Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Fashion Branding with Communication

at Leeds Arts University United Kingdom

This course is a creative adventure which introduces you to an exploration of communication through image making and conceptual thinking.

Central to this will be your development and understanding of skills and processes using traditional and new media, theory and production methods. It offers fantastic opportunities for you to become an innovative illustrator and creative practitioner, learning to build and manage your own professional practice.

You will have opportunities to apply your skills across a range of illustrative applications including, but not limited to, editorial, publishing, packaging, product, print, music design, advertising, character and animation.

You will use our excellent links with professional illustrators and creatives, agencies and experts across the creative industries to develop a professional focus to your personal practice through live projects, competition briefs and industrial experience. We will help you generate your own networking, collaboration and exhibition opportunities.

On graduation you will have an awareness of the professional opportunities available to you and the confidence and understanding to make informed decisions about your future.

The overall aim of the course is to help individuals to develop into independent, creative thinkers with the ability to deliver critically and visually engaged work within the professional context of contemporary illustration and the wider creative industries.

Our MA Creative Practice has been devised for creative practitioners, recent graduates and professionals who wish to examine, strengthen and deepen their practice within their own context.

This course offers a bespoke learning experience that is tailored to each student’s practice: a wide range of creative practitioners have all studied on this course.

The course encourages you to pursue an individual research interest for the duration of study which will allow you to examine and strengthen your own practice and place it at the centre of your studies. It addresses the needs of graduates who want to continue to develop their practice and identities in the context of the creative and cultural industries.

Students will maintain contact with other creative practitioners and develop freelance or other career paths in the context of a portfolio career. This course will also prepare those who wish to develop ideas for application to a practice-based PhD.

Our Textile Design* course has an outstanding reputation for producing innovative, professional designers. We look for students who will develop their own ‘handwriting’, both anticipating and setting future trends within this field. We value the importance of personal engagement and celebrate diversity that informs creativity.

You will work alongside your peers where we foster a culture of creativity. The course offers you the opportunity to develop your creative practice through experimental engagement with materials and processes. The course actively engages with contemporary and global issues, and ethical concerns relevant to the practice of printed textile and surface design, such as: sustainability, collaborative practices and innovation in surface and textiles. Tutors are experienced educators, researchers and practitioners in the field of textile and surface design. Through their diverse links you will engage with a breadth of contemporary approaches.

The course is committed to external and professional practices with relevant currency, so that our graduates are fully prepared for direct employment by high street and designer brands, further study, self-employment or business start-ups. You will be given opportunities to  participate in a number of prestigious live briefs, competitions and employment related activities to ensure that you are as best prepared for employment in the creative industries as possible.

This dynamic course will encourage you to take a creative approach to fashion branding with communication, and develop an individual practice that is underpinned by a social, cultural, political and ethical awareness of this global industry.

You will explore a diverse range of evolving theories and practices that underpin fashion branding, and have opportunities to develop skills in: creative direction and styling, image making, editorial copy, advertising, exhibition design and styling, fashion films, visual merchandising and experiential campaigns.

With new technologies increasingly influencing the industry, you’ll study futurology and investigate theories to apply to augmented and virtual reality, mobile technology user interface design, and digital and social media platform communications that will turn such future-facing ideas into reality.

There will be opportunities to work collaboratively with students on other courses. You will have contact with industry through opportunities such as visiting speakers, live projects, industry briefs and competitions to ensure that you develop professional skills.

The MA Photography course promotes innovation and experimentation. Through an examination of contemporary photographic practices you will learn to contextualise cultural and ethical uses of photography within a range of different photographic genres.

The course will examine strategies to resolve projects into different outputs such as publications, exhibitions and digital platforms, as well as emphasising the need to find an audience as being integral to a sustained and successful practice. There will be opportunities for external visits and the chance to attend events such as the Unseen in Amsterdam, Photo Paris and Photo London in order to enable engagement with the wider photographic community and industry. You will be able to attend talks by visiting professionals to the University, with examples of previous speakers including: Laia Abril, Haley Morris-Cafiero, Cristina de Middel, Guy Martin, Bruno Ceschel, Anouk Kruithof, Ewen Spencer and Elaine Constantine.

On this course we see no boundaries between performance, production and composition. We look for creative and versatile musicians who wish to develop their performance, production and technical skills to a professional level in order to prepare for a career in the contemporary music industries.

We recruit musicians to the following principal studies: vocals, keyboard, guitar, bass guitar and drum kit. You will study in a creative environment that fosters collaborative opportunities with students across a range of disciplines. Our course nurtures and develops musicians to have the confidence to create original music. Performance, production and composition are integral to our approach whilst providing you with a clear understanding of the business of music and the structure of the music industries. Our experienced tutors and visiting industry professionals will support and stimulate the development of technical skills necessary to thrive as a working musician in the 21st century creative world. On graduation students will have the choice of a wide range of career options.

This dynamic course develops your musicianship through specialist 1:1 vocal/instrumental tuition, a range of band performances and learning from experienced visiting musicians with a range of styles.  Our vibrant community gives you the opportunity to work with creative writers, graphic designers, fine artists, visual communicators, photographers, fashion designers, animators, filmmakers, and creative advertisers. Our degree provides the unique opportunity to build important creative networks and an impressive musical portfolio from the outset of your professional life.

Our MA Animation course gives practitioners a year to create an animated film from start to finish. You will engage in a critical dialogue with practice, theory and the professional aspects of animation.

The course provides space for the animators to make work of cultural value, but understand commercial practices. The curriculum is designed to allow both individual and collaborative practice to take place. However, we positively encourage collaboration as it is a key part of the animation production process, enabling you to undertake ambitious projects.

The course will provide you with the space to develop animation, think and question what animation has the potential to be and how it communicates to an audience. You also will have the opportunity to explore emerging technologies and new approaches to storytelling such as the use of VR and game technologies.

You will be supported by a team with diverse research and practical interests within animation including 2D and 3D animators, modelmakers, scriptwriters and you will also engage with visiting industry professionals. The course will present you with the opportunities to work with other creatives on the course and across other MA courses within the institution. The objective is to enable students to produce engaging work across all forms of animation from animated shorts, documentary and experimental practices.

This transdisciplinary course offers a space for you to explore comic and concept art holistically. We are a practical course where you can discover the theory, practice, and professional context of comic and concept art through a hands-on and industry-relevant approach.

You will have opportunities to apply your skills across a range of specialisms including character, environment, architecture, prop, mech, vehicle and creature design, storyboarding, narrative illustration, webtoons, comics and graphic novels. The course will enable the development of your professional understanding of studio and freelance practice, whilst acquiring specialist skills within a range of creative careers from concept art for the film and game industries, to comic art and self-published comics.

Your learning experience will be professionally focused throughout the course with opportunities for industry contact and embedded professional practice skills. Established industry links will complement the curriculum through visiting professionals, live briefs, and visiting lecturer workshops. This course promote an awareness of the comic and concept art industry practices in an international context. There are opportunities for collaborative projects within the course and across the University. You will also have a variety of opportunities to collaborate with industry, past examples include Thought Bubble – the leading comic art festival in Europe. You will be supported in developing a range of career options upon graduation.

Anyone can press the button on a camera. Our BA (Hons) Photography course will encourage you to critically consider every aspect of this art form, from the composition, to the audience and post-production.

You’ll learn about the world of visual language and image making, from art direction to curating, and learn to use a wide range of traditional and digital formats and equipment.

We’re looking for students with a range of interests and an open mind, who embrace broader practices around photography, which is becoming increasingly important as photographers work across genres.

This is an outward-looking course, designed to maximise your employability or freelance success on graduation. Beside learning extensive technical skills, you’ll benefit from enterprise and business skills (including copyright and licensing), networking, mentoring, work experience opportunities and guest speakers. Collaborations with students on other courses will help you to build a diverse portfolio of experience.

Our programme of internationally renowned speakers has included Martin Parr, David Brandon Geeting, Erik Kessels, Ewen Spencer, Haley Morris-Cafiero,Sohrab Hura, Julian Germain, Anouk Kruithof, Cristina De Middel, Guy Martin, Thijs Groot Wassink (WassinkLungdren), Simon Roberts and Kevin Cummins.

In the past there have been study visits to Paris, Los Angeles, Berlin, Shanghai, Tokyo and New York, plus day-trips within the UK and to the Format International Photography Festival in Derby. Course related educational visits/trips experiences can take a variety of formats including physical and virtual.

This exciting and creative course nurtures individuality through collaboration. It is designed to produce ‘Ideas That Work’ from creative professionals in advertising.

We’ve developed exceptional links with leading national and international agencies such as McCann, Ogilvy, BJL, Havas Linx, Atomic London, Intermarketing, Golley Slater, Jaywing, CreativeRace, Home, Uniform and TBWA, which will maximise your exposure to industry practice.

Creativity sits at the core of our proposition and we encourage originality and innovative thinking. Our ‘Actively Creative’ philosophy helps you to experience first hand creative challenges which are developed both in-house and through our industry contacts.

Our tutors have considerable industry experience spanning art direction, copywriting and branding. They will support you to understand and analyse advertising, so that you can use what you discover to inform and develop your own work.

You’ll have the opportunity to enter prestigious international competitions which have included D&AD New Blood Awards, YCN, The Drum Chip Shop Awards, and AdVenture in past years. Top agencies have offered coaching, mentoring, work critiques, live briefs, workshops, competition briefs and work experience possibilities. Our students regularly win work experience opportunities with agencies.