The Academy welcomes a fresh group of creatives from around the world. Here is a look at the MA in Design first year students.

Árdís Sigmundsdóttir – Iceland

Background:
I’m an Icelandic teacher; interested in all kinds of everything: art, environment and business. My focus will be the Icelandic nature, how we can manage tourism in a positive way.

Individual project, initial research focus:
Heart of Mother Nature, Iceland – Managing tourism and wilderness in Iceland

I am investigating how firms and public institutions in Iceland can use Open Innovation to work together to protect the Icelandic nature. Sharing knowledge is key in open innovation environment and will help the firms to focus on long term growth with cradle to cradle ideology, which is a design framework for going beyond sustainability and designing for abundance in a circular economy.  

Andrea Magdalena Jónsdóttir – Iceland

Background:
BA in Anthropology, 90 ECTS in IAA in Department of Fine Art, one year of the Diploma Programme at Borgarholtsskóli in Multi Media.

Individual project, initial research focus:
In my design research I want to work with the book form from different viewpoints. Design is one of them but the social context of the book is another one as well. To begin I will print a book of poetry in different ways using different paper or set up. 2-6 different copies of the same book and that experiment might show me which designs works and which ones do not, and to observe and interpret how people react to the book and what it may mean to a person, when the same text is presented in different form. 

Andrés Julián León Cruz – Colombia

Background:
Graphic designer & web developer specialized on web development, multimedia apps, infographics, visual identity, digital concept and illustration. Creative and with own discernment.

Individual project proposal:
The design of visuals and the visual perceptional development: analysis of the structure and evolution of the elements and composition of visual design.

The aim of this research project is to develop an integral analysis of the essential elements of visual communication (form, colour and motion), their relationships and characteristics from their evolution to their performance and behaviour in conjunct acting as a single visual element to determine its effects at psychological, cognitive and perceptive level. As well as the practical implementation of the results on visual psychotherapy, mood modifications, learning improvement, interactive interfaces, user experience design, multimedia usability, web design, and advertising media. 

Arjun Singh – India

Background:
Bachelors of Design in Fashion design from National Institute of Fashion Technology, India. Professional experience; A designer and a lecturer, who believes in “conceive, believe and achieve” and to always explore different sectors of design, and the cross-cultural environment to amalgamate past and the future with the present.

Individual project, initial research focus:
From the Nature, For the Nature – Using biomimicry for ideal solutions for sustainability of Nature and Highlands

Using Biomimicry to find the ideal solutions for sustainability of Iceland’s nature and highlands, which is being disturbed by explosion of population by applying existing knowledge and methods such as:

1)    Scientific understanding of Nature and how it has sustained itself for millions of years.

2)    System Design.

3)     Behavioural Design.

4)    Reduce – Reuse – Recycle – Recover.

Human beings have still a lot to learn from the expert designers, innovators and engineers of nature.

Guðrún Margrét Jóhannsdóttir – Icelandic

Background:
BA in Sculpture, 90 ECTS in IAA. 45 ECTS Bomobil designkaravan, Stockholm the city of Europe 1998, competition among Scandinavian design schools; designing a mobile home. The consept was about a hydrogen driven mobil home. 2003-2004 Ceramics at The Academy of Aarhus.

Individual project, initial research focus:
I have an idea about a holistic centre that would blend together our sense of the Icelandic swimming pool and Turkish bath culture, the Hammam with a raw / wild food twist to it. A swimming pool with a greenhouse and people curing them from stress in an alternative way? To wake up consciously again to old traditions and delve back to the roots with a modern concern.

Leiry Serón – Honduras

Background:
Visual Communication, Graphic Design, Film 

Individual project, initial research focus:
My individual project proposal is to create a platform able to hold a unique collection of stories of a young generation determined to build a sustainable future, collected in a space designed to trigger the collaboration, creativity, and growth needed to ensure the conservation of the Icelandic natural environment.

The research focus will explore questions such as: What is the role of the youth in preserving the Icelandic environment? What projects have arisen from the concern of ensuring a sustainable future? What are the pressing environmental issues that inspired these initiatives? And how can design enhance these projects and creatively showcase them. 

Lisa Wölfel – Germany

Background:
BA in Interactive Media – Interaction Design, User Interface Design, Visual Communications, Graphic Design, Coding. MA in Information Design – Spatial Design

Individual project, initial research focus:
My research focus is illiteracy in Germany compared to the situation in Iceland.
Whereas every seventh person in Germany can’t read and write properly, Iceland has according to statistics the highest rate of literacy in Europe.
Therefore I'll take a closer look at conditions and circumstances - in language as well as in the society itself - that may lead to a more literate society.

Mari Susanna Lindberg – Finland

Background:
BA in Culture and Arts (Specialisation line: Interior Architecture) / Lahti University of Applied Sciences. Master’s Programme in Product and Spatial Design / Aalto University.

Individual project, initial research focus:
I want to look into the accommodation issue in Reykjavik, Iceland, that doesn’t meet the current demand, as well as scale it to the situation in Helsinki, Finland, while taking into account the future prospects of increasing flow of refugees coming to Europe. My research focus point would be urban planning and systems thinking via communal and architectural point of view.

Michelle Site – United States of America

Background: 
Biological sciences

Individual project, initial research focus:
To compare Icelandic and American social infrastructure, and cross-examine the respective impacts upon women’s healthcare and social positioning, I will conduct a cross-cultural case study of Icelandic and American women with individual interviews, and quantitative analysis of national policies and statistics regarding maternal health, work-life balance, parental leave, wage gap, and marriage trends paired with critical comparison.
Tools, mediums, and methods: Ethnography, videography, woodworking, statistics

Deliverables:

1.     Edited interviews

2.     Installation structure with limited seating where the interviews will be played

3.     Essay analysis of background research, findings, and personal conclusions

Sofie A. Thomassen – Norway

Background:
Different types of design such as graphic design and illustration. Industrial design; Product-, Service-, Systems oriented- and Interaction design.

Individual project, initial research focus:
I want to work with knowledge of different personality types. This is primarily based on the book Quiet – The power of introverts in a world that can´t stop talking of Susan Cain. This book was a big relief for me to read, and later I found it fascinating what some knowledge about different personality types, can do for you in your life.

Valentina Lachner – Germany

Background:
BA Interior Design (Academy of fine Arts Munich); MA Product and Spatial Design (Aalto University Helsinki).

Individual project, initial research focus:
Super synthetic stones – A research project on the use of ocean plastic waste in creating new materials, with new characteristics and applications.
Coming from Finland, Iceland, being a remote island in the middle of one of the world’s biggest oceans, seems to be an appropriate place to further my studies. Both in researching through interviewing local organisations as well as exploring shores to collect material and to document the scale of the problem right here. Since I am still in a phase of trials and experiments, I intend to explore marine litter utilisation through hands on work, through testing various material combinations and recipes as well as conceptual and critical thinking towards the future of plastic waste.