Furniture and Product Design with Foundation Year

Furniture and product design sits at the junction of craft, engineering and aesthetic imagination, addressing the creation of objects that are made, used and lived with in the physical world. Furniture design requires understanding of materials, joinery and construction methods alongside a sensitivity to how objects occupy space and how people relate to them in domestic and commercial settings. Product design extends this thinking to the full range of manufactured objects, from hand tools and lighting to electronic devices and transport, requiring both creative vision and the technical knowledge to make ideas manufacturable, safe and fit for purpose.

At Nottingham Trent University this programme includes a foundation year designed to introduce you to the skills needed for your future studies. In the foundation year you will develop freehand drawing and sketchbook skills, explore materials and fabrication methods, and build confidence in presenting your design ideas through real-world briefs. The main degree follows from the foundation year, running full time over four years in total.

You will develop competence in workshop skills and making processes, computer-aided design, materials selection, manufacturing methods, design history and theory, and the professional practice of the design industry.

You will build a portfolio of work across the programme that demonstrates your creative range and your ability to realise ideas as physical objects of quality and function. The hands-on making culture at NTU's School of Art and Design supports the development of genuine craft alongside design intelligence.

Graduates from furniture and product design programmes work as furniture designers, product designers, interior product specialists, exhibition designers, set designers, design researchers and design consultants across the furniture industry, manufacturing, retail, the cultural sector and independent design practice. Postgraduate study in furniture design, product design or a related creative field is also an option.