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Product and Furniture Design BA (Hons)

Develop your ability to think creatively across the boundaries of product and furniture design and develop innovative design solutions.

Overview

Nick Rowan our Senior Lecturer discuss why you should study Product Design at DMU.

This Product and Furniture Design course will encourage you to make bold challenges to convention. You’ll study the functional and market-led requirements of product and furniture design, usability, manufacturing and aesthetics.

Specific areas include visual language, branding, user-centred design, computer-aided design (CAD), 3D design and modelling, and design cultures. You’ll learn about sustainability and examine the development of socially conscious products that, through their technical specification, reduce waste and conserve energy.

Key features

  • Our course is accredited by the Institution of Engineering Designers – this enables you to work towards membership.
  • Gain professional experience with placement opportunities that have seen our students work at renowned names such as Marshalls Street Furniture, BMW and Howdens.
  • We’ll champion your ideas and support you as you pursue opportunities to strengthen your portfolio and grow your confidence by entering national and international competitions. Our students have won prestigious prizes from Seymourpowell and the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
  • The award-winning Vijay Patel Building provides both the space and the facilities to foster creative thinking. You will have access to workshops focusing on wood, metal and plastics, utilising facilities including the newest innovations in additive manufacturing and rapid prototyping equipment
  • Our graduates have gone on to work for a wide range of companies, including Jaguar Land Rover, Mamas & Papas, Ponti Design Studio and Mous.
  • We provide core workshop materials at no cost, and give cash awards – £150, £200 and £300 in years one, two and three respectively – to support personal materials/printing costs.*

See our student work

Student brochure Graduate showcase

More courses like this

Design Crafts BA (Hons)

Interior Design BA (Hons)

Product Design BA (Hons)

Product Design BSc (Hons)

  • UK
  • EU/International

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code: W293

Duration: Three years full-time, four years full-time with a placement. Six years part-time.

Fees and funding: 

2024/25 tuition fees for UK students: £9,250

Find out more about tuition fees and available funding.

Additional costs: Here at DMU we provide excellent learning resources, including the Kimberlin Library and specialist workshops and studios. However, you should be aware that sometimes you may incur additional costs for this programme.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Order a prospectus

Book an Open Day

Submit a study-related enquiry

Duration: Three years full-time, four years with placement.

Fees and funding: 

2024/25 tuition fees for international students: £15,750

Additional costs: Here at DMU we provide excellent learning resources, including the Kimberlin Library and specialist workshops and studios. However, you should be aware that sometimes you may incur additional costs for this programme.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Order a prospectus

Submit a study-related enquiry

Entry criteria

Typical entry requirements 

We welcome applicants from a range of backgrounds.

  • Art and Design Foundation or
  • 112 points from at least 2 A ‘levels 
  •  BTEC Extended Diploma DMM
  • International Baccalaureate: 26+ Points 

Plus five GCSEs grades 9-4 including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above.

  • Pass Access with 30 Level 3 credits at Merit and GCSE English (Language or Literature) at grade 4 or above

We will normally require students to have had a break from full time education before undertaking the Access course.

  • We also accept the BTEC First Diploma plus two GCSEs including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above

English language requirements

If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each band (or equivalent) when you start the course is essential.

English language tuition, delivered by our British Council-accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.

Interview and portfolio

Applicants with relevant qualifications will be invited to submit a portfolio of work. Please see our portfolio advice page for full details.

Non-standard applicants may be invited to attend an interview via MS Teams with a portfolio.

Structure and assessment

 

Course modules

Teaching and assessments

Accreditation

 

First year

  • The Principles of Design
  • CAD for Product Designers 1
  • Visual Communication
  • Design for Manufacture
  • Design Cultures 1
  • Workshop Practice

Second year

  • Design Practise 2
  • CAD for Product Designers 2
  • Advanced Visual Communication
  • Advanced Design for Manufacture
  • Design Cultures 2

Third year

  • Product Communication and Career Launch Marketing
  • Product Design - Personal Project
  • Product Design - Student Design Competitions

Click here for more detailed module information


Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake in order to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.

Overview

The curriculum is focussed on vocational skills and intellectual development – encompassing a broad range of content from manufacturing to aesthetics. Coursework is the main method of learning and assessment which is monitored on a regular basis via a formal tutorial system.

You are taught by design academics and visiting design consultants with specialist knowledge and skills in either product or furniture design. All our staff have worked in industry and carry out commercial activity and leading research. Visiting lecturers support week-long projects or run weekly seminars, tutorials or lecture series. Previous visiting lecturers include Steve Mosley (Mosley&), Ryan Helps (Empathic), and designers and model makers from Redline Studios.

Product and Furniture Design students have won many major awards in recent years including the prestigious RSA Student Design Awards, the Alexander Rose Student Design Awards and the Habitat Furniture Design Award.

You will have the opportunity to enter live competitions with industry partners (previous competition briefs run with Seymourpowell, Willis & Gambier and Made in Mind) plus national and international design competitions.

Contact hours

You will be taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, seminars, group work and self-directed study. Assessment is through coursework (presentations, essays and reports) Your precise timetable will depend on the optional modules you choose to take, however, in your first year you will normally attend around 13 hours of timetabled taught sessions (lectures and tutorials) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 26 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.

 

Institution of Engineering Designers (IED)

ied-logo

Facilities and features

Art and Design facilities

The award-winning Vijay Patel Building brings all of our art and design courses together providing inspiring, flexible spaces, studios and facilities which invite creativity and innovation.

The creative industries require imaginative graduates who can develop new ideas and products. Students use our state-of-the-art workshops, labs and studios to experiment and test in the same way they will in industry, while the open and transparent spaces in the building encourage collaboration between disciplines. In doing so the building supports students to be both ready for industry and future leaders in their respective fields.

Take a look at our stunning showcase of the building at dmu.ac.uk/aad.

More flexible ways to learn

We offer an equitable and inclusive approach to learning and teaching for all our students. Known as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), our teaching approach has been recognised as sector leading. UDL means we offer a wide variety of support, facilities and technology to all students, including those with disabilities and specific learning differences.

Just one of the ways we do this is by using ‘DMU Replay’ – a technology providing all students with anytime access to audio and/or visual material of lectures. This means students can revise taught material in a way that suits them best, whether it's replaying a recording of a class or adapting written material shared in class using specialist software.

Campus centre

The home of  De Montfort Students' Union, (DSU) our Campus Centre offers a welcoming and lively hub for student life. Conveniently located at the heart of campus, it includes a convenience store, a Subway and a Starbucks. Here you can find the DSU-owned charitable accommodation service Sulets and DSU’s shop, SUpplies, selling art supplies, stationery and clothing, and printing and binding services. The building is also home to the DSU officer team. 

Opportunities and careers

Find the people who will open doors for you

DMU's award-winning careers service provides guaranteed work experience opportunities DMU Careers Team
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Placements

This course gives you the option to enhance and build your professional skills to progress within your chosen career, through a placement. Our dedicated team offers a range of careers resources and opportunities so you can start planning your future.

We have excellent industry links, ensuring you work on relevant projects and clients briefs to grow your experience and build your external reputation before you graduate. This invaluable experience can enrich student capabilities and their final-year projects. Recent placements include Vax, Jaguar Land Rover and Established & Sons.

Product and Furniture Design student Fatima Manji secured a prestigious three-month work placement with leading landscaping company Marshalls, after responding to a competition to design and prototype street furniture such as benches, planters and bike racks. This opportunity saw her final product put into production and sold online.

Students on the #DMUglobal trip to New York

DMU Global

Our innovative international experience programme DMU Global aims to enrich studies, broaden cultural horizons and develop key skills valued by employers. 

Through DMU Global, we offer an exciting mix of overseas, on-campus and online international experiences, including the opportunity to study or work abroad for up to a year.

Through DMU Global you can take advantage of a wide range of opportunities including on-campus and UK activities, overseas study, internships, faculty-led field trips and volunteering, as well as Erasmus+ and international exchanges.

 Students on this course have recently undertaken DMU Global trips to European cities including Copenhagen, where they explored first-hand historical and contemporary Danish design, and Berlin, which provided the opportunity to examine the city’s art, artists and museums to gain a broader design perspective. DMU Global trips have also taken students further afield to New York.

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Graduate careers

Our graduates have gone on to work in a variety of areas within industrial product design including marketing, industrial design consultancy, user experience consultancy and project planning, product design and furniture design. Recent employers include Jaguar Land Rover, Mamas & Papas, Sixteen3 and Vax.

Take your next steps

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