Costume Design with Foundation Year

The world of arts and media is changing at a phenomenal rate, and there has never been a better time to explore your creativity and the ways in which you can apply it to the world around you.

This Foundation Year provides the perfect opportunity for you to explore the key principles of art, design and media. The course is designed to help you develop your creative skills, it gives you a chance to build a larger portfolio, and provides a good transition period to familiarise yourself with the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology and life as a student at Salford. You will then be in a strong position to progress onto your chosen degree pathway.

This is a shared Foundation Year across Art, Design and Media disciplines, and will give you a collaborative environment to explore ideas, take creative risks and become confident independent learners. You will be joining a thriving and creative community.

The Foundation Year of this four-year programme aims to provide you with an understanding of the subject to allow you to progress on to the BA (Hons) Costume Design course.

You will:

• develop your creative skills and academic confidence

• familiarise yourself with student life

• prepare to study on one of our degree programmes

This course is not open to international students.

The Foundation Year will provide you with a dynamic, exciting and collaborative environment in which you will become a confident self-learner, with the underpinning skills and knowledge to apply in your studies. You will be taught with students interested in progressing to different art, design and media programmes, and study modules that will help you increase your knowledge and understanding of basic art and design as well as other aspects of creative thinking.

Our strong connections within Greater Manchester’s thriving creative sector mean you will also hear from practitioners working in the industry right now about their practice, journey into the world or art and design.

In the first term you will study modules that introduce the key concepts, skills and knowledge of art and design. Modules will help you to develop your study skills such as note-taking and structuring reports. In the second semester, you will further develop your creative practice and be introduced to the creative industries.

The assignments are flexible enough to allow you to interpret and tailor your submissions to your preferred area of study. Tutors will help and support you, in creating a portfolio of work to progress onto the BA (Hons) Costume Design here at the University of Salford. You will be integrated slowly into the degree course with opportunities to meet tutors from the BA and by using our shared collaborative facilities within our vibrant New Adelphi building.

This programme prepares you to study on the three-year University undergraduate programme, meaning the duration of your degree is four years in total. The Foundation Year is not a standalone qualification.

Following the Foundation Year, the three years of BA (Hons) Costume Design:

This course will prepare you to enter the costume industry as designers and makers across a wide range of professional environments including live theatre, film, television, festivals, dance and light entertainment and performance. In addition, it will equip you with skills necessary to work in the areas of costume and wardrobe supervision, costume crafts, music video design and styling, and museums and heritage events.

BA (Hons) Costume Design is built on strong industry links and you will have the opportunity to work on industry-led briefs and collaborate with students from a range of our other courses in performance, film production, television, music, and design. The course also includes a 40 credit work placement module in the second year.

The University of Salford has a very hands-on approach to design. Through a series of practical project-led modules, you will gain a sound understanding of the costume design and production processes and have the opportunity to apply your creativity to a range of situations. You will learn how to analyse and interpret scripts, generate concepts and present your ideas to industry standard. You will use our new £55 million purpose-built New Adelphi building which includes extensive design studios, specialist workshops, a 350 seat theatre, rehearsal space, TV performance and recording studios

You will develop strong technical and craft skills in workshop practice, including construction techniques, pattern cutting and textile manipulation. This will be supported by a solid understanding of costume history.