Textile Design

The Textile Design BA (Hons) course offers a diverse and inclusive curriculum to inspire and train multi-disciplinary textiles practitioners through the study of materials, processes, and design methodologies.

This is an engaging and dynamic course exploring the range of opportunities within the expanding field of textiles. From traditional crafted processes to cutting-edge digital technologies, students investigate and experiment with a broad range of materials and techniques to design, make, and validate their ideas.

The course introduces you to progressive, creative processes to help you prepare, gather information, source materials, identify the origins of inspiration, and build in-depth knowledge of the discipline. Students are supported to experiment and develop their independent textile practice through conceptual design thinking and core practical skills. We foster critical engagement with theory and examine historical, cultural, political, ethical, and sustainability issues to balance creativity with academic practices.

Our wide-reaching textile course nurtures individuality and encourages you to explore the breadth of possibilities within textiles, in preparation for a growing array of creative and professional opportunities. Students will graduate with the specialist knowledge for an enriched career in the textile industry and related fields, including fashion design, interior design, architecture, textiles art, post-graduate studies, research, product design, set design and digital sectors.

In your first year areas studied include drawing, introduction to modern and contemporary art and design, visual research, design development, and textiles process and exploration.

In your second year areas studied include materials, processes and conceptual application, sampling and textile manufacture, and professional and business practice. You will be given the opportunity to select one optional module from a diverse School-wide list.

In your final year modules studied include Innovation, Exploration and Invention, Textiles Research Report, and a Textiles Studio Practice Final Project.

A full list of indicative modules is available on the course page of our website.

Modules on this course are assessed through coursework, using a range of methods.

This is to encourage the development of a broadly relevant set of skills and competencies for use in industrial practice or further study. Methods include practical projects, industrial and self-generated project work, technical knowledge and training, development drawing, visual research skills, essays and reflective work, seminar participation, visual and verbal presentations, contextual research projects, workbooks and logbooks, technical files, and an industrial placement report and research report.