Beckmans College of Design

Beckmans - the innovative college

It's fascinating when you think about how many of Sweden's most gifted and colourful creatives of every kind actually have one thing in common - they all got their basic creative training at tiny Beckmans College of Design in the Östermalm district in central Stockholm.

For nearly seven decades now, the College has provided our creative society with a never-ending stream, not just of art directors, interior designers and fashion designers, but of illustrators, artists, stylists, costume designers, editors, authors, directors, stage designers, artistes and much more besides.

And it’s usually the fundamental creative attitude - the art of creating and communicating - that they all name as the most crucial and lasting wisdom that they took with them from the school. Beckmans has gained fame, far beyond the borders of Sweden, for its strong and totally unique brand of creative culture.

Beckmans initially arose organically out of Stockholm’s emerging advertising and fashion industry. And over the succeeding decades, the College has retained both its original, almost ferocious creative freedom, and its close contact with the commercial market. Beckmans lives at the heart of the spirit and reality of the times, with teachers who all work professionally in the industry. Right from day one, the students learn to rely on their own imagination and creativity – to develop their own personal modes of expression in close cooperation with others, not just within their own group, but with students from the College’s other disciplines. The combination of the Advertising & graphic design, Fashion and Product design programmes is unique in northern Europe. The tempo, the imagination, the artistry, the excess, the joy, and the boundlessness are qualities that distinguish Beckmans’ peerless pedagogic culture.

All classes are held in Swedish, wherefore a basic knowledge of the Swedish language is necessary.