Surface Pattern and Textiles (Swansea College of Art)
About this course
This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.
Our Integrated Masters Surface Pattern and Textiles course at Swansea College of Art UWTSD is a vibrant, multidisciplinary programme where we explore textiles, materiality, pattern and making in the far-reaching contexts of fashion, interiors, object and design led galleries. We are a materials-based course with textiles at the core, we don’t limit ourselves by material discipline! Students explore cloth, paper, metal, wood, plastics, ceramics, glass, biomaterials – then they decide where they take it.
The Intergrated Masters programme option allows students to seamlessly continue studying from the undergraduate levels to a fourth year at level 7. This programme enables a higher level of specialism and extends the research established during the student’s third year into a fourth year.
The programme sits in a portfolio of courses within Surface Pattern and Textiles which is of great benefit to our students who thrive on the collaborative, interdisciplinary study that is possible. These students work together until the end of the third year when the BA students graduate. MDes students don’t graduate until the end of the fourth year. The BA programmes in this portfolio are on specialist pathways - Fashion, Interiors and Maker, the Integrated Masters is different. The MDes programme allows students to truly harness their interdisciplinary potential by not specifying a pathway. By the time students reach Level 7 they are essentially designing their own pathway niche, and often find themselves sitting in new forward-looking spaces, or highly specialised areas of the wider design community.
We encourage student individuality rather than enforce a house style. Demands for originality, innovation, professionalism, and relevance are paramount in steering the individual to identify their own distinct voice within a highly competitive graduate market.
The course is academically challenging, contemporary in outlook, and students are taught a wealth of practical and technical skills, enjoying the design potential of our extensive digital and more traditional facilities. The Surface Pattern and Textiles course offers the best training and facilities to prepare our graduates for a breadth of creative careers. With a highly sophisticated multi-disciplinary skillset across all aspects of digital and material processes associated with textiles, surface pattern, hard materials, new materials, sustainable practices and design communication, our graduates go on to work in a myriad of areas; fashion, interiors, stationery, design led craft, ideation, trend forecasting, print making, surface design for architectural and spatial contexts, sustainable design, to name but a few. Often graduates evolve to work fluidly between employment and freelance opportunities, having learnt the importance of, and acquired the skills to capitalise on varying opportunities whilst on the programme. Many graduates go on to establish their own creative enterprises.
We believe in handling creativity and employability in equal measure - often these elements will be separated in the HE learning experience, but not here in Surface Pattern and Textiles. You will find them intertwined through every project that you work on, it becomes second nature. Our students graduate as designers and makers ready to flourish in a wide range of creative employment, having had significant live projects, exhibition experiences and industry liaisons embedded in their studies. These are built in from year one. Recent live projects have been undertaken with Patternbank, Orangebox, H&M, Eley Kishimoto and St Fagans National Museum of History to name but a few.
Students are all housed within our fantastic studio space allowing a great platform for learning and collaboration. Each student has their own personal desk and drawer space – a space to make it vital.
Modules
Year One - Level 4 (Cert HE, Dip HE, BA & MDes)
• Contemporary Challenges: Making a Difference (20 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module)
• Image Making 1 – Drawing for Design (10 credits; compulsory)
• Learning in the Digital Era (20 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module)
• Major Studies A1 – Ideas into Practice (20 credits; compulsory)
• Major Studies A2 – Designing for Context (20 credits; compulsory)
• Visual and Material Culture (10 credits; compulsory)
• Ways of Perceiving (10 credits; compulsory)
• Ways of Thinking (10 credits; compulsory).
Year Two - Level 5 (Dip HE, BA & MDes)
• Changemakers: Building your Personal Brand for Sustainable Employment (20 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module)
• Changemakers: Creativity and Value Creation (20 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module)
• Image Making 2 – Drawing for a Live Brief (10 credits; compulsory)
• Major Studies A3 - Designing for a Live Brief (20 credits; compulsory)
• Major Studies A4 - A Self Directed Brief (20 credits; compulsory)
• Research in Context (10 credits; compulsory)
• Research in Practice (10 credits; compulsory)
• Visual and Material Language (10 credits; compulsory).
Year Three - Level 6 (BA & MDes)
• Advanced Creative Enquiry (20 credits; compulsory)
• Independent Project (40 credits; compulsory; Graduate Attributes Framework module)
• Major Project (60 credits; compulsory).
Year Four – Level 7 (MDes)
• Advanced Practice (60 credits; compulsory)
• Contemporary Creative Practice (20 credits; compulsory)
• Research and Innovation (20 credits; compulsory)
• The Thought Experiment (20 credits; compulsory).
Assessment methods
Assessment is carried out through coursework, both written and practical. There are no exams on this course. Students are formatively assessed throughout a module, summative assessment takes place at the end of a module. A variety of teaching and learning methods are used throughout the course which include amongst others;
Tuition fees
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The Uni
Dynevor, Swansea
Swansea College of Art
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Design studies
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£14k
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