Bakgrunn og erfaring
Hans Gerhard Meier is Associate Professor of Interaction Design at AHO. His work explores how making, play, and repair culture can shape design education and creative practice. Through hands-on experimentation and speculative projects, he encourages students to develop ideas through prototyping and exploration. His guiding principle is simple: “We don’t get ideas, we make ideas.”
Meier identifies as a maker, designer, and educator. His approach grows from a lifelong curiosity for creative disciplines and technologies. Rather than following a single path, he has moved between fields and media, constantly discovering new design territories. Think it, make it, share it remains a guiding principle.
He began his career in graphic design and illustration before expanding into digital and interactive media. A period of study in San Francisco opened the door to both analog and digital practices. At a time when the web was still new and experimental, he combined early web design with screen printing and darkroom photography, laying the foundation for a lifelong interest in mixed media, technology, and hands-on experimentation.
to be continued…
Ansvarsområder
Apart from teaching and supervising master’s and BA students in Interaction Design, Meier is actively involved in the development of course structures and pedagogical approaches centered on practice-based design education. His work focuses on integrating making, prototyping, and physical interaction into design processes. This often happens through collaborations with external partners such as libraries, museums, cultural institutions, and maker communities.
He regularly organizes workshops, pop-up labs, and off-campus activities that expand the learning environment beyond the classroom. These initiatives contribute to the development of experimental learning formats and workshop-based design methods at the institute.
Meier also leads the yearly kick-off workshop for first-year design students, a three-day intensive introduction to hands-on design practice. The workshop brings together experimentation, prototyping, and collaboration, culminating in a public presentation for the wider school community and local kindergarten groups.
Another initiative is Fiksefestival, now running in its third year. The festival is a community-driven event promoting repair culture and practical sustainability. Students and staff volunteer to help neighbors repair everyday objects ranging from furniture and electronics to small 3D-printed components. The initiative highlights the role design education can play in promoting repair literacy and responsible material practices.
In recent years Meier has also served on the AHO admissions committee, contributing to the development of assignment briefs and evaluating student submissions.
Undervisning
IxD1 Masters, Title: Explore
Course Responsible
This is a full semester dive into the possibilities and frontiers of tangible interaction design. With an emphasise on exploring, prototyping and building projects to be tested by users, big and small.
The modules consist of a four part sequence, overlapping and building on the previous learning outcome.
Module 1:
Module 2:
Module 3:
Module 4:
GK2 Ground education, Title: Introduction to IxD
Course Responsible
The students still in their first year are exposed to the vast possibilities of interaction design and its founding principles and history.
Are large part of IxD is conveying and communicating its relevance and use. Every semester is starting off by embracing digital storytelling through filmmaking 101. First we focus and make short films and next there is a week of animation production resulting in student driven projects, with the sole aim of getting comfortable using film as a communication tool.
Forskning
Hans Gerhard Meier is relatively new to formal research within the academic system, though exploration and investigation have always been central to his artistic and design practice. In his role as Associate Professor at AHO, this work is gradually being formalized through documentation and reflection on previous projects, teaching methods, and collaborative initiatives.
His research interests revolve around design pedagogy, maker culture, and the role of making and experimentation in creative processes. Much of this work takes place through hands-on workshops, collaborative projects, and public initiatives that connect design education with communities and cultural institutions.
Meier’s primary forms of dissemination include art exhibitions, public talks and lectures, and online instructional and documentary content documenting experimental design processes and creative practices.
Research interests
- Maker culture and design pedagogy
- Play and experimentation in creative processes
- Repair culture and maintenance practices
- Practice-based and workshop-driven design research