Design Crafts

UCAS code: W200

Here's what De Montfort University says about its Design Crafts course.

On this hands-on and multi-disciplinary course, you will explore both traditional hand skills and emerging technologies while working with a wide range of materials such as hot and cold glass, clay, paper, fine metals, plastics, resin, wood and textiles.

You will select a specialism and determine your own direction according to your interests and aspirations, establishing your personal creative voice. You will have the freedom to explore different processes to create objects for domestic use, interior spaces, exterior spaces or to be worn on the body and these can be hand-held or large-scale pieces, whether that be vessels, tiles, stoneware, glassware, jewellery, tableware or sculptural pieces to name just a few examples.

You will develop an understanding of craft contexts and markets alongside environmental and ethical issues surrounding the practice of craft. Professional and entrepreneurial skills are a key focus of the course and we aim to nurture you to become an industry-ready and adaptable creative professional with a clear sense of your own practice.

Key features

• Work on live projects with industry experts to gain valuable skills and experience. Recent briefs have been set by Sainsbury’s Home, Argos, Sue Pryke Ceramics, Goldsmiths Company, the Leathersellers’ Company and Contemporary British Silversmiths.

• Explore a huge range of designing and making opportunities with access to outstanding facilities in our award-winning?Vijay Patel Building. We have superb workshops and industry-standard equipment including glassblowing, slip casting, potter's wheels, kilns, casting in precious metals, enamelling, digital printing, laser cutting, embroidery machines, looms and lathes.

• Professional skills are embedded throughout the course to prepare you for a range of careers within the creative industries, whether that be as a craftsperson, jeweller, ceramicist, textile artist, designer-maker, glass artist, designer, researcher, consultant, curator, buyer, stylist or educator.

• You will have the flexibility to produce a wide range of objects, including individual artefacts for galleries and to commission, small batches of similar items, limited editions, public installations and designs for industry.

• Establish yourself by entering national and international competitions. DMU graduates have won many accolades, including the Goldsmiths’ Precious Metal award, and have exhibited at prestigious events such as New Designers and One Year In.

• Learn from highly-experienced academic and technical staff and hear from guest speakers from across the creative industries to help you to determine your future career path.

• Benefit from block teaching, where most students study one subject at a time. A simple timetable will allow you to really engage with your learning, receive regular feedback and assessments, get to know your course mates and enjoy a better study-life balance.

If you are interested in advanced entry into Year 3 of this course, please visit the DMU website for the course details: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/pre-edu-2030/design-crafts-ba-degree/design-crafts-ba-degree.aspx

First year Block 1: Craft Skills Block 2: Design and Make Block 3: Craft Projects Block 4: Craft in Context

Second year Block 1: Live Projects Block 2: Craft Skills 2 Block 3: Craft Cultures Block 4: Creative Practice

Third year Blocks 1 and 2: Craft Practice Blocks 1 and 2: Craft Connections Block 3: Design Crafts Projects Block 4: Personal Projects

We want to ensure you have the best learning experience possible and a supportive and nurturing learning community. That’s why we’re introducing a new block model for delivering the majority of our courses, known as Education 2030. This means a more simplified timetable where you will study one subject at a time instead of several at once. You will have more time to engage with your learning and get to know the teaching team and course mates. You will receive faster feedback through more regular assessment, and have a better study-life balance to enjoy other important aspects of university life.

Structure You will learn in regular timetabled practical workshops, inductions, lectures, seminars, group tutorials, one-to-one tutorials, practical and theoretical talks. Each module has a brief that challenges you to respond creatively, enabling you to develop a range of skills which enhance your personal development. By the final year you will propose your own direction of study and final project.

You will receive ongoing feedback in tutorials, seminars, workshops and more formal written feedback. We assess your progress and achievement throughout the course, formally through presentations and the display of coursework. Typically we assess your work in sketchbooks, design sheets, physical objects, maquettes, models and samples, portfolios and log books. We assess a small amount of written work in the form of technical notes, reports and essays. We ask you to evaluate your own achievements and comment on your own progress.

There are opportunities throughout the course for placements in galleries, small workshops, Sainsbury’s, Hand & Lock, and for exchanges, working collaboratively and working on live briefs and with external clients. DMU is involved in the Crafts Council’s Firing Up scheme where you can volunteer to work with clay in local schools.

Our graduates have won many recent awards and prizes including The Enameller’s Guild Bursary, the Embroiderers' Guild Scholar 18-30, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmith’s Precious Metal Bursary, The Creative Business Award and the Silver Award in Craft and Design Magazine’s Selected Maker Awards, The Young Silversmith’s Award.

One of our recent graduates Alice Funge was personally selected by New Designers sponsor Sainsbury’s to show their work alongside a display of the supermarket giant’s own homewares in a prime spot near the entrance of the hall at the Business Design Centre.

The Design Crafts lecturers are all practising designers and makers, from a wide range of arts and crafts disciplines. We are also proud to have numerous visiting speakers which have included ceramicists, jewellery designers, sculptors, textile artists, enamellers, furniture and product designers and illustrators.

Contact hours In your first year you will normally attend around 24 hours of timetabled taught sessions each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 19 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.