Product and Furniture Design

The preliminary and intensive Integrated Foundation in Art and Design is designed to develop your ideas, skills and confidence in readiness for progressing to year one of your degree programme.

This year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for, and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.

On your return to University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement, for assessment.

As a student on our Product and Furniture Design course you’ll become a creative and versatile designer, able to develop your ideas into resolved high quality outcomes.

You’ll learn to think critically about use and construction and to innovate through material experimentation. Working across digital making and CAD design as well as more traditional 3D design processes in wood, metal, plastic and ceramics, you’ll develop a strong foundation of making knowledge with excellent technical support. We’ll strive to equip you with the necessary production knowledge, contextual understanding, research, communication and problem-solving skills for your emerging career.

This furniture design course addresses the future of design and manufacturing, and embeds an approach that incorporates maker culture, additive manufacture, localised lower volume production, and new platforms for selling products in global markets, such as crowdfunding. 

Year one
You’ll develop a foundation of core making processes (digital and analogue), material knowledge and experimentation. You’ll acquire skills in design communication, visualisation, research and prototyping, and develop your understanding of production volume (i.e. batch to industrial production).

In addition, you’ll gain the key skills needed for future employment in the design industry and learn about critical issues in contemporary design.

Year two
You’ll focus on external engagement with industry, deepen your understanding of the forms of design practice and opportunities available, and start to identify your personal direction in design. External briefs and study visits provide direct engagement with the design industry, and ensure you explore design innovation with a global outlook. Entrepreneurial approaches to design will be supported, and you’ll gain valuable experience of collaboration and project management.

Year three
You’ll practise, develop, challenge and explore design in preparation for establishing your career. You’ll deepen your understanding of your field of practice and position in it. Your final contextual study will underpin your practice and critical thinking. You’ll start developing professional networks and produce products, portfolios and promotional material. Part-way through the year, you’ll present your work through a public platform.

The final personal project challenges you to create a professional level of design work to present to an external audience.

Assessment is 100% based on coursework, presented at the end of the module. You’ll receive formal feedback so you’ll know how to improve or develop your work. Throughout the module you'll receive feedback from tutors and peers.

Overseas exchanges (for example to the School of Form in Poznan, Poland and NABA in Milan, Italy) offer further opportunities to develop your global industry awareness.

We emphasise external engagement throughout the course. International design-led companies such as Herman Miller and Dyson, as well as small enterprises and designer-makers, have a strong presence in the region. We run regular live industry projects, and previous clients have included:

• Dyson
• ASOS
• Morey Smith
• Hakwood
• The Holburne Museum.

You'll also have the option to undertake a one-year Professional Placement Year, and you'll graduate with a strong portfolio of projects and experience.

Many of our graduates have worked for a range of national and global design and manufacturing companies, contemporary designers and design marketing agencies. Others have freelanced, put their own designs into production, and exhibited internationally.

As a BA Product and Furniture Design student, you’ll benefit from access to comprehensive digital workshops and specialist art and design facilities, including:

• Our student service point at Locksbrook where you can purchase subsidised art and design materials, hire out equipment for free and collect Library resources
• Access to our well-stocked Library at Newton Park
• Specialist technical workshops across all of art and design
• Access to studio space where you can work on projects and refine your practice