Product Design - MA

Why study this course?

The Product Design MA addresses the needs of graduates from product design and related discipline backgrounds, or those who wish to collaborate with professionals in the field. MA Product Design is one of several postgraduate design courses that co-exist at the School of Art, Architecture and Design, offering rich opportunities for the collaborative multidisciplinary approach that is a feature of the current and future design sector and a requirement for success in the field.

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Product Design MA is grounded in the understanding that design is a key driver for change in society and the environment. However, traditional roles in design are increasingly blurred and designers need to be able to negotiate complex and ambiguous problems. The challenges and opportunities for design and designers are being constantly reimagined, as the unpredictability of the future tests our capacity to adapt, invent and apply creative design solutions to emerging needs. Graduates of this course will design products and systems that have not yet been conceptualised.

Knowing that the future is largely shaped by design decisions gives a responsibility to designers to act in a manner that combines experimentation and radical thinking with care. The work of a designer is not, however, limited to ensuring that products are safe and function well.

You'll want to imbue your work with meaning, to use it to communicate, to engage emotions and inspire response. Products also need to be designed to be attractive and desirable in the marketplace and relevant to consumers, meaning you'll need an exhaustive overview of current and forthcoming products in order to be competitive.

Design and research for design occupies a large proportion of the course. In parallel with theoretical research, you'll generate, communicate and evaluate all kinds of innovative ideas and concepts for products. You'll discover what design research methods will reveal the widest range of proposals for testing, how best to inform the user and producer of what you have in mind and how best to evaluate concepts that exist in virtual form only.

The School of Art, Architecture and Design is a community that shares a commitment to contemporary design and its global and local contexts, a passion for design in all its forms, and desire to test the premises of the field, theoretically as well as practically. We aspire to effect real, meaningful and beneficial change through our design work and MA Product Design is a part of that vision.

Alternative core module information

The School maintains a portfolio of alternative core MA (level 7) 20 credit modules, two of which will be core to this course in any particular year. Prior to the start of the course each September, the course team will decide which of the alternative core modules should be the core 20 credit modules for the following academic cycle. This decision is based on the project opportunities arising and the balance of students across the portfolio of MA design courses. Please note, students themselves do not choose which of the alternative core modules to take themselves. See the modular structure section below for more details.