Product and Furniture Design (Swansea College of Art)

Available as both a BSc and BA, our BSc option in Product and Furniture Design focuses on the reality of designing for the future using digital intervention, simulation, and user experience practices, addressing the creative and technical challenges of combining manufacturability with aesthetics. The BSc is perfect if you are interested in applied design thinking and emerging technologies, to create products that are beautiful, purposeful and innovative.

BSc Product and Furniture Design degree offers a comprehensive understanding of the design process, helping you develop the practical skills necessary for designing for manufacture. You will also gain analytical, evaluative, and communicative skills, which are crucial whether you are working alone or as part of a team. You will become aware of the social, environmental, and ethical frameworks within which you, as a design professional, will operate. Engaging with real-world challenges and client requirements will be a key part of your learning experience.

Product and Furniture Design is a strategic problem-solving process that sparks innovation and drives business success. This field improves our quality of life by creating innovative products, systems, services, and experiences. It bridges the gap between what exists and what is possible, using creative problem-solving to turn challenges into opportunities. In this course, you will learn to develop innovative approaches to the design, development, and creation of products and furniture.

As a Product and Furniture Designer, you will place people at the heart of the design process. By understanding user needs through empathy, you will apply a user-centred design approach. This pragmatic process ensures that the products, systems, services, and experiences you design truly meet the needs of users. You will be in a unique position to connect different professional disciplines and business interests, working together to create a better quality of life.

We look for passionate creatives with a strong desire to improve. With these qualities, we can help you become a designer capable of making a significant real-world impact.

Year One – Level 4 (Cert HE, Dip HE & BSc)

In your first year, you will be introduced to core design skills and knowledge, tackle contemporary design challenges and learn to make a difference. Working on a range of studio and workshop projects, you’ll explore design thinking, technical design, and practical skills through hands-on projects. Embracing digital tools and diverse ways of perceiving and thinking, you will build a strong foundation in the design process.

Compulsory

Contemporary Challenges: Making a Difference (20 credits)
Learning in the Digital Era (20 credits)
Ways of Perceiving (10 credits)
Design & Make 1 (20 credits)
Design Thinking (20 credits)
Technical Design (20 credits)
Ways of Thinking (10 credits)

Year Two – Level 5 (Dip HE & BSc)

In the second year, you’ll delve into designing for manufacture and virtual simulation. Creativity and value creation will be key themes as you work on projects that enhance your personal brand and employability. Research skills will be developed through context-based and practice-based studies, and you’ll further explore CAD and design realisation.

Compulsory

Changemakers: Creativity and Value Creation (20 credits)
Design for Manufacture (20 credits)
Changemakers: Building your Personal Brand for Sustainable Employment (20 credits)
Research in Context (10 credits)
Research in Practice (10 credits)
Design Exploration (20 credits)
Design Realisation - CAD (10 credits)
Design Simulation – Virtual (10 Credits)

Year Three – Level 6 (BSc)

Your final year focuses on advanced creative enquiry and an individual major project. You’ll work on a self-directed project that showcases your skills and creativity, applying everything you’ve learned. This year emphasizes independent work and critical thinking, preparing you for a successful career in design.

Compulsory

Independent Project (40 credits)
Individual Major Project (60 credits)
Advanced Creative Enquiry (20 credits)

Assessment is carried out through coursework, both written and practical. There are no exams on this course. You are formatively assessed reviews during a module, with the summative assessment taking place at the end of a module. A variety of teaching and learning methods are used throughout the course which includes amongst others ;

Informal and Formal Tutorials

These tutorials are held on a regular basis, across all levels. In Year 1 you regularly discuss your work with a member of staff during the studio sessions, likewise in Year 2. In the third year, you tend to work more independently but benefit from weekly timetabled tutorials. We pride ourselves on the fact that you can see staff on a one to one basis.

Pastoral Tutorials

These tutorials give you the opportunity to discuss your progress and engagement with the whole programme and University life and raise any issues/concerns by either party.

Group Critiques

These are held on a regular basis, across all levels, during the course of the module, and provide an excellent opportunity for you to share and exchange ideas with your peers in a structured manner in addition to valuable input from staff.

Studio Projects

This is where you evidence your creativity, innovation and professionalism in presenting a variety of types of work for assessment such as; portfolios, sketchbooks and project journals, presentation artwork/visualization boards or real and virtual 3D models. The projects are set to examine your abilities to master the integration of new design principles and skills to your design practice.

Written Assignments

These are coursework elements that usually take the form of an illustrated paper or report that you undertake in your own time supported by scheduled tutorials. It is where you are expected to demonstrate critical insight and proficiency in articulating the results of a practice or research-based assignment.

Online Assignments

These are coursework elements which are undertaken and self-directed by yourself, usually submitted as an e-portfolio.

Informal & Formal Presentations

The nature of the presentations varies according to your level: in Year 1 informal presentations are introduced in order to help you gain confidence in talking about your work to your peers and staff. It is also usually part of the assessment process at the end of each project. In Year 2 you are expected to give more formal presentations as part of each module. In Year 3 a formal presentation and Q&A session is part of the final assessment of your Major Project Outcome.

Exhibiting Work

In Years 1 & 2, the nature of exhibiting work varies in formality from corridor exhibitions to public venues. At the end of the third year of study, you have the opportunity to showcase of your work in public-facing exhibitions within the locality of Swansea, and at the prestigious national design show in London, New Designers.