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BA (Hons) Branding, Experience and Retail Design (Hertford Regional College)
Key information
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Typical offer:
Entry requirements -
Fees: See below
Full details -
UCAS code: W290
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Institute code: H36
Why choose this course?
- Develop a versatile blend of creative, strategic, and technical design skills
- Explore spatial and experiential design through storytelling and hands-on practice
- Experiment with AR/VR and future-focused approaches that expand creative possibilities
During the BA (Hons) Branding, Experience and Retail Design course, you’ll develop the creative and strategic skills to design brand identities, spatial experiences, and visually engaging worlds. By working across 2D, 3D, and digital media, you’ll build a portfolio that shows your individuality and prepares you for a dynamic creative industry.
A supportive place to explore and experiment: You’ll learn in a friendly, studio-based environment at Hertford Regional College, Ware campus, where small class sizes mean you’re seen, supported, and challenged. Practical workshops, group critiques, and one-to-one feedback will help you learn through doing, take creative risks, and grow confidence in your ideas. You’ll develop both your technical skills and your ability to think conceptually, reflectively, and independently.
Learn from industry-focused teaching: You’ll gain hands-on experience in branding, spatial design, styling, composition, model-making, and photography, while also experimenting with AR/VR and emerging technologies shaping the future of experience design. Real-world briefs, collaboration, and professional practice skills prepare you for client expectations and workplace realities, ensuring you can present, communicate, and justify your creative decisions clearly.
Career pathways across creative industries: You’ll graduate as an adaptable designer ready for roles in branding, retail and experience design, visual merchandising, exhibitions, events, prop styling, creative direction, and other contemporary design fields. This course gives you the skills, confidence, and portfolio to enter a world where creativity meets storytelling, strategy, and spatial imagination.
What's the course about?
BA (Hons) Branding, Experience and Retail Design at Herts Regional College, Ware campus will give you the skills and confidence to grow. You’ll work across 2D, 3D, and digital media as you learn how brands communicate through identity, environments, styling, and atmosphere.
In the first year of your BA (Hons) Branding, Experience and Retail Design degree, you’ll build a strong foundation in branding, visual communication, styling, and spatial awareness. You’ll explore how brands tell stories through imagery, materials, composition, and space, while gaining confidence with photography, model-making, layout, and digital tools. You’ll experiment across different media and learn core design principles that will prepare you for more focused work in your second year of study.
The second year allows you to build on your first year. You’ll strengthen your design skills and start to define your creative direction, exploring immersive environments, experience design, and emerging technologies such as AR/VR. You’ll take on industry style briefs, collaborate with others, and develop confidence in presenting your work and responding to feedback. This year will help you understand how design functions in professional contexts and which career paths inspire you.
In your third year, you’ll work more independently and prepare for your future career. You’ll complete a self-directed Final Major Project in your chosen specialism whether is branding, retail, styling, experience design, or a multidisciplinary mix. You’ll also develop a professional portfolio, refine communication skills, and explore socially engaged design. By the end of the year, you’ll graduate with a confident creative identity, a polished body of work, and the readiness to progress into the creative industries or further study.
The course is delivered at Hertford Regional College, Ware Campus, offering a calm and supportive learning environment with easy access to one of the world’s most influential creative capitals. London’s retail hubs, agencies, exhibitions, and cultural institutions are within easy reach, enabling students to experience cutting-edge design first-hand, conduct visual research, and stay connected to current industry trends. This proximity also supports visits, independent fieldwork, and potential networking or employment opportunities.
What will I study?
Degree programmes are structured into levels, 4, 5 and 6. These correspond to your first, second and third/final year of study. Below you can see what modules you’ll be studying in each.