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Course Curriculum & Structure

The course includes interior, architectural and environmental ceramics; design for the vessel; lighting; tableware; hollow ware and giftware. Your knowledge and confidence as a ceramic designer will grow by studying the concepts and professional contexts of ceramic design.

BA (Hons) Ceramic Design is a unique course that offers a specialist design-led experience in the broad subject of ceramics. It takes the position that designing from a deep and sensitive knowledge of one material means that you are able to more effectively translate that experience into other materials and disciplines, either during or after the course.

Ceramic Design embraces numerous types of practice from expressive individual makers, who are informed by craft and create bespoke artefacts, through to product designers who design and produce highly refined products and need to consider social, cultural and lifestyle choices, market forces and manufacturing opportunities. Between these lie ceramic work, which inhabits human scale and architectural space operating within public, community and domestic environments, which creates opportunities for commission and site specific work. The course enables you to engage with all these attributes through the making. You will design and translate ideas in ceramics, based on a hands-on experience and the understanding of a material and how it informs the design process.

In the 21st century, a good ceramic designer is now required to understand and appreciate the breadth of design territories, artistic and ceramic practice and challenge how those boundaries might be breached on an emotional, strategic, design responsible and commercial level. The course seeks to help you make bridges between these different cultures and communities.

Structure

The course is three-years full time, organised in three stages which correspond to each of the three years. It is delivered through a range of learning styles that relate to professional practice. Theory is embedded and linked directly to the design activity and enables you to question, articulate and present ideas in the context of set and self initiated projects which challenge your creative practice. The course has three interrelated areas of study:

  • Ceramic Design Studies (comprising Applied Technical Studies and Contextual Studies)
  • Personal and Professional Development (PPD)
  • Elective Studies

Self-employment: working as a designer, maker or entrepreneur. This includes working as a small-scale designer for batch or limited production, the ceramist producing commissioned one-off vessels or site-specific projects.

Stage 1

Design by Practice focuses on the making experience and the intrinsic qualities of objects and materials. You will develop a sensitivity to the processes, techniques and craft of ceramic design.

Stage 2

The projects are learnt within a professional context: Design by Project explores the notion of designing within distinct parameters; the process is often linear with specific points of delivery and outcomes. Design by Concept is a more flexible approach, highly reflective and research based and focuses on building a framework for design thinking. At the end of Stage 2 you will draw on these methodologies in your self initiated projects.

Stage 3

As at the end of Stage 2, you will continue to draw on the methodologies learnt in Stages 1 and 2 in your self initiated projects. Your final projects will confirm your chosen route to career development and your personal contribution to the future of ceramic design.

Aims and outcomes

We anticipate that as a BA (Honours) Ceramic Design graduate you will:

  • be an independent self-aware learner
  • be equipped with an understanding of the subject and the intellectual, academic, practical and transferable skills necessary to practice in and contribute to ceramic design and the creative industries.
  • be responsible and self-reliant with the ability to demonstrate critical analysis and self-reflection in contributing to society at large.

On satisfactory completion of the course, you will be able to demonstrate:

  • a detailed understanding and awareness of current developments in ceramic design
  • the ability to initiate, develop and sustain ideas; analyse and critically evaluate information; to demonstrate visual and aesthetic awareness; to solve problems and make decisions within set and self-initiated projects
  • the ability to present ideas and resolved outcomes through the informed selection and use of materials, techniques and processes
  • the ability to communicate effectively with specialist and non- specialist audiences using visual, verbal and physical means
  • the ability to work independently and collaboratively to initiate, manage and conclude projects within set timescales
  • the ability to critically evaluate the social, cultural and professional contexts within which ceramic design operates
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