Mona Larsen

How can we make the impossible possible and the invisible visible?

This is a question that require us to step back and engage in wonder, curiosity, and reflection. We must question everything around us, even things that we may not be surrounded by but should be. Are we missing something amidst the constant flow of information and products? Are we being consumed by materialism and superficiality? These are some of the critical questions that this year’s design graduates are raising.

This year graduates are focusing on relevant and sensitive challenges facing society. They are concerned with user-oriented design, function, form, aesthetics, and ethics, all of which give meaning to individuals as well as to society as a whole. Their work shows good design and innovation which requires experimentation, trial, and error and a lot of answering questions through “doing”. Testing of prototypes helps to systematize complexity and formulate questions that go beyond “what” and “how” to include “why.” They reflect and understand the complex reality we live in, and explore the Department of designs values 

• Sustainable development and understanding of global relations
• Human and environmentally friendly structures and materials
• Humanistic and ethical communication

Those values have been addressed in the students’ projects and are essential in the process. The courage of this year’s design students is noteworthy, as they have translated abstract and theoretical ideas into tangible objects and sensory experiences. Experience is what leads to knowledge, as Leonardo da Vinci said, “Wisdom is the daughter of experience. Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.”

With the theme “Traces”, this year’s graduates demonstrate the ability for holistic thinking in design. The role of design is multi-dimensional, and the projects shows intersection of technology, culture, innovation into design. The students’ methodical approach to problem-solving is priceless, as they are creatively stimulating and persistent. They are helping to shape the good solutions we need now and in the future.

I am proud and delighted to present this year’s master projects. They are based on a deep knowledge of the discipline and an understanding of complexity, contributing to both societal and economic development.

Graduates, I wish you all the best for an exciting and important future!

Mona Larsen

Head of Department of design