Foundation Year in 3D Design

Course content

What will you study on the Foundation Year in 3D Design?

The foundation year is an intensive and diagnostic experience which will enhance your creative skills and will introduce you to the broad and diverse world of visual arts and creative industries.

Your learning will focus on making and learning specialist techniques, developing a creative portfolio, and developing your knowledge and skills in research and writing. You will be encouraged to trial your own processes and make your own decisions, to enable you to practice your craft and develop your own independent thinking and aesthetic style. You will also interpret briefs as part of group work and individual research study, allowing you to develop your creative identity for your portfolio.

At the end of your foundation year, you will have developed a strong portfolio that will showcase your work and reflect your future professional direction.

You will be taught by experienced artists and designers who work in studios, creative and advertising agencies across London – allowing them to offer a current, fresh knowledge and insight. Our large team of technicians and studio demonstrators will be supporting you and guide you through each process as you explore your creativity.

Modules

This module encourages you to explore and experiment with new techniques and media through practical workshop inductions. You will develop and expand your research skills by making full use of the resources available at Middlesex University, revealing how research can inform and enrich your design practice. You will acquire a breadth of practical skills and research capabilities that will enable you to develop your ideas.

The module will develop experimentation and encourage exploration to widen and inspire your creative practice and conceptual thinking. From master-class sessions you will gain valuable knowledge of and insight into the creative industries, to clarify and develop a greater understanding of the variety of design specialisms, and begin to identify future career opportunities and directions after study. This module aims to build your subject knowledge through experimentation and increasing awareness to a level to be able to make a design subject choice.

This module offers you the opportunity to develop a major project and to build a substantial portfolio of work in a specific design subject area. You will gain confidence in independent working. The module will include formative assessment as a key part of the learning process in the critical evaluation of your own work and that of your peers. You will develop self-reflection, research and study skills and promote self-learning to build confidence that enables you to communicate and professionally present your ideas. You will also learn how to present design work in the best ways by making, selecting and displaying work successfully for exhibition.

This is an introduction to a broad and exciting selection of London’s finest art galleries and museums covering all the specialist areas. The contextual studies team will share their expert knowledge as part of informative field trips and talks. These experiences will provide basic knowledge of contexts and issues that will inform and inspire your developing practice. There is a focus on developing confidence in using academic English language skills in the specific context of the creative industries. You will be asked to produce a reflective visual diary including 1500 words.This module runs parallel with the above modules finishing in Week 19.

You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.