Recognising the importance of providing students with both market and entrepreneurial knowledge to help them achieve their professional aspirations, the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) embarked on the development of a three-semester course called Business to Design (B2D) in 2021 designed to nurture entrepreneurial skills and furnish students with knowledge tailored to meet the demands of the creative industry, fostering a business-oriented mindset.

The mission of the teacher collective behind the B2D course is to underscore the significance of design in the business ecosystem.  Since its inception, the team has been intentional about building a robust professional and mentor community committed to fostering student talent and supporting their career advancement while authentically representing their respective professions.  

The Business to Design (B2D) curriculum was developed with the involvement of prominent professionals and entrepreneurs in the field, MOME alumni, as well as invited international speakers. The overarching goal of B2D is to instil confidence in students to start their own business, bolstering the number of innovative Hungarian businesses propelled by creativity.

As in previous years, the presentations this spring were organised along two theme clusters: founder of BOOKR Kids Dorka Horváth, Máté András Balogh representing Art is Business, and concept owner of the Amigos Foundation Sára Forgács-Fábián gave talks focused on value creation, while former marketing director of Coca-Cola Global Tom Hidvégi, Gergő Koczka from Pinetime Clothing, and CEO and founder of Zwoelf strategic and design agency Péter Serfőző delved into brand and marketing.

The professional mentoring community, comprised of nearly thirty MOME alumni, has become an integral component of the course. This year, a team of fifteen experts and trainers were added to address areas of expertise gaps, and support students in building their career paths and contact network over the long term, considering that in the third semester, students are tasked with developing a business plan independently but in interdisciplinary teams, based on an idea of their own. Their work will be supported by professional mentors and experts, with opportunities to deepen their knowledge and skills through various workshops, whether about prototyping applications or websites or building a brand and social media strategies.

The curriculum also includes fourteen video interviews, to be used as an educational aid, within the course with heads of successful Hungarian creative businesses with over a decade of professional experience.

Having a diverse array of interviewees, representing all the typical fields and career paths for MOME students was an important consideration. They include the founders of Flying Objects that received numerous international design awards, the team behind Clift Climbing, a startup pioneering innovative interactive climbing walls, and the founder of Maacraft, known as a social enterprise. Additionally, the interviews feature founders from the textile and fashion sectors, including the YKRA backpack brand, the NON+ fashion brand, and the Medence Group. Tünde Ruzicska, recently featured in a lengthy article in Forbes magazine, also shares her experience of building her ceramics business.

Insights into media market operations were gleaned from interviews with photographer and documentary filmmaker Máté Bartha; founders of the DE_FORM design agency; the international directorial collective Kino Pravda; and production manager at Cinemon Animation Studio Réka Temple (Four Souls of Coyote, Blue Pelican). Chief Creative Officer of Publicis Groupe Hungary Márton Jedlicska discusses design agencies; one of the most innovative and versatile figures of the Hungarian curatorial scene Péter Bencze talks about building his own gallery and fostering artists' careers; while László Benczúr describes his experiences running an architectural studio and launching architectural products to market in Hungary.  

All this is intended by the University to provide MOME design students with exposure to a broader creative industry ecosystem upon graduation, improving their prospects for successful entry into the workforce.