Contemporary Design Crafts (Textiles) BA (Hons) BA (Hons)

About the course

The Contemporary Design Crafts Textiles degree at the University of Hertfordshire explores in the first year contemporary approaches to designing and making across a range of two and three-dimensional media in the fields of textiles, jewellery and ceramics and glass. In the second year students choose to focus their interests within the textiles medium and approach, enabling them to reach the high level of refinement necessary for the professional marketplace. We are offering a balance between focused specialist study and experimental mixed media approaches.

This results in the production of a richly diverse range of artifacts - such as experimental clothing and accessories, objects and surfaces for interiors, site-specific pieces and conceptual works for exhibition or commission. The emphasis is on questioning function and tradition to arrive at fresh, lively alternatives for a sophisticated market.

A particular feature of the course is its practical workshop programme, establishing and refining your understanding of the tactile qualities and properties of materials and how they can be manipulated to express your ideas. This awareness and sensibility is also developed through progressive studio projects, providing an initial framework for individual research and creative interpretation, which eventually allows you to focus your interests and establish your unique identity. Practical and conceptual learning is underpinned with Critical and Contextual Studies, which helps you to position your practice within a wider cultural framework, and learn to research and present your ideas in writing.

Why choose this course?

• The Contemporary Design Crafts Textiles degree encourages fresh ideas, inventive use of materials and techniques, and awareness of contemporary markets.
• You establish and refine your interests in the field of textiles to reach the high level of skills demanded by the professional marketplace.
• Placements develop a versatile understanding of the workplace, establishing our graduates as contemporaries in a competitive professional market.

Study routes

• Part Time,
• Sandwich,

Locations

• University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield

Careers

The degree can potentially lead to a wide range of career opportunities, from small business, to design for manufacture, unique artifacts for exhibition and commission, museums and collectors, running workshops, teaching, curating and retail, journalism and styling, as well as postgraduate study

Teaching methods

The course combines studio projects and practical workshop based sessions, where ideas and making are integrated. Students have a base studio, where design development, group tutorials, crits and presentations take place. The Critical and Cultural Studies modules combine lectures, workshops, seminars, and tutorials, and encourage a high level of debate and interaction. Students are encouraged to see their learning as an interactive experience, in which they play an active part, so that they emerge as resourceful and independent professionals, committed to pursuing their ambitions beyond graduation. The degree is staffed by practicing professionals, and Visiting Lecturers who regularly contribute specialist expertise.

Work Placement

A period of work experience is a requirement in your second year of study. We encourage our students to think of themselves as versatile practitioners, able to adapt to the ever-changing contemporary market. The focus throughout level 5 is to identify markets for your interests, develop a personal direction with tutorial guidance, and establish external contacts. This requires a resourceful and enterprising attitude, a sense of ambition, and confidence based on self-reliance. The Professional Practice module is the basis for recognising these qualities, as well as preparing students to promote and present themselves professionally through CVs, and portfolio preparation.

Structure

Year 1

Core Modules

• Studio Practice B: Thinking Through Making

  This module focuses on the development of imaginative and personal responses to set projects addressing, for example, textiles, jewellery, ceramics and glass. It aims to establish design thinking, extend visual development skills through traditional media and digital technologies, and emphasise the importance of ongoing documentation of working ideas as a basis for personal expression, communication and reflection on progress. The exploration of ideas through making and response to materials continues to be of primary importance. Thematic projects offer a framework for individual creative interpretation and problem solving, allowing for specialist or mixed media methods and outcomes within the scope of the brief. Study time is normally divided equally between studio and workshop activities, to allow for progressive development of ideas through sampling and encourage increasingly independent working within a supervised environment.

• Studio Practice A: Materials and Form

  The purpose of this module is to provide a diagnostic experience as a basis for further study and to introduce students to a range of contemporary design craft practices. Students establish the creative exploration of materials and processes as part of the design process. The module provides a series of inductions to the disciplines of textiles, jewellery, ceramics and glass, allowing students of disparate prior learning experience the opportunity to establish basic skills and knowledge as a starting point for making informed choices of subject interest in subsequent modules. Studio and workshop based sessions introduce the principals and practices of learning through making and the creative generation of ideas. Two main project blocks provide a framework for the exploration of individual interpretations of set themes, and the creative and inventive use of materials and process skills as a means of expressing ideas. Students are introduced to a range of current and digital technologies as visualisation tools, including varied approaches to drawing, photography, Photoshop and Illustrator.

• Workshop Skills

  This module provides a range of introductory technical and practical skills workshops across the range of contemporary applied arts subjects offered. It allows all students to acquire basic experience in a range of media, as a basis for making decisions about future specialist study. These might include printed and constructed textiles, jewellery including piercing, filing and soldering, ceramics and glass including coiling, mould making and slip casting. It aims to establish good workshop practices, and some of the techniques and methods involved in manipulating materials. Experimental and unconventional approaches are encouraged, in order to challenge preconceived ideas and constraints, allowing for innovative approaches and combinations. These workshop sessions provide starting points for continued exploration and development within studio projects. All students are expected to keep technical records documenting techniques, methods and procedures as a basis for further development.

• Design Crafts: Histories, Concepts, Practices (C&CS)

  This module considers how recent Design Crafts practices have been shaped by historical, social, political, economic, cultural and professional contexts. A programme of lectures and seminars will introduce the recent history of Design Crafts practices and some of the ways that movements, individuals and discussion in the media have shaped contemporary practice and debate. To complement discipline-specific studies this module also aims to provide students with a repertoire of study skills of research and enquiry; visual and critical analysis of both artefacts and ideas; an understanding of how such skills can be deployed to evaluate their own practice; and academic verbal and written communication skills.

• Working in Collaboration

  This module enables students to work together on an external or live project, linked to a specific professional context. Typically this might take the form of a site-specific proposal, social enterprise venture or commercial opportunity, allowing the students to look at a wide spectrum of creative applications within the field of contemporary design crafts. This will require students to work together, sharing knowledge and skills to resolve a design problem, and will introduce the underlying issues and roles necessary in effective group working.

Optional

Fees & funding

Discounts are available for International students if payment is made in full at registration

View detailed information about tuition fees

Other financial support

Find out more about other financial support available to UK and EU students

Living costs / accommodation

The University of Hertfordshire offers a great choice of student accommodation, on campus or nearby in the local area, to suit every student budget.

View detailed information about our accommodation

How to apply