BA (Hons) Textiles and Surface Design - Full-time

Bachelor's degree

In Bolton

£ 9,250 VAT inc.

Description

  • Type

    Bachelor's degree

  • Location

    Bolton

  • Duration

    3 Years

Textiles and surface design is a fast-moving global industry encompassing a wide range of commercial contexts – from fashion fabrics and accessories, through stationery products and packaging, to interior fabrics and wall coverings, as well as contemporary gallery/design led pieces. Our creative and challenging degree is taught by a dedicated and passionate team with extensive professional experience of researching, designing, creating, selling and exhibiting textile/surface design work. We understand the skills and knowledge you’ll need to succeed as a professional designer.

Our intensely practical approach aims to help you gain a broad portfolio of traditional and digital design skills. You’ll have space to experiment with different approaches, materials and techniques, and we’ll support and encourage you to ‘cross the boundaries’ of textile disciplines and develop your own innovative approaches to designing and making. Historical and contextual studies help to underpin your practical knowledge and provide sources of inspiration.

Our professional design studios are equipped with work spaces, and high-specification facilities for embroidery, digital printing, non-woven textiles, garment manufacture, felt making, printed and dyed textiles, and computer aided design are available.

We’ll also support you to develop commercial awareness and entrepreneurial skills, including how to market, exhibit, work with design studios and set up in business, ready for success in this often freelance career.

Facilities

Location

Start date

Bolton (Greater Manchester)
See map
Deane Road, BL3 5AB

Start date

On request

About this course

This course is designed to develop your practical skills, and equip you to be a successful designer. As a graduate of this programme, some of the key skills you will possess include your creative ability, project management skills, IT and technical skills, ability to work independently, interpretation of materials, and commercial awareness. You’ll also be able to critically evaluate and interpret materials, research designs, predict trends and communicate with clients, manufacturing staff, buyers and retailers.

The opportunity to visit galleries and museums, design studios and manufacturers, as well as fashion and textile trade fairs in the UK, Europe and USA, will broaden your understanding of commercial practice. Links with industry, including enterprise activities, professional exhibitions, live projects, national design competitions, and optional work placements will enhance your learning experience.

You can work in the textiles industry, or use your creative flair and ability to generate ideas and concepts to match a brief, in many other sectors. Graduates are currently using their experience to pursue careers as studio designers, in fashion retail roles, interior design, illustration, product design, as self-employed designer-makers and entrepreneurs, and as teachers in educational establishments or art gallery environments. Others progress to self-employment, often designing and producing work for exhibitions, direct sale or through retail craft outlets.

Postgraduate study provides the opportunity to develop and experiment with ideas and techniques and to extend personal expertise into related areas. The job market is competitive so you may find that taking a one-year Master’s or professional short course, for example in computer-aided design (CAD), helps give you the edge, particularly when combined with relevant work experience, and enables you to further develop your portfolio.

Alternative Career Options
Training and education
Industrial product design
Museum/gallery conservation and education
Printmaking
Retail buying
Journalism
Theatre set/costume production
Fabric technology
Research and development

Your Level 3 subjects must include textiles or a related subject; for instance, A-level Textiles or BTEC Extended Diploma in Fashion and Textiles.

You should also have five GCSEs at grade C or above or grade 4 to 9 (or equivalent) including English Language.

You'll be required to attend for interview and provide a portfolio of appropriate work.

Special consideration will be given to applicants with alternative qualifications who have a strong portfolio.

Key Features:
Bolton has an impressive history of textile manufacturing and engineering spanning over 650 years, so you’ll be studying at a historic home of textile innovation in the UK. The University of Bolton maintains this tradition and is a leading centre of textile and materials research of global importance.
Facilities on campus include design studios, computer suites, a printed textile workshop, digital textile printing, embroidery and textile workshops, and paper print facilities. We offer industry-standard software and access to the latest global trend prediction sites. You’ll also have access to our wider arts and design facilities, including photographic studios, fine print and ceramic workshops.
Our long-standing reputation in the teaching and development of textile subjects means we can attract outstanding visiting speakers from across the commercial design and craft-led sectors. Recent speakers include Concetta Gallo MA Royal College of Art (RCA) designer for Habitat, Leigh Cooke designer for Salvatore Ferragamo and Hermes Paris, and Alison Willoughby MA RCA.
Our close proximity to Manchester, and links with the North West Craft Network and major galleries, workshops and associations in the region, mean you’ll be well-placed to take advantage of work placement opportunities.
We regularly set-up industry-relevant live projects with external organisations and companies in our practical modules. These are designed to give you experience of working to industry standards, help you learn the realities of working to design briefs, and offer insights into current design practice.
We pride ourselves on the small group learning and one-to-one support we offer. You can expect to receive individual attention and guidance from our expert tutors, as well as online support through the University’s eLearning system Moodle.

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Subjects

  • IT
  • Design
  • Textiles
  • Trade
  • Industry
  • Skills and Training
  • Access
  • Project
  • Staff
  • International
  • Full Time
  • Fabrics
  • Global
  • Approach

Course programme

Modules

Modules listed below are a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules as part of the course.

  • Material Practices 1
  • Material Practices 2
  • Design Studies 1
  • Surface Pattern: Principles and Processes
  • Employability and Enterprise
  • The Surface Designer: Digital Textile Design and Print
  • The Surface Designer: Studio and Freelance Practice for 2D and 3D
  • The Designer Maker: Research and Ideas Development
  • The Designer Maker: Making for Exhibition or Sale
  • Past Present and Futures: Theory into Context
  • Research in Context
  • Advanced Textile and Studio Practice
  • Advanced Techniques and Processes
  • Professional Practice and Self-Promotion
  • Major Project
Teaching, Learning And Assessment

We use a blended approach to teaching and learning – you’ll have face-to-face sessions and take part in online learning. Studio and computer suite-based activities are important features of the programme, alongside lectures, seminars and practical-based workshops in printed, embroidered and embellished textiles. We encourage you to participate in visits to locations such as galleries and museums, to attend presentations by our visiting speakers, and to go on location for drawing and visual research. You’ll also engage in self-directed study, with support from a range of staff including technicians and library/learning resources staff.

Module briefs include a wide range of activities such as commercially-based design projects, live briefs, competitions and commissions, and self-initiated projects. In addition, there are opportunities for collaborative design briefs that involve working with students from other areas of art and design. The sharing of ideas and practices across disciplines helps you to gain a broader understanding of the position of textiles and surface design in the wider creative and global art and design based industries.

In terms of assessment, you’ll have formative assessment to help you learn and develop your knowledge and skills, and summative assessment on which you are graded. You’ll receive individual help and advice on your personal work in one-to-one tutorials. Peer reviews, where you present your work to a small group of your fellow students for their comment, also provide useful feedback.

Formal assessment is by coursework. This may involve you presenting your portfolio of drawings/design work, textile samples or practical outcomes, along with a supporting sketchbook of developmental ideas, technical note files, and a written research journal. It can also take the form of essays, reports, verbal presentations, assignments, projects and other written work.

Disclaimer

The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up to date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.

Additional information

International Fees - £12,450

BA (Hons) Textiles and Surface Design - Full-time

£ 9,250 VAT inc.