BSc(Hons)
Creative Product Design

About this course

• Entry year: 2012/13
• Course code: H131
• Applications: UCAS
• Level: Undergraduate
• Tariff points: 300
• Department: Engineering, Design and Mathematics
• Campus: Frenchay
• Duration: Three years full-time; Four years sandwich; Five or Six years part-time
• Delivery: Full-time, sandwich, part-time (2 days a week)
• Study Abroad: Yes
• Programme leader: Kurt Gauss
• Key fact: Our award winning course focuses on sustainable design which benefits society

Introduction

We have grown up in a world of relentless industrial and material progress. Product designers have played a part in this - meeting people's material needs with functional, ergonomic and attractive product designs optimised for manufacture. However, society's expectations are changing and so is the role of the product designer.

Our holistic view of progress now puts human rather than material values at the heart of a society that is striving to be inclusive and sustainable whilst satisfying its physical and emotional needs. Product design is evolving to meet the needs of people for whom travelling is as important as arriving and the experience of discovering, buying and making coffee is as valued as the cup of coffee itself.

Designing is now about people. What they value, how they relate to themselves, each other and their surroundings. Designers must understand this to create complete product experiences for consumers rather than just well styled products.

Creative Product Design is developing this new generation of designer. Working in new studio facilities, it uses the latest CAD resources, workshops and rapid prototyping equipment you would expect from a cutting-edge programme. New tutors have joined from leading companies. They bring real world experience to your learning from their work with Swatch, Coca-Cola, Dyson, Virgin Atlantic, IBM, Mambo and Whirlpool. 

Bristol provides the ideal setting for Creative Product Design. It combines the stimulating metropolitan, cultural, historical and artistic environment designers thrive in with the attraction of living in a vibrant student city.

plan+make degree show June 2011

Have a look at our students' work which was on display at the plan+make degree show 2011. Students from across the Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics exhibited along with students from across the Faculty. The event, held in June each year, enables our students to showcase their final year projects to both family and friends as well as employers from the region.

New Design Studios

Want to see where you will be studying if you choose product design at UWE? Have a look at our video on YouTube showing you around our new facilities.

Structure

Content

The programme content is aimed at giving you the skills, knowledge and experience required for contemporary practice.

Digital design skills are taught intensively throughout the programme. Starting in 2D you will progress onto 3D virtual modelling using industry standard packages culminating in you producing prototypes of your designs using our rapid prototyping facilities. Emphasis is also placed on developing a highly professional and expressive competence in manual sketching, rendering and model making. Together, these skills give you a powerful and employable tool set to develop and communicate your ideas.

Taught modules include design processes, consumer research, ergonomics, inclusive design, sustainable design, materials, manufacturing, branding and design culture. The Design in Business module gives you the knowledge and insight to engage with companies at an influential level.

The core of the programme is the Design Studio where your new skills and knowledge are applied to diverse projects that solve human centred problems through design practice. Intensive one-to-one tutoring with tutors and practising designers brings leading edge thinking and practical guidance to your work. Your inspiration will be boosted further by the study tour to the International Design Week, in Milan, Italy.

Creativity is at the heart of the programme and our expectation is high. Stimulating teaching on challenging design projects will push your creative edge.

Programme structure diagram for Creative Product Design. Programme structures change from year to year. You might find some variation between that shown here and the final version on your course.

Teaching and learning

This degree places considerable emphasis on 'hands-on' learning, often based in the Design Studio. Consequently assessment is predominantly based on project work and the presentation of a portfolio of design studies. Within each year of the programme a considerable proportion of the learning effort is devoted to giving you experience of the design cycle for a wide variety of design problems. This will involve generating ideas, evaluating the best concepts, producing an artefact and testing it in some way. Relatively little use is made of conventional written examinations.

Special Features

Placements

Many students take the optional year out to gain valuable work experience. Our system of multiple six-week placements allows you to build the diversity of experience needed for your CV and portfolio.

Creative Product Design is an award-winning participant in the Design Council's 'Inside Track' scheme. Students undertake a company placement to complete a design audit that leads on to innovative product recommendations.

Another first is an initiative of placing graduating students with partner small and medium-sized companies in the South West. This initiative allows these students the opportunity of working with an SME on a particular short-term design project. Not only does this initiative add to students' personal portfolios and make them even more attractive to future employers, but it also provides SMEs with the opportunity of employing graduate designers on a short term basis to solve a design need.

Student Successes

Product Design graduate shortlisted for prestigious James Dyson Award

A hand massager designed to reduce pain for people with arthritis has reached the final UK heats of a national design award. The massager was created as part of student Will Drake's final year project and he researched his design in conjunction with Bath Royal Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases talking with patients and health professionals. Read the full press release here

Product Design competition winner secures design job following work placement

A competition winning product design student from the University of the West of England has won permanent employment at Bisley, the international office furniture company, after making a positive impression during a recent work placement. UWE's Product Design degree programme has worked in partnership with Bisley for three years, the highlight of the collaboration being an annual competition where Bisley sets a design challenge project for the students. Find out more in the full press release

UWE graduates design rides on new pier at Weston Super Mare

Graduates from the Product Design course at the University of the West of England have worked on the design and manufacture of some of the rides and amusements on the newly rebuilt Grand Pier at Weston-Super-Mare. Just one year after graduation Matt Tucker, Doug Campbell and Neil Macqueen have been working with Gravitron, a specialist company based in Stroud, to come up with a range of new and exciting rides and amusements for Weston- Super-Mare's star tourist attraction. Find out more in the full press release

Study facilities

You will be able to brainstorm and develop your ideas in the Design Studio, which is equipped with iMac computers. You will also use the Product Design Workshop, where a range of materials and equipment are available for use, to develop your idea into reality.

Careers/further study

Creative Product Design is outstanding because it develops the new kind of design professional sought by industry. We develop exactly the skills, knowledge and confidence needed for this job market.

The course will support you in launching your career. The diversity of your project work combined with the focus on consumer experience produces a compelling portfolio. Combined with formal training in CV and personal presentation this puts you in a strong position to win your all-important first job. This could be in a design consultancy or in a company's design team. You could be designing products, exhibitions, consumer packaging, retail experiences, multimedia or working in new product development, marketing or design management.

Graduates exhibit annually at the New Designers exhibition in London where awards and media interest are a springboard for graduate careers.

Graduate destinations

Find out what our graduates are doing six months after graduating- includes examples of careers, employers and further study. Download a PDF from graduate destinations.

Key employer partnerships

Our degrees can lead to a wide variety of career choices. To ensure that our degrees make you as employable as possible we work closely with seven major partner employers in our engineering and computing consortium.

Creating employable students

UWE places strong emphasis on employability and skills development at every level. Through work placements, volunteering, study abroad and UWE initiatives which nurture talent and encourage innovation, students gain valuable real world experience and graduate with diverse career opportunities and a competitive place in the job market.

See great graduate prospects for further information.

Be inspired

Read about Will being shortlisted for the Dyson Design Prize.

View some of our students' work from the 2011 degree show on flickr.

Useful links

UWE - careers in manufacturing and processing

UWE - careers in creative arts and design

The UWE careers service provides guidance and support throughout your studies in addition to useful resources, CV checks, career coaching and details of current job vacancies.

Entry

Typical offers

• Tariff points: 300
• GCSE: Maths and English Language at grade C or above required.
• Specific subjects: A level, BTEC National or IB Higher (or equivalent) in Art, or Design and Technology. Foundation Diploma in Art also accepted.
• Access: Achievement of the Access to HE Diploma; achievement of level 3 credits in Art or Design and Technology; achievement of level 2 credits in Maths and English Language.
• Baccalaureate IB: Accepted (see the UCAS website for the UCAS tariff points that you can gain from the IB to put towards our points requirements above)

Advice on typical offers

This course is for those without specialist mathematical and scientific expertise and education beyond GCSE but who, nonetheless, have a strong interest in technology and desire to pursue a career in this area.

All applicants will be invited to a portfolio review and should be prepared to bring along examples of their work. The portfolio review forms part of the selection criteria for the course.

Applicants who have successfully completed an Arts Foundation course are welcomed. In addition to the 'typical offer' given here, please read the general information about entry requirements.

How to apply

Please see the general information about applications.

For further information

• Telephone: +44 (0)117 32 83333
• E-mail: admissions@uwe.ac.uk
  For information about the content and running of the course contact the Programme Leader,Kurt Gauss