Masters degree in Furniture Design provide advanced study and training in the design, use and maintenance of furniture in residential, commercial and public environments.
Taught MA and MFA courses are typical for the field. Entry requirements normally include an undergraduate degree in a relevant subject such as Woodwork or Design Technology.
This research-led and practice-based MA addresses the needs of graduates from furniture and related discipline backgrounds, or those who wish to collaborate with professionals in the field. Our Furniture Design MA is one of several postgraduate design courses that co-exist at the Cass, offering rich opportunities for the collaborative and multidisciplinary approach that is a feature of the current and future design sector, and a requirement for success in the field.
The future is largely shaped by design decisions, which implies a responsibility for designers to combine experimentation and radical thinking with care, effective research and collaboration with those who will be affected by the outcomes of designers' work. The work of a designer is not limited to ensuring that furniture is safe and functions well.
You'll want to imbue your work with meaning, to use it to communicate, to engage emotions and inspire response. Furniture also needs 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 furniture products in order to be competitive.
The Master course intends to form knowledgeable designers of the most advanced models of relationship between the product development processes, market dynamics and technological developments. It also intends to complete the training of professionals in R&D, marketing and brand management in the furniture sector, offering them a better understanding of design management skills as a lever to create a competitive advantage.
The Master is based on the capacity of Italian companies, working in the furniture industry, to use design as a fundamental lever of competitive advantage and a structural element of corporate culture. The core of the program is focused on the knowledge generated from the advantageous relationships instilled between the Italian production system and the network of professions involved in design. The Master sets its cultural roots in the “Italian model” of rapport between enterprise and design, while also aiming to develop new knowledge in innovation that responds to the challenges posed by technological, social and market changes.
The program’s structure takes on a systemic vision of the role of design in the furniture industry, teaming new fields of interest to the traditional focus on product development, along with the growing importance of brands and its tangible and intangible elements of expression.
This research-led Interior Design MA addresses the needs of graduates from interior design and related discipline backgrounds, or those who wish to collaborate with professionals in the field. Our Interior Design MA is one of several postgraduate design courses that co-exist at the Cass, 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.
The future is largely shaped by design decisions, which implies a responsibility for designers to combine experimentation and radical thinking with care, effective research and collaboration with those who will be affected by the outcomes of designers' work. The work of a designer is not limited to ensuring that furniture is safe and functions well.
You'll want to imbue your work with meaning, to use it to communicate, to engage emotions and inspire response. Furniture also needs 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 furniture products in order to be competitive.
This course is a radical post-disciplinary programme for practitioners who want to push the boundaries of what design can be and do. During this MA we work with you to transform your practice as a critical and social undertaking.
By challenging the role and norms of traditional design towards an emerging type of ‘advanced design’, unshackled from the history of specialisms and entrenched methods, you will become part of a community of practice. You will be encouraged to actively contribute to a deep understanding of how design is set to address and affect change within contemporary society.
Whatever your background or previous degree we expect you to examine your own practice. This might be in a traditional field of design such as graphic design, product design, fashion design, interior design etc. Other fields such as teaching, social science, humanities, curating, engineering, science and business are also considered practices and welcome on the programme.
The programme is structured around thematic areas of investigation (Studios) which situates you (the practitioner) in a particular field of study and reference. Each Studio will be encouraged to build an identity within the programme; supporting diverse practice, building a rich identity and attracting a broad range of applicants.
The studio offering will be tailored each year to the skills/expertise of applicants and in response to the changing nature of the design field and the world around us. The studios running for 2018/19 are:
You can find out more about each of these studios in the Studios tab below.
The programme runs for 15 months over five 10-11 week Terms and is full-time (this means a minimum of 4 days per week). It is largely delivered through project briefs (both working in groups and individually), which allows an experimental and exploratory design process.
The projects open up opportunities for you to work collectively on research projects, external industry briefs and wider design research themes. Through this process, you'll evolve a design practice that is progressive but also thoughtful, critical and grounded in the complex realities of the world.
Throughout your projects you'll benefit from the input of experienced practice-based staff, as well as world-class visiting practitioners. These projects are all part of three interconnected modules that make up the MA Design Expanded Practice programme:
For Studio Expanded Practice in the first term you will also respond to a shared project brief supported by wide range of design staff from the department and guest speakers. This initial project will be run across the whole masters programme, to build your practice working alongside and in collaboration with the diverse cohort of design students. This will be a combination of scheduled sessions (lectures, workshops, tutorials) as well as self-directed studio or fieldwork amounting to 3 days per week.
In addition to this project you will choose to situate yourself within a studio, and spend one day a week in your studio of choice, where you will be exploring discourses through talks and seminars, engaging with methods and processes appropriate to the studio's focus. This will give you a body of knowledge that will equip you to act in design in your area of interest and continue as weekly session throughout Terms 1, 2 and 3.
In Terms 2 and 3 (Design Transfocality) you will be selecting a project from a choice of three projects each term. Each of these projects will be made up of students from all of the Studios. The aim is to bring your interests to the particular project to shape it for the development of your own practice.
In Term 4 (Summer period) you will select an externally focused project (Extended Study), like our annual summer school in Paris (eg. Design and Performance), or a placement with an external organisation.
You return to Goldsmiths for Term 5 to pull together your body of work and concluding design outcomes (culmination of Studio Expanded Practice) for public engagement through various public facing platforms (eg. publication, exhibition, symposium)
Our Managing in the Creative Economy MA programme bridges the gap between creativity and business. This unique business degree programme enables you to combine specific creative practice and skills with a rigorous business education customised for the creative industries. It has been developed by academics and creative economy practitioners at Kingston Business School to help you respond to emerging trends and opportunities to realise value in the creative economy.
The programme is designed for individuals who come from creative industries, or have graduated in another discipline, including engineering and humanities. You will need a strong motivation to look beyond the traditional boundaries of your discipline, a readiness to participate in a start-up, and a willingness to work in a multi-disciplinary and experiential environment. You will work with students from all over the world and from different creative sectors. This diversity challenges you to think differently and exposes you to differing perspectives on creativity and business.
The programme now has nine generations of graduates and an active alumni network. Our graduates work in a range of creative and leadership positions ranging from freelance work in the creative sector, through to business ownership and employment in large innovative companies in the creative economy.
The creative industries are outpacing traditional industries both in the UK and the rest of the world. In the UK, the creative industries represent 5.2 per cent of the UK economy and provide 1.9 million jobs (DCMS, 2016). With the growth of the creative industries, the creative economy has grown at a rate faster than the whole of the UK economy, and was worth £133.3billion in 2014, accounting for 8.2 per cent of the UK economy (DCMS, 2016).
An increasing number of countries has now placed the creative industries at the heart of their economic development. This creates opportunities for professionals who understand the critical success factors for commercialising creativity, and are equipped with the mix of creative and business knowledge and skills.
This unique business degree programme enables you to combine specific creative practice and skills with a rigorous business education customised for the creative industries. By the end of the programme, you will be equipped with an in-depth knowledge, understanding and skills required to successfully realise value in the creative economy context.
You will specialise and become closely involved in the practice of a specific creative industry through engagement with a real business in the creative sector. This will be the opportunity to experience practical work and realise value in a chosen creative industry:
-Advertising and marketing
-Architecture
-Crafts
-Product design, graphic design and fashion design
-Film, TV, video, radio and photography
-IT, software and computer services
-Publishing
-Museums, galleries and libraries
-Music, performing arts and visual arts
(Creative Industries Classification, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, 2015)
You will also explore the process of collaborative creativity and examine what it takes to successfully develop ideas into innovative products, service and processes. The core of the programme is a real-life business experience; working in a team, you will start and run your own creative industries business in the supportive and risk-free environment provided by Kingston Business School. Our entrepreneurship experts will guide you through the process of designing and running your own creative business, which will help you develop your creative, managerial and entrepreneurial skills.
Assessments are innovative and include a mix of individual and group project work and formal assessments, including essays, case studies, reports and presentations, role-play, games and simulations, plus the final Personal Research Project (maximum 15,000 words). You will study in a supportive environment where regular feedback is provided by both academics and professionals.
The course gives you the opportunity to gain a range of knowledge, skills and experiences:
-Develop your creative, entrepreneurial, managerial and leadership skills – participate in development of a start-up, pitch to real industry experts at our "Dragons' Den", and engage with a variety of professionals and entrepreneurial businesses.
-Experience practical work in a chosen creative industry by engaging with a real creative industries business to develop your CV and your understanding of the creative sector.
-Learn the fundamentals of business management theory and practice from the specific perspective of the creative industries, in the diverse and evolving context of the creative economy.
-Experience regular visits from industry experts and entrepreneurs, field trips to entrepreneurial businesses and events such as Frieze Art Fair that connect the creative industry to the local community and enable you to build a valuable network.
The Managing in the Creative Economy MA is designed for individuals who come from creative industries, or have graduated in another discipline, including engineering and humanities.
-Are you a creative practitioner? We will give you the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in creating a product or service and taking it to markets.
-Are you a manager in a creative business? We will help you understand the processes of managing creativity and innovation and enhance your skills as a creative leader with a good grasp of strategy and appropriate business and management skills.
-Have you got years of experience? If you have substantial experience, you could benefit from undertaking the personal research project that will help you to apply your new skills and expertise to your specialist sector and enable you to identify new opportunities in the creative economy.
Below are the core modules for this course:
Modules
-Mapping the Creative Economy
-Design Thinking for Start-ups
-Experiencing the Creative Industries - Professional Practice
-Conducting Collaborative Creativity
-Managing a Creative Business
-Personal Research Project/Gaining Insights
This course is for materially engaged makers who are looking to explore craft practices across a range of materials and object types. The programme encourages the development of craft across specialist and multi-material making, as you investigate and explore definitions of craft practice.
Your work may already encompass making in a specific area such as glass, ceramics or jewellery, which you are wanting to develop or expand. This course will encourage you to progress and challenge your practice, to explore genre-breaking approaches to material and process making.
Using the wide range of hand, machine and digital technologies at Manchester School of Art, you will work within, across and between definitions of craft, to evolve and progress a unique and personal making practice within contemporary craft.
The programme is supported by a comprehensive range of workshops for hand, machine and digital making. In addition to traditional material making workshops in ceramics, glass, metal, wood, textiles and bookbinding, there are digital making facilities for CNC routing, rapid prototyping, plasma & laser cutting, and digital print for textiles & ceramics. Students have access to a wide range of specialist academic and technical expertise from across the School of Art, to support the development of a wide range of craft making practices.
Design Network
Based in the heart of the School of Art, MA/MFA Design: Craft 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 course is aimed at both professional practitioners wishing to pursue a sustained period of time developing new ideas or recent graduates wishing to focus their studies and refine ideas at an advanced level. The course will also consider students from a non-industrial / product background, providing they can offer clearly articulated and informed reasons for wishing to study Product Design at an advanced level.
A student defined placement module in the second semester of studies allows the student to further explore areas of relevance to their studies, either through arranged placement, collaborative activity or research visits. As well as ‘hard skills’ such as modelling, new product development, styling and product graphics, they are now also beginning to embrace the ‘soft skills’ of branding, user interface design, trend spotting and forecasting. Spin offs of these activities can now be seen as production management, new start up initiatives / own product development, corporate identity and qualitative market research
Students will be supported by staff input through a series of design activities during semester one that are designed to identify an area or interest that can then be fully explored through the following two semesters. Complementary to the design modules are two research modules that provide theoretical underpinning. There are opportunities to explore issues through a dynamic research experience that again is defined and structured by the individual. The final semester of studies allows students to bring together all that has been developed and researched during the course.
We have well equipped studios and workshops, supported by highly skilled technical staff. Supporting the craft workshops and design studios, we have excellent suites of high spec computers for CAD, assignment writing and image manipulation. The University has excellent library / study facilities with a very extensive collection of design books and periodicals, together with many e-resources and support.
Graduates have developed successful careers within a wide range of design related disciplines, including designer / maker, freelance or in-house designer for manufacturing, teacher, design buyer and design manager to name a few.
Digital Fabrication has enabled the leap from industrial manufacturing –which is hard to access- to affordable and accessible personal fabrication to allow for rapid prototyping in the development of projects.
With this course, you will learn to handle a digital workflow, in both the design and prototyping stages, learning to distinguish between different manufacturing processes for prototyping and designing your projects efficiently and quickly.
You will also learn to make your designs "smart" by equipping them with connectivity, interaction and responsive design. You will learn to do this in four steps: integration of electronics in the design, programming electronics, mechanical outputs so that your projects "do things" and interaction between your projects and their environment.
You will learn while you work on your projects, through learning by doing, combined with the knowledge offered by the best international faculty and the facilities of the Fab Lab IED Madrid, which you will have free access to all day long, so you can work on your prototypes and experiments.
