In 2002, with the establishment of the Fine Arts/Graphics BA program at Partium Christian University (PCU), visual arts higher education in the Hungarian language was actually born in Oradea, Romania. This of course did not happen spontaneously. Our department owes a lot to its founder, László Ujvárossy; and its current head of department, Zoltán Balázs; as well as to its former and current lecturers.
After all, in a city situated on a geographical border, in a university of a minority community, our BA course has become the center of Hungarian-speaking graphic design students in Romania over the last 22 years. Furthermore, in 2010, with launching our Visual Communication MA program, we reached another milestone; and today we are about to start an English-language Master’s programme: Art Mediation.
Applied typography, calligraphy, editorial design, alternative typography, and animation have been part of our curriculum since the very beginning. At the same time, our long-term identity has been defined by the way in which applied arts education has been intertwined with interdisciplinary and intermedial thinking. In a parallel move to digital workflows, the teaching of manual techniques has also benefited both our courses and our students.
Over the years, the creative communities of our BA in Graphic Design and MA in Visual Communication have nurtured talent that has gone on to won countless design, animation and art awards around the world.
The driving force of our visual education programs is “creativity” – which is more than just a cool word that might be applied to many things. For us, “creativity” is synonymous with an experimental, artistic approach; conscious, responsible design attitude, and practice-oriented development. Our project-based training helps our students gain successful work experience so that when they leave university and start working, they find themselves in a familiar environment.
All of this has resulted in group exhibitions, competition-winning works, Erasmus experiences, and post-university collaborations that have also led to joint ventures.
We believe in team spirit, collaborative thinking, and open dialogue between teachers and students, as well as, between partner institutions – and we look at the Typozone exhibition in Eger as to a similar, open dialogue. We deeply appreciate that our university has been invited to attend this, thank you!
Judit Eszter Gagyi
University lecturer
A Nemzeti Kulturális Alap Iparművészet Kollégiuma által támogatott 104106/03085 azonosító számú A TIPOZONA 5. című csoportos kiállítás megrendezése