising from either. I think one of the main reasons that a swedish student would choose HDK or Konstfack over Umea is the opportunity to live in Stockholm or Goteborg rather than Umea (which is not to say that they arent also both good schools…).
canadian id,
i really appreciate your detailed mail. In fact i really do like the idea of the more artistic approach of hdk and Konstfack (if i am not wrong konstfack runs its classes only in swedish 
). I already have been rejected by RCA and UIAH in Helsinki and i am really worried about the future of my application in both Umea and HDK. I know that Umea only accepts about 8 students per year. Do you know the number of students that attend HDK every year? I guess it must be about the same.
im afraid i dont think can help you much more, since my knowledge of hdk is pretty limited. yes, i believe konstfack runs its courses in swedish…i think it can be quite hard to get in there for the masters anyway, since many of its bachelor students continue on to the masters. i think there is a bit of that at hdk too, but im really not sure, and i have no idea how many students they take. umea takes about 8 to 10 for the masters advanced product, though about half of those are students who previously did their bachelors at umea.
im sure you’ve checked out their site, but if not, information about the hdk master’s programme can be found here: http://www.hdk.gu.se/prospekt/magister01e.shtml
it doesnt say anything about number of students accepted unfortunately, though they have a page listitng students with email addresses at the school (swedish section of the site only), and they list 47 students in the first year masters. im guessing that their self-directed approach allows them to accept many more students than most schools…though it still seems like a lot: http://www.hdk.gu.se/student/adresser/index.html
nothing more to say but thank you!