Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Fashion Design

at Leeds Arts University United Kingdom

Our MA Illustration course encourages students to question and expand the nature of their practice, the modes of dissemination and the context in which they situate themselves.

Drawing from multidisciplinary methods of working, students will be confident to explore and extend the concepts of communication, narrative and situated illustration through research, practice and discursive critique.

The course will allow students a stimulating, open thinking space for speculation, collaboration and exploration of the boundaries of what the discipline can be. The course recognises the power of illustration as a tool for looking closely, seeing and communicating in a way that is resistant to trend or restraints of process or medium. The course situates students at the forefront of the illustration research discipline, with authorial and innovative practice at the centre.

The course is supported by a team with diverse research and practical interests from the fields of illustration and its broader visual cultures. Research and dissemination methods will be introduced and developed with the support of visiting industry professionals, workshops, lectures and seminars with opportunity to situate work in relevant professional contexts – publishing, heritage, exhibitions, conferences and events. The course methodology centres around the ideas of observing, questioning and responding to the world, seeking out ideas and examining how these are communicated.

Our studios are creative spaces with an innovative and engaging atmosphere. You will benefit from exposure to the structures and disciplines of a studio environment, learning how individual and collaborative creativity combine to produce work.

This course will encourage you to develop your own voice, opinions and individual understanding of graphic design. You will build the discipline and skills you need to succeed in a professional environment, such as peer presentations, group feedback sessions and collaborative projects. You will explore how the application of type and image can solve problems and communicate ideas, which will engage and challenge your audience.

The BA (Hons) Graphic Design course offers opportunities to collaborate with creatives from other disciplines with different skills to your own. Developing your creative understanding you will be able to communicate both visually and verbally. You will gain a wider understanding of the creative, social and ethical context of contemporary visual culture. You will seek problems to solve and audiences to connect with.

Our industry links are extensive, with an array of visiting professionals delivering lectures, seminars and workshops, and setting live briefs.

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.

This course offers opportunities to engage with diverse and innovative approaches to fashion image-making. It will develop your knowledge and understanding of the lens-based fashion industry and encourage an experimental, creative approach to produce visually striking photographs and films.

Our vibrant and collaborative learning environment will promote the exchange of ideas, and offers ‘hands on’ industry experience in the form of live briefs, publishing and exhibition opportunities, educational trips and commissions. Collaborating with students across the University and with wider creative communities locally, nationally and internationally is supported.

Your programme of study is informed by current and emerging industry contexts and practices, and you will work with highly skilled practitioners and specialist tutors, responding to exciting projects and briefs that develop your creativity, professionalism, preparation for the work place and offer real-life learning opportunities.

The course integrates creative practical projects with analysis of historical, cultural and social contexts of fashion image-making and you will be encouraged to take an experimental and questioning approach to your practice. We invite internationally renowned speakers to give an insight into current industry practices and offer opportunities to engage with external practitioners. In the past our students have been on study visits to Paris, Milan and New York, plus day-trips within the UK. Course related educational visits/trips experiences can take a variety of formats including physical and virtual.

Our BA (Hons) Fashion Design is a three year, full time, practice-based course that embraces the diversity of fashion in the 21st century.

In close alignment with the fashion industry we offer inspirational visiting speakers, live projects and competitions, industry visits, and invitations to fashion events, all of which authenticate the currency of our course and its ability to produce ‘industry-ready’ graduates. Our dedicated teaching team support the development of practice-based skills, professional attitudes and intellectual abilities which are necessary to succeed as a professional fashion practitioner.

During your studies, gallery and residential visits where possible will offer a cultural insight into the fashion ecology and inspire your work. Course related educational visits/trips experiences can take a variety of formats including physical and virtual. You will also explore the context of historical and contemporary fashion and the wider factors that influence fashion design thinking including gender, sustainable practice and ethics, enabling you to become an informed fashion design thinker whilst recognising your identity as a creative fashion design practitioner.

Our established relationships with the fashion industry offer you the opportunity to enhance your portfolio and increase your awareness of the professional expectations of potential employers. Working with partners, that have included the British Fashion Council’s ‘Colleges Council’ and Graduate Fashion Week, we offer opportunities to enter high profile competitions, attend seminars/presentations and showcase your work on a variety of platforms.

This course explores creature design through animal anatomy, worldbuilding, and believability across a range of professional contexts, production methods, and industries. 

You will investigate approaches to developing creature designs inspired by existing animals. There is a focus on experimentation to create imaginative creature designs as well as ensuring believability through considering skeletal, muscular and surface anatomies. You will develop creatures and their life cycles, behaviours, relationships with other characters/creatures and interaction with the environment. There may be opportunities for cross-disciplinary influences from science to help inform creature design. Candidates are encouraged to position their work within a professional context to help inform the visual output and production method. There are opportunities for creature designers within entertainment design and beyond, such as paleo reconstruction (visualising prehistoric life) or speculative biology (visualising possible future evolution or life on other planets).

Developing a body of self-negotiated work, you will be supported by a team with diverse research and practical interests within creature design and work closely with visiting industry professionals. You will source briefs, work with clients and apply your contextual and industry informed knowledge and understanding to question what makes a creature design believable. The aim is to create believable creatures that engage with their environment and have a past, present and future.

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.

Our MA Worldbuilding brings together practitioners who want to create immersive worlds for entertainment design, production, and research.

You will design a well-researched and richly detailed world in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment that integrates imagination and emergent technologies. You will have opportunities to explore designing cultural, historical and futuristic worlds through drawing, iterative design, and 3D prototyping.

Candidates are encouraged to position their work within a professional context to help inform the visual output and production method. The function and output of the worldbuilding will be examined through a self-determined approach, whether that’s drawing on concept art, VFX, game art and design, or analogue game design.

Embracing emerging technologies, such as VR and 3D printing, candidates will be able to explore wider contexts of worldbuilding, creating negotiated projects ranging from environment concept art, matte painting, theme park design, VR experiences or table-top game prototypes. The course provides the critical and progressive space to explore the processes and contexts to visualise and build immersive, believable and sustainable storyworlds.

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.

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.