Design Foundation Year

On this module, you will build a body of work demonstrating and evidencing the broad range of academic, professional and transferable employability skills you have developed throughout the Design Foundation Year. The skills, knowledge and understanding you acquire will demonstrate an awareness of core design methods and principles, cogent academic prose, accurate academic citation, as well as how to conduct research, reflect critically, learn independently, present your work and work in teams. Through a progressive model of learning that follows the widely recognised design process of discovery, definition, development and delivery (Design Council’s double-diamond), you will learn to meet challenges, resolve problems, and think and work flexibly and productively toward realising your designs. Finally, you will learn to present your work to graduate standards in portfolio format.

This module acts as an introduction to Communication Design and related disciplines, positioning it within the broader field of professional design. There will be an introduction to topics within the discipline and approaches to meeting communication design challenges in a professional environment. There will be instruction on the professional practices of the disciplines and how you can become employed following your education programmes. There will be some context to the background and histories of the subjects and how these affect the processes of design and design production. Key topics such as layout and composition, image and type, the design of interactions and designing for experience will be explored to create emphasis and frame the conditions for your subsequent design work. You will learn about design methods and design practices, how to ‘brainstorm’ and what it means to create an intervention. Through experimentation, discussion and evaluation, you will learn to use the design process to meet challenges and complete briefs. Finally, you will learn to present all your development work and final outcomes in a professional manner for summative assessment.

While completing this module, you will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of Product Design and its related disciplines of Industrial Design and 3D Design, and learn to appreciate their role within the broader field of professional design. You will be introduced to design processes relevant to producing products and services in a professional, practice-based environment. You will learn to conduct research necessary to successfully complete challenges and briefs, and gain enhanced skills in 2D and 3D conceptualisation, sketching and model-making. Working towards a portfolio-based assessment of your work you will become familiar with how to communicate and present product design work to graduate standards. In addition, you will further your skills, knowledge and creative design practice by working both independently and collaboratively with peers and by observing and reflecting upon each other’s design practices. Through discussion with peers and tutors you will quickly learn to conduct fruitful thought experiments, express and iterate ideas, evaluate your designs and develop novel solutions to challenging problems.

Learning and teaching strategies on the Fashion Module centre around hands-on craft activities and the exploration of technical skills, materials and processes that enable you to display evidence of creative thinking. Practice-based activities are integral to this form of study, for, supported as they are by a staff and peer collaborative community, they encourage development of individual intellectual freedom. In this Level 3 programme you are introduced to the fundamentals of fashion design. Here, you will be encouraged to foster understanding of fashion’s formal elements (silhouette, colour, fabric, detail, proportion), as well as the use of research, drawing, materials and experimental form-making to equip you with the practical skills and knowledge to undertake enquiry-based learning. This type of experiential activity is designed to engage you in self-initiated research which will enable you to develop independent judgement and critical self-awareness.
Gaining an appreciation for how Fashion can be viewed as a discipline within a broader field of related professional practices will, upon completion of your programme of studies, aid your understanding of employability within the industry sector. To support your learning in this area, context will be given to the background, histories and influences of the subject and how this affects the processes of design and production. Finally, you will learn to present all your development work and final outcomes in a professional manner for summative assessment.

This module outlines the discipline and its position in the design professions and the built environment. There will be an introduction to the main discipline topics and the processes of producing an interior design solution in a professional environment. The module will use a series of processes that will explain the activities of the discipline and help develop knowledge of the professional practices of the discipline and how you can become employed following the programme. The context and background of the subject will be revealed and its effect on the processes of design and how user behaviour affects the design process. Key topics like organisation of space, materials, lighting and furniture will be used to help frame a series of connected design projects that build towards and integrated solution and portfolio work.
You will use the design process to formulate a summative proposal for the design and completion of a portfolio showcasing your curated work for the module and demonstrate your ability to think spatially and link creatively between the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional activities within this discipline. This will help to create a bridge into level 4 and the degree of your choice. Working both individually and in a team, you will learn in a reflective and collaborative manner working with other’s design practices and creative interventions through experimentation, making, discussion and evaluation of the design disciplines.