Eleven of these panels are dedicated to the basic course.[24] Panel 97 shows the objective and the proportion of teaching given over to each subject. The basic course takes place during the first academic year and must be completed before the students can be accepted in one of the (in 1958) only four departments. The text lists four objectives. Firstly, the basic course was to serve to introduce the students to the work of the departments, especially the methods that are applied in these departments. The second objective aims to compensate for the students’ different background, e.g., in terms of subjects studied or countries with different, unfamiliar education systems. The third objective ‘familiarises the students with the major questions of our technological civilisation and conveys in this way the horizons for the real design tasks of today’. The fourth objective addresses interdisciplinary collaboration, which endeavours to ensure that ‘each individual understands the challenges and perspectives of the other collaborators’. The last two objectives articulate the concept that will later become part of design history as the ‘Ulm model’.[25]

Visual methodology was regarded as a major subject, as the allocation of class hours shows. It was allocated 420 hours, the work in the workshops by comparison only 280. Means of representation, which included design drawing, typography, language and fine art drawing, were allocated only 70 class hours, as are methodology, sociology and a range of scientific subjects, namely mathematics, physics and chemistry. Nonetheless, 140 class hours were allocated to 20th century (sic!) cultural history.

Visual methodology, which is referred to on panel 100 as a main component of the basic course, is broken down on panels 100 to 107. On panel 100, the subject is described in more detail: ‘Visual methodology is the principal subject of the basic course, the purpose of which is to train the students to adopt a deliberate and controlled approach to design processes. In doing so, the ideas of the following scientific disciplines are to be turned to account:

1 cognition theory

2 symmetry theory

3 topology

[…] The course begins with elementary exercises from the field of visual perception. The tasks are resolved by utilising the findings of modern cognition theory.’

Following this text, the other panels are dedicated to the following subjects: symmetry theory (T 101), cognition theory (T 102), design [and] structure (T 103), cognition theory (T 104), topology (T 105 and 106) and, finally, colour theory (T 107).

There is no sign of the Bauhaus-inspired tasks from the classes of Josef Albers or Walter Peterhans. Only the colour theory taught by Helene Nonné-Schmidt comes to light, in the ‘Section through a colour sphere’ on panel 107.[26] The renunciation of the Bauhaus, even in the basic course, is now finally complete.[27] For the new designer, the way forward lies open.

The New Designer–Design as a Profession

Decolonizing Design Education