Product Design

Address the future needs and challenges of sustainable production through materials, making and innovation on this contemporary Product Design degree.

• Develop the practical and critical design skills you need to flourish in the global workplace through interdisciplinary, project focused study.

• Learn principles of sustainability and explore materials through traditional and digital processes in our excellent workshops.

• Taught by design and industry experts, you’ll become a confident, creative, digitally-literate and critical designer.

Want a career in design? If you're motivated by making, this innovative product design course is for you.

Taught by industry professionals, our Product Design degree enables you to build a foundation of technical and practical design skills and explore manufacturing processes, from traditional techniques to computer-aided design (CAD) and digital fabrication. You’ll work with a wide range of materials and develop your unique creative vision through practical, project-based briefs.

Essential professional skills and entrepreneurship are at the heart of the course. You’ll become a flexible problem-solver and expert collaborator, providing you with new opportunities as a designer in a sustainable, digital and global economy.

In Year One you’ll develop a foundation of core design skills from sketching and model-making to digital and analogue making processes, material knowledge and experimentation. You’ll acquire skills in design communication, visualisation, research and prototyping, and develop your understanding of small to large-scale production.

You’ll get access to all the technical workshops, enabling you to progress confidently into year two.

In addition, you’ll be introduced to our excellent library staff and the extensive design reference and research resources and learn about critical issues in contemporary design, such as the circular economy, distributed manufacturing and experiential design.

In Year Two you’ll deepen your understanding of design practice and the opportunities available, and start to identify your personal direction in design. You’ll apply more focused design principles around sustainability and human-centred 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.

Finally, in Year Three you’ll further develop, challenge and explore design and your understanding of your field of practice in preparation for establishing your career. Your final research and contextual study project will underpin your practice and critical thinking as you expand your industry awareness and produce product solutions and design proposals.

Part-way through the year, you’ll have the opportunity to present your work through a public platform, gaining essential feedback and experience to confidently progress your final project and develop an outstanding portfolio of work to be able to promote yourself to your industry networks.

Your final project challenges you to create a professional level of design work to present to an external audience, showing at the end of year degree show and often in an external show such as New Designers.

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