CONTEXTUAL DESIGN DAE

Contextual Design examines how design operates within cultural, social, and political contexts. Objects, spaces, and technologies are understood as nodes within larger networks of power, history, and identity. Students question their authorship by learning to analyze the environments in which their work appears and the positions they occupy within them, and develop the tools required to transform critique into material propositions. The programme supports the development of a reflective practice that understands design as an intervention within existing cultural frameworks and discursive contexts, with a critical perspective on how to transform the spaces in which design circulates. Student projects: 1. Natali Aguirre Montaña @natali.aguirre.mo 2. Derrick Crichlow @d_crichlow 3. Mijali Posada Polydorides @mijaliposada 4. Phoebe Zoe Ho @itsphorreal 5. Teresa Fernandez-Pello @tfpello 6. Shai Ben-Ami and Charles Weinberg @weinbenami ✨The Master’s programmes at Design Academy Eindhoven support students in defining their own position within contemporary design. All programmes are designed to equip students with the tools they require to develop a unique methodology and practice. While the programmes share a fundamental assumption that design is social, contextual, informational, critical, and planetary, the emphases of each program are differently weighted, and each has a distinct pedagogical approach. 🗓️The final deadline for applications to our Masters courses is 30 March. Have any final questions before submitting? You can join us at the final Meet the Masters session on 20 March (link in bio)! Graphics by @susanna.tomassini

RELATION SHIFT by Jaskarn Singh Hanspal A metaphorical visualization of interconnected tensions Raised religious and later becoming atheist, this project investigates how force moves through people, relationships and systems. Starting from the hammer as an object capable of construction, destruction and transformation depending on its context, the project developed through material studies, impact testing and the creation of connectors on a workbench. These connectors form a dynamic tension installation exploring how interconnected relationships create pressure, resistance and the possibility to unfold within a system. Icons Project Contextual Design Master Design Academy Eindhoven #contextualdesign #designacademyeindhoven #hammer #panjabi #lightdesign

Exhibition — Positive / Negative Thinking (Party Utensils) Join us for an evening presenting outcomes from recent material investigations, including metal casting developed at Make Eindhoven. The works explore relationships between concept, process, and form — starting from the question: if you were a party utensil, what would you be? Developed by Contextual Design Master students (3rd trimester) and guided by Bruno Baietto & Lucas Maassen. Thursday, 9 April, from 20:00 Kerkstraat 1, Eindhoven In collaboration with @residencyforthepeople & @designacademyeindhoven Graphics: @ysaudades #DesignAcademyEindhoven #ContextualDesign #Exhibition #PositiveNegativeThinking #materialresearch

Exploring material, process, and form 🔥 At Make Eindhoven, Contextual Design Master students (3rd trimester) engaged in metal casting as part of an ongoing investigation into how positive and negative forms translate from concept into material outcomes. The workshop was led by Bruno Baietto and Lucas Maassen. Working with sand moulds and molten metal, the process revealed unexpected textures, relationships, and results — leading to a series of compelling outcomes. Exhibition:⬇️ Thursday, 9 April 2026, from 20:00 Residency for the People Kerkstraat 1, Eindhoven #DesignAcademyEindhoven #ContextualDesign #MaterialResearch #metalcasting

ICONS ICONS ICONS For this project, Contextual Design students from @designacademyeindhoven each selected an icon — a cultural symbol, object or influential figure — and translated it into a new form or discussion. Together these works create a wide landscape of references, meanings and interpretations. Here is a small glimpse into the many icons that will be part of the exhibition. A special thanks to @afainadejong -Head of Department, and to our tutors @amna_solati ,Jesse Howard, Jan Koenings and @jorgemanesrubio for their guidance. Participating students: Lara Metzenmacher Mirko Gerber Eemeli Sahimaa Yann Pariot Silvia Celani Matheo Le Guilloux Stine Nordsveen Aya Nakamura Kazimierz Babik Maïlys Fallourd Bo Dehollogne Jaskarn Singh Hanspal Hilde Speet Maja Wachowska Isaak Altinyay Constance Hart Pau Redó Fucan Gómez Moe Kim Song Hwa Leonie Dittli Lola-Castille Hié David Cejudo June Huang Joanne Jun Hyoung Kim Betsabe Linda Hector — EXHIBITION — 📍 PLAN B (backdoor entrance) Hurksestraat 19 5652 AH Eindhoven Thursday 12/3 — Opening + party 17:00–00:00 Friday 13/3 — 15:00–20:00 Saturday 14/3 — 11:00–20:00

WHAT MAKES AN ICON? Exhibition by Contextual Design students Design Academy Eindhoven 📍 PLAN B (backdoor entrance) Hurksestraat 19 5652 AH Eindhoven Thursday 12/3 Opening + party — 17:00–00:00 Friday 13/3 15:00–20:00 Saturday 14/3 11:00–20:00 Free entrance

Everything is taking shape. It’s getting exciting. WHAT MAKES AN ICON? Contextual Design students Design Academy Eindhoven — EXHIBITION — 📍 PLAN B (backdoor entrance) Hurksestraat 19 5652 AH Eindhoven Thursday 12/3 — Opening + party 17:00–00:00 Friday 13/3 — 15:00–20:00 Saturday 14/3 — 11:00–20:00 Everybody is Welcome ♥️ #contextualdesign #designacademyeindhoven #futuredesigner #exhibition #eindhoven

WHAT MAKES AN ICON? In this exhibition, Contextual Design students from Design Academy Eindhoven selected cultural symbols, objects and influential figures and translated them into new forms. Through deconstruction and reinterpretation the familiar becomes unstable, questioned and renewed. Design becomes a tool through which culture is represented and transformed. — EXHIBITION — 📍 PLAN B (backdoor entrance) Hurksestraat 19 5652 AH Eindhoven Thursday 12/03/2026 Opening + party 17:00–midnight Friday 13/3 15:00–20:00 Saturday 14/3 11:00–20:00 Everybody is Welcome ♥️ #designacadmyeindhoven #planbeindhoven #conextualdesign #newform #iconsdesignstudio

Last week, the first years of the MA Contextual Design department went for a metal casting workshop @makeeindhoven . Together with @bbaietto and @lucasmaassen they delved into a hands-on design process to experiment with aluminium. They concluded the workshop with a tableware exhibition @residencyforthepeople . Pictures by @oniremairam , @mijaliposada & @letokeunen

Over the next few months, our projects will gradually take shape, evolving through exploration, experimentation. Here’s a glimpse into the process so far—moments of research, material testing, and idea development from the past weeks @designacademyeindhoven . 1 - @lucie_briand 2 - @pia_grae 3 - @wimmrue 4 - @baidageorge 5 - @serim_kwack 6 - @d_crichlow 7 - @letokeunen 8 - @junfujisaku 9 - @mijaliposada 10-@aliciafreja 11- @boto_thibaud

Exit Night, Enter Light is a digital zine created collaboratively by the first-year master students in Contextual Design at Design Academy Eindhoven in the spring of 2024. Over a period of three months, we conceptualized, designed and produced this document under the theme of nightmares/daydreams. Step inside, and reality begins to slip. A toilet pulses like a living creature, a chair dissolves into liquid, and familiar spaces turn unrecognizable. In the words of our lovely supervisor and editor Maia Kenney: “A tendril of dream logic escapes through the structures of The Couch and onto your screen. Let the zine entry you need most float up to you, attracted by the scent of your subconscious. And may you dream freely.” Here, dreams and fears intertwine. Stumble into a barbershop where you don’t quite belong, go searching for your childhood nightmares, or try on armor that refuses to fit. This is a world where the illogical makes sense—if only for a moment. With contributions from: Alicia Borssén and Christoph Wimmer @wimmrue @aliciafreja Christophe Boulmer @christophe.boulmer Derrick Crichlow @d_crichlow with sound by @globalplayer55 Marie-Lu}ise{Charlotte Weier @allesisey with images by @savio.banholzer.design Jonghoo Jeong @jonghoo.jeong Jun Fujisaku @junfujisaku Kai-Hsiang Wen @swen0207 Yichun Liu and Kefeng Xu @detective.louise Léane Gorgette @leane.grgt Leto Keunen @keunen.leto Lilly Alexxandra @Lillyalexxandra Lucie Briand @lucie_briand Natali Aguirre Montaña with Daniela Pinillos Collazos @natali.aguirre.9 Nissa Kinzhalina @nissa.kinzhalina Phoebe Ho and Pia Gräwe @itsphorreal @pia_grae Serim Kwack @serim_kwack Sugyeong Lee @suri___lee Thibaud Boto @boto_thibaud Xi Chen Sarath Muralidharan and Mijali Posada @sarath_muralidharan @mijaliposada George Baida @baidageorge With support from Design Academy Eindhoven (@designacademyeindhoven ), Het Hem (@hethem ) and Afaina de Jong (@afainadejong ) Web development by Simon Dirks Editor Maia Kenney (@vagrantbaker ) Design developed with Sophie Keij (@_atelierbrenda ) Explore Exit Night, Enter Light— through the link in our bio.

🟣𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐆: In fall 2024, I had the pleasure of giving a light workshop with the master students of Contextual Design at DAE. The workshop is divided into 3 steps: expand your 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒, find your 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒 and make it 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋. We explored inner light, inner vision, closed-eye hallucinations, looked at light art together, played with prisms, reflectors, light torches. The students presented amazing light prototypes in such a short time. I’m incredibly thankful for them sharing their light; it was a collective beaming moment ⚡️💡⚡️ 🙏@contextualdesign.dae @designacademyeindhoven Photo 📸: @wuguanyan