Product Design

Product design at degree level explores the relationship between technology, society, and creative practice, asking how designed objects and systems can improve life, contribute to a more sustainable world, and embody the values of the communities that use them. It is a discipline that requires both creative vision and technical rigour: a product must not only be conceived well but made to work, to be manufacturable, to be safe, and to satisfy the needs of real people in real contexts. Product designers operate at the meeting point of art, engineering, and social science.

At Glasgow School of Art this four-year full-time programme, offered within the School of Innovation and Technology, provides a unique and holistic overview of design's role in future society. You will develop a diverse skill set and a thorough understanding of design's evolving role as the creative and strategic link between technology and society, developing the analytical and practical capabilities to work across the full design process from research and concept development through prototyping and specification. The programme includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and a work placement, giving you the opportunity to study internationally and engage in live projects with businesses and public sector organisations during your studies.

This combination of international experience and professional engagement gives graduates what GSA describes as a unique, multicultural perspective and prepares them for a wide range of creative possibilities.

Graduates in product design find careers across the design and manufacturing sectors. Industrial design, furniture and consumer product design, sustainable product development, interaction design, healthcare product design, and design management are among the most direct destinations. The combination of creative training and professional experience the programme builds is valued by design consultancies, technology companies, manufacturers, and public sector innovation teams.

Some graduates develop independent practices or continue to the MEDes postgraduate programme at GSA, while others apply their design thinking to entrepreneurial ventures or roles at the intersection of design, technology, and strategy.