MA Design*
MA Design at Arts University Plymouth develops products, practices and applications for contemporary society through a speculative lens to imagine design beyond the status quo of production and consumption. It does this by teaching design as an active mode of research that seeks to positively impact human and planetary well being.
Work by Owen Rees
<p dir="ltr">It encourages innovation and solutions-based ideation through study and practices that demonstrate new ideas on usability, supply-chains, models of production, fabrication technologies, life cycle analysis, consumer behaviour and digital-material interfaces. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Through this course your learning will follow a design process based on practice-led research methodologies and project development informed by material investigation, iterative production, co-design, prototyping, visualisation and reflective market analysis. You will be encouraged to consider both small-scale and mass market manufacturing, identifying the ways that your designs may potentially impact communities, the economy and the environment. Your ideas will be refined through peer team working and in collaboration with an external partner or institution whom you identify as influential or necessary to your design ideas and target market.<br /></p>
Work by Sue Lewry
<p>As a designer, you face a number of urgent challenges beyond the aesthetics and form of your work. This course teaches design strategies, analytical skills and existing material practices to help you reimagine the designer’s role in relation to nature and ecological systems, and the use of new and emerging technologies in the face of some of humanity’s most ‘wicked’ problems. We value design principles based on full life cycle awareness aimed at a more circular production ethos, now integral to an ethical approach to design that furthers human and planetary well being. Through a structured interdisciplinary process of research and design taught through an MA curriculum shared across postgraduate creative subjects, you will expand your critical, contextual and practical knowledge of design, incorporating design thinking and industry leading strategies to prepare you to lead or propose possible design futures.</p>
<p>Because the processes and tools of design are continuously evolving, we know design is no longer simply the creation of better objects and products, but also a matter of designing systems—seeing holistic new ways of exchanging goods, of recycling and repurposing, of re-imagining the kind of world and society we value. New technologies are an important agent of change and can be deployed in design in ways that make what we wear, own, experience and sell more accessible, more economical as well as desirable.Thinking through the discipline of design, you will learn to bridge the gap between the artisanal and contemporary best practices so that regardless of the changes to come, you are prepared to respond and creatively adapt.</p>
<p>The facilities available to you, from our Natural Dye Lab and Biomaterials Lab, to our CAD Lab and immersive media studio, will provide the opportunity to pursue your designs and research through a number of different media and processes, giving you the resources and studio space to take your ideas from concept to prototype. The curriculum provides a programme of visiting lectures, site visits, trips, critiques and seminars that will enrich your designs and challenge you to resolve a body of work that will enable you to step into the next stages of your life and career.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This MA course is open to any design discipline and for those whose design concepts do not easily fit a single area of practice. Are you a thought leader? Do you have ideas about the nature of regenerative design methodology or how to reimagine traditional design processes for more sustainable futures? Then this course is for you. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Through the course you will have access to a wide range of state-of-the-art facilities and resources to develop your work, including our FabLab, which was the first of its kind in the UK and now part of a network of over 2,700 Fab Labs around the world. </p>
<p dir="ltr">We are committed to developing ethical, sustainable design practices as outlined in our <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/strategic-plan">Strategic Vision</a> and this ethos is embedded in all MA courses.<br /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>We place you at the crossroad of material traditions and futures</strong>. Design is an expanding area of practice that encompasses both industry standards and an exciting exploration of new design thinking seeking to build more sustainable businesses and ethical creative practices. Our MA Design places you at the forefront of the creative and societal forces that are challenging design norms in order to reimagine production and consumption for a changing world through new modes of practice. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>A pro-active, Interdisciplinary community</strong>. New ideas and design practices do not develop in isolation. You come to university to be challenged, supported and to take risks in a context that will inspire you to innovate and understand design as an active process of inquiry into market demands, new technologies, transforming supply chains and challenges to our environment. The course encourages conceptual exploration and hands-on iteration through multiple disciplines and cultures of making. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Accelerated personal development through guided, practice-led research</strong>. We believe design is a research-led enquiry into human relationships with each other and our planetary ecosystem. This enquiry is pursued through an iterative, material-led examination of the links between human need, human behaviour and human community, leading to new insights and solutions. Your personal learning is accelerated through common units navigated via your individual discipline and professional objectives. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>World-class workshops and facilities</strong>: During your time on the course, you will have access to one of the most diverse and spacious ecosystems of workshops, studios and labs known in a contemporary art and design school. Our Fab Lab is the first of its kind in the UK and gives you access to state-of-the-art resources for developing a 21st century skillset that will prepare you for leading new design methods and practices, making you adept at navigating design’s complex material and digital interface.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Sustainable ethos and specialist knowledge</strong>: Built into our Postgraduate programme is an emphasis on the sustainable, non-extractive and regenerative approaches to working with materials, which not only provides a meaningful link between the past and the future of design, but puts you at the forefront of contemporary design thinking aimed at developing new, more sustainable industries. We provide an opportunity to develop specialist practices that give you the tools and knowledge to contribute to a growing design sector focused on building a circular economy.<br /></p>
<p>Arts University Plymouth graduates are offered a <strong>discount of 15% on Masters programme fees</strong>, regardless of when they studied with us previously. The discount applies if you studied on one of our pre-degree, foundation or undergraduate programmes.</p>
<p>MA applicants are normally expected to have an undergraduate degree at 2:2 or above. However, the strength of your creative practice and other forms of experience will be taken into account at the interview stage and we encourage you to start a conversation with us.</p>
<p>Your portfolio should give us an indication of the work that you have made, organised or been involved in. For our postgraduate arts, craft and design courses, we expect to see examples of work you have created. <br /></p>
<p>The best deadline to submit your MA application by is <strong>1 July</strong>, however please be reassured that we can take late applications until the start of the course if places are still available.</p>
<ul><li><strong>Email: </strong><a href="mailto:admissions@aup.ac.uk">admissions@aup.ac.uk</a></li><li><strong>Tel:</strong> +44 (0)1752 203434</li></ul>
<p>Click the button below to book an informal online chat with Postgraduate Course Leader, <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/people/tom-milnes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Tom Milnes</a>.</p>
