Escuela Superior de Diseño de Madrid / Madrid School of Design

Mission Statement

Our aim is to contribute to creating the best possible solutions for contemporary human and social needs and present and future challenges, by having a creative, human-centred and open school that welcomes differences and is ready to face global challenges. 

To achieve this, we are developing proactive innovative strategies integrated with the environment, society and people.

Environment: facilitating sustainable development by integrating the life cycle perspective into the educational process and bringing our own particularity to the rich context of the international educational context.

Society: acting as a laboratory of research and using our professional approach in a productive regional, national and international context, thus contributing to a better quality of life.

People: understanding the person in his individuality and social complexity as the origin and destination of design.

International Role

The ESDM has considered from the beginning that internationalisation, through the mobility of students and teachers and participation in European projects, is a key factor in its development.

The Head of the International department and some other members of the school have more than 20 years experience of international collaboration, winning the Prize of Excellence of the Comunidad de Madrid for their work in European projects. Written Europe, one of the projects designed and lead by them, was chosen as Success Story to be presented in Berlin during the launch of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union in 2007.

In the framework of Erasmus + we are doing Student Mobility for Studies, Work Placements, Teaching and Learning Staff Mobility. The number of international mobilities is very high and keeps on growing. 

We are currently working on a KA2 Knowledge Alliance. 

Already in 2012-2013, our first year as Escuela Superior, the school was the designer and general coordinator of one of the seven Erasmus Intensive projects approved in Spain. We lead a project called Design as Ethno-tourism. It examined the use of public spaces in Madrid, working in collaboration with seven recognised European institutions: Luca School of Art, Belgium; Faculty of Architecture, The Technical University, Crete, Greece; Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London; Faculty of Fine Arts, University Complutense, Madrid and the Faculty of Fine Arts, Oporto University, Portugal. 

More than 72 students and teachers met in Madrid in February 2013 to work in collaboration with many professionals, associations and institutions. 

Since then, we have been working in several collaboration projects and signed many agreements with European and non European institutions, specially from South America, outside the Erasmus + framework. We are part of the Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño from its beginnings and the Asociación de Diseñadores dimad.

National Role

ESDM leads in the drafting and implementation of design programmes in Madrid and Spain.

We receive students from other regions of Spain, Europe and the world. ESDM is also ahead in building relationships with companies for our graduates, with more than almost 300 agreements in various sectors. 

We also work in collaboration with Madrid Local government, the association of designers DIMAD, the association of architects COAM, innovative companies such as Telefónica, as well as many other groups and professionals in different disciplines. We believe in the cooperation between social actors and innovators in technology, design and business.

We have led many previous collaborative projects and we are ready to contribute to and become a part of the collective project of designing for the future. We strongly believe designers have the responsibility to work for a better life for all. 

Main Focus

Madrid School of Design or Escuela Superior de Diseño de Madrid, ESDM, is the only public school in Madrid with six specialised areas of design and a wide and varied range of optional courses. 

ESDM has been a leader in the drafting and implementation of Design programmes in Spain. It has a very long tradition in Design Education, as it grew out of a century’s experience of the Madrid Schools of Arts and Crafts. 

The school wants to remain a reference for Design Research and Education in Spain, contributing to the development and the wellbeing of its inhabitants. 

We are working towards being a laboratory of new ideas for society and a meeting point for those who can make change possible.