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The MA Embroidery course will provide you with an opportunity to specialise in stitch, in the broadest sense of the word. Embroidery has vast potential as a creative medium and can be used within art, craft and design outcomes. You will be expected to have an understanding of the context for your work and undertake appropriate visual research. Both traditional and digital technological processes are available in specialist workshops, including Cornely, Irish, domestic, and single head computerised machines. The studios and workshops offer a lively and supportive place to test out and visualise ideas.
Based in the heart of the School of Art, MA/MFA Design: Embroidery is part of an innovative design network — a community of staff and students exploring design ideas in a discursive, cross-disciplinary studio environment. Critically informed practical designers, the group works experimentally, inspired by new insights and possibilities.
While studying towards a particular qualification at MA/MFA level, students experience their subject in the broader context of contemporary design practice.
Dedicated spaces for the postgraduate community have been developed to enable the postgraduate community to flourish. These spaces, for thinking and practice, are located centrally within the School of Art, allowing easy access to an extensive range of workshops where the combination of traditional and state of the art equipment opens up a world of exciting possibilities.
The MA Design: Embroidery is made up of four units totalling 180 credits.
The programme is designed to help you acclimatise to the challenges of MA level research and practice, enabling you to identify and describe a clear direction for your postgraduate design study.
You will be encouraged to develop design propositions that encompass key design issues and have complexity and ambition, taking full consideration of the relative contextual drivers.
You will also be encouraged and supported to extend your experience in the professional sphere either through a practical project, research context, exchange, work experience, or other negotiated professional set of interactions with an external partner, groups of students and creative industry.
Towards the end of the programme you will undertake a major project to consolidate your past research and practice into fully realised collections, pieces, proposals, business plans, or exhibitions – what ever means is appropriate to the work. You will also have developed a strategy for the continuation of your practice located and contextualised to the profession or discipline.
If you choose to progress to MFA Design: Embroidery award you will study a further two units of 60 credits each.
This award is focused on the continuation of your practice aligned to the research and selection of appropriate public or professional venues and platforms to disseminate a significant body of work. You will be required to produce work for a public audience in the most relevant and appropriate form along with any implicit publicity and dissemination material.
This programme offers a rich and stimulating exploration of materials and textile processes with applications spanning a broad range of contexts, and challenging any boundaries which may define what textiles can be.
We’ll nurture the development of your interests through focused research. With subjects tailored to your own curiosity in and around textiles, this variety of approaches within each cohort creates a rich environment for innovation. This breadth is also reflected in the range of staff working on the programme, with a stimulating mix of backgrounds from print, embroidery, and woven textiles as well as graphics and jewellery.
While embedding the rudiments of the techniques and facilities of the discipline, we encourage you to embrace the possibilities available and consider the collaborative partnerships and excellent facilities that the wider design school and University can offer to enrich your projects. Through our links with the textiles and fashion industries, you’ll be supported to find a work placement during your studies, gaining valuable industry experience.
*Please note that the one year MA is under review for 2017/18. Applications are currently being accepted for the two year MFA only.
The two-year MFA programme is project-led. You will produce a body of work on an agreed proposed topic, culminating in resolved practical solutions. Classes are offered in drawing skills, technical workshops in the dye lab, print room, and in our Computer Aided Design (CAD) suite for digital printing and CAD embroidery.
Your study will combine practical studio work closely entwined with theoretical and written studies, including professional practice elements to prepare you for employment in the industry. A lecture/ seminar series will help you examine the wider context for your project, and will help you to articulate your ideas through the written and spoken word.
This programme can offer a route into careers in many areas, including the fashion, textile industries, and beyond. Our graduates have an excellent track record, going on to work directly in design studios in London, Paris and New York, in companies such as Red or Dead, Osborne and Little, Cole & Son, and Diane von Furstenberg. ECA graduates have become stylists, fashion buyers, illustrators or fine artists, while others have pursued careers in related design industries such as automotive interiors and interior design.
Create beautiful, innovative textiles and gain the skills you’ll need for a successful career in textile design, guided by industry experts and supported by unrivalled facilities.
The MA Textile Design programme will encourage you to be experimental, to stretch the boundaries and focus on taking your textile design skills to the next level. Taught by industry-experienced tutors and supported by our dedicated technicians, you’ll learn techniques such as print, embroidery and Devore, with access to superb facilities including traditional print rooms, laser cutting, dye labs, illustration and mac suites. Alongside thisyou’ll gain the contextual knowledge and critical research skillsthat will underpin your work through core topics such as sketchbook development, visual and market research and considerations of sustainability. Our staff are committed to helping you realise your own creative ideas and you will develop the ability to inquire into and reflect on contemporary life; whether your interests lie in textiles for fashion, interior design or as a medium for art pieces, you’ll receive plenty of individual support.
The programme includes extensive industry exposure through guest lectures, live project briefs and visits to trade events, and staff will work closely with you to help you develop your individual strengths and enhance your employability. Using their industry connections, tutors can also facilitate internship opportunities with leading fashion and textile companies and the opportunity to showcase your work in Winchester and London.
You’ll graduate with a portfolio that demonstrates your creative talents and technical accomplishments, as well as the industry-specific knowledge that will enable you to pursue a successful career in textile design.
Whether you are a recent graduate or want to refocus your career, the MA Textile Design programme will allow you to develop your creative design skills and apply them to a range of textile media within a robust academic framework. As part of a well-respected Russell Group university, we place a strong emphasis on research across our programmes. As well as honing your technical skills, you’ll be encouraged to explore the ideas and issues that have shaped textile design and contemporary issuesthat influence the industry, rooting your studio work in a conceptual context.
In addition, you’ll be able to access lectures and conferences run by the School’s renowned research and special interest groups, such as the Winchester Luxury Research Group, In The Loop and the Fashion and Sustainability Forum.
A relatively small intake means you’ll get plenty of individual attention from your tutors, and you’ll develop friendships and contacts among your peer group that will be invaluable as your career progresses. You’ll be co-located with MA Fashion Design students in a creative studio atmosphere where students can share ideas and draw inspiration from one another’s work.
Click here to download the full Programme Specification.
Our graduates have gone on to pursue a broad variety of careers such as designing for textile design agencies, becoming in-house designers for design houses or suppliers, or greeting card design. Past students have also set up their own design labels, have become design tutors or continued their studies at PhD level.
Focusing on innovative approaches to design you will be able to investigate textile practices without being constrained by a curriculum which segregates design specialisations.
Freedom to explore creative practice together with a proactive approach towards industry engagement, self-promotion and competition entry helps students gain placement opportunities and win awards every year, including New Designers, Bradford Textile Society and CAMAC Student Wallpaper Design.
Lectures and workshops with guests from textile design and fashion sectors such as Sarah Angold (Sarah Angold Studio), Sally Ann Wood (Cath Kidston) and Margo Selby encourage industry understanding. Trips to cities such as Paris and New York include studio and trade fair visits to further support you in identifying and developing your own career path or business venture.
We challenge conventional thinking about textile design practice and encourage and support you to push the boundaries of your practice through experimentation, critical reflection and skilful use of techniques and processes.
Textile Print and Dye Workshop
Long print tables with repeat furniture for screenprinting fabric lengths, heat presses, dye kitchen with steaming and washing facilities are included in the resources available.
Constructed Textiles Workshop
Resources include: digital sewing, embroidery and knitting machines with professional software, spinning wheels, tapestry frames, smocking machines, shaft table top looms, digital reactive and acid dye fabric printer, Epson 7000 digital disperse dye sublimation printer and Mimaki TX2 digital fabric printer.
Digital Design Workshop
Equipped with the Adobe Creative Suite. AVA professional textile design software is available for taught delivery and individual use.
General Technical Sessions
Optional software inductions available to all students introduce you to a wide range of creative possibilities and output options.
Media Resource Centre
For digital cameras, tripods, 35mm DSLRs, 35mm film cameras and lighting equipment.
Laser Cutter
Large-bed cutter for card, board and acrylic materials with associated digital design hardware and software.
NUA Library
The largest specialist are, design and media collection in the East of England including 32,000 books, 1,300 journal subscriptions and 3,000 DVDs.
The offer of entry onto a Masters Degree (MA) is based on an expectation that you have the potential to fulfil the aims of the course of study and achieve the standard required to successfully complete the award. Entrants should normally have achieved a BA (Hons)/BSc Degree of 2:1 or above (or its equivalent), in a subject related to your proposed course of study.
Applicants who hold a Degree from another discipline may also be considered for entry, subject to the submission of a satisfactory portfolio of art, design or media-related work in support of their application.
The majority of applicants to courses at NUA will be invited to attend an interview. This provides an invaluable chance to meet face-to-face and is the major factor in determining the success of your submission. The interview is an opportunity to assess your work and the suitability of your application and also provides you with a chance to assess NUA’s staff, campus and facilities and ask questions. The key focus of your application process is on your portfolio. Some courses may require additional entry requirements or passes in specific subjects.
For further information on this course, please visit our website - MA Textile Design.
