Fashion Communication with Business Studies BA(Hons)

Year 1

Modules

• Study Skills in the Creative Industries

  This module is an introduction to study skills in HE practice-based courses at undergraduate level. You will be introduced to fashion communication through object and image analysis and to skills ranging from research to presentation.

• Introduction to Fashion Photography and Styling

  This module introduces you to fashion styling and photography through the exploration of subcultures and tribes. The module will equip you to experiment and test ideas in fashion photography and fashion styling.

  By looking at key stylists and photographers from recent history you will explore issues in identity, political and social change.

  You will be introduced to the photographic studios, the camera and to key principles of styling, to the roles of the fashion photographer and the fashion stylist.

• Introduction to Fashion Illustration and Imaging

  This module introduces you to fashion illustration and imaging, and visual research and processes from the hand-drawn sketch to the digital image.

  It equips you to experiment and test ideas in fashion drawing, visual research and processes and explores fashion and identity through outputs such as magazines, fanzines and interactive imaging.

• Introduction to Visual Promotion

  This module introduces you to the subject of visual promotion through the exploration of social and cultural capital. You will be introduced to the value of fashion trends, fashion forecasting and its influences on fashion brands.

  The module explores the impact of new and emergent technologies and their impact upon visual promotion and how these can be utilised as fashion communicators. Lectures on fashion trends and forecasting, emergent technologies, workshops, tutorials and learning to promote your ideas.

• Market Research and Business in the Creative Industries

  This module introduces you to and equips you with a range of transferable skills, qualities and attitudes that will prepare you for professional career paths in the creative industries. Through investigation and critical reflection, you will have the opportunity to develop your knowledge and appreciation of the scale and scope of the creative industries and begin to locate yourself, your interests and your practice within a vocational context.

• Design and Culture Under Scrutiny

  This module will provide you with an introduction to a broad range of current key debates relevant to the analysis of the past and present in fashion, textiles, and fashion communication. Through lectures, seminars and exhibition visits, you will be introduced to, and engage with, critical ideas and academic approaches relevant to your field of study.

  The module is designed to support studio work through the development of critical thinking and formal written skills.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through our applicant portal.

Start of Spring by Feiyi Hung, winner of the 2019 Photography Award at Graduate Fashion Week

Year 2

In year 2 you will specialise in one of three areas.

• Fashion photography and styling
• Fashion imaging, film and interaction
• Visual promotion

You will also choose whether to undertake a third year placement or progress straight to your final year.

Modules

• Editorial Brief
• Pathway Projects
• Preparing for and Engaging with Business
• The Clothes and Fabric of Society 

Options*

• Level 5 option module

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

For a year 2 group project, students produce magazines over three months, each taking an individual role such as photographer, stylist, designer, art director or writer. The Brighton shop Magazine then gives the publications a pop-up window display for a weekend, with students keeping the profits.

Placement year

After your second year will have the opportunity to complete a year in industry within the diverse fashion communication sector with a dedicated placement team to support you in your research, preparation and application for placements.

This process begins in the second year when you will complete a compulsory professional practice module which will support you to develop skills and promotional material to make applications for placements.

You will also receive an individual service to guide you towards your first choices and to support you while on placement. The placement year in industry is academically assessed and your degree award will reflect your industry experience. The placement is for a minimum of 20 weeks.

You may find placements across the following a broad range of areas including: fashion forecasting, fashion photography and styling, features editing, picture editing, fashion buying, fashion PR, fashion event planning, fashion merchandising and visual merchandising.

For a list of placement destinations please see the careers section below. 

Samruddhi Karandikar’s turned her placement in logistics and operations at Italian luxury brand Max Mara in London into a full-time job on graduation.

Final year

In your final year you will choose and research an area of study, and then develop this study into your final project with a series of outcomes. You will also complete a business plan. 

You will also be part of a final exhibition where industry contacts are invited to see your work.

Modules

• Fashion Communication Research, Investigation and Proposal – Theory and Practice
• Fashion Communication Final Project and Portfolio
• Design Management and Business Plan

Graduate Fashion Week 2019. Fashion Communication with Business Studies students showcase their work at this major fashion event in London. 

Facilities

• Media Centre, including specialist equipment including materials for sound, film and photography available for short term loan, computer rooms with contemporary software for digital image processing and manipulation, graphic layout and typography, animation, film and sound production and editing.
• Access to Mac suites, Adobe Suite Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere
• Photographic Services Unit including well-equipped dark room, studio and camera loan facilities
• Digi-hub featuring laser cutting, plasma cutting, CNC 3-axis milling, CNC routing, 3D body scanning, portable 3D scanning and rapid prototyping
• Department print bureau
• One of the country's best-stocked specialist art and design libraries
• Internationally important Design Archives
• On-site supplies shop

Additional costs

A key question prospective students ask is “What will I spend on materials and trips?”. Here we have looked at an average spend of a student on this course in 2018. All costs are average and subject to change depending on individual student projects and materials. Some materials costs for Years 1 and 2 are funded by the university. 

• In Year 1, students usually spend around an additional £150
• In Year 2 students usually spend around £200
•  In the final (fourth) year, depending on the work produced and materials used, the average spend is between £300 and £1,000
• Local field trips are usually covered by free University transport. 
• London trips are the cost of a student train fare return and exhibition entrance, if needed.
• International field trips are optional and are at the student’s expense. These cost approximately £350 to £500 for three nights. These trips are not included in the curriculum.
• The third year is an optional work placement year. Work placements are rarely paid and students are expected to fund themselves during the period of work placement experience.

You will find advice about funding and scholarships on our finance pages.

Staff profile

Mark Wells, course leader
Mark Wells is a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton and a practising interaction designer. His research interests explore the intersectionality of the digital and analogue spaces.

Other staff on the course include:

• Chris Arran – fashion Imaging, illustration and graphic design, specialising in multimedia illustration
• Eloise Calandre – photography and moving image, with specialist knowledge in contemporary digital practice
• Emma Collins – visual promotion, specialising in social media and maker spaces
• Jules Findley – specialising in fashion communication, fashion illustration, postproduction in film, fashion imaging, catwalk photography, embodied materiality and material knowledge.
• Chris Hagan – technical demonstrator
• Daniela Hatfield – visual promotion, specialising in trend forecasting and project development
• Steph John – stylist, also specialising in photography and sound/field recording.

Student views

Andreas Papadopoulos

“This course is giving me a critical perspective on so many aspects of fashion. Every student gets to specialise in a particular field and the placement year helps you get a realistic idea of the industry and prepares you for getting a job. The tutors are all supportive and always there for the students. Brighton is a wonderful city too – London by the seaside!”

Sorcha Baker

"My first project for this course, A Fashion Communication Rough Guide to Brighton, was a great way to explore Brighton and all it has to offer, not to mention diving straight into getting involved with my new classmates and seeing everybody’s different and wonderful styles of illustration."

Molly Allen

"I chose this course over others because it offers a mixture of everything that catered to my interests in fashion and can provide me with the skills and knowledge I needed for industry." 

Andreas Papadopoulos

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Portfolio and interview advice 

Applying for 2020

Interview and portfolio

If you are invited to interview, please bring a diverse portfolio of drawings and ideas. This should be 15–20 A2 sheets (not mounted onto heavy card or in plastic sheets)  showing:

• evidence of an awareness of concept, image, illustration, film
• evidence of use of drawing to record and develop ideas
• experimental approaches to investigation and discovery of materials/processes
• ability to carry an idea forward from concept
• potential to experiment and explore ideas, techniques
• examples of life drawing
• 2D visual evidence of development
• two working sketchbooks, source ideas, experimentation.

We also expect applicants to demonstrate an awareness of fashion and fashion communication within a wider context, eg fashion trends, artistic, cultural and social movements.

Online portfolio

Once you have applied we request a digital FLICKR portfolio consisting of 15–20 images containing:

• drawing ability and experimentation
• conceptual ideas
• two or three sketchbook pages
• ideas related to fashion
• 2D or 3D experimentation ideas or tests.

Course fees

If you choose to take the professional placement (sandwich) year offered on this course you will pay a reduced fee during this year. Our fee for the professional placement year is £1,290 for home students and £2,076 for international students. This fee may be subject to small increases, in line with inflation.

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included, whilst studying a course in the School of Art are listed here.

• For most courses you will need to budget for the cost of specialist materials, equipment and printing and are likely to spend between £50–£300 per year.
• Costs in your final year of study are very likely to be higher than in earlier years as you bring together your final body of work and portfolio, and you may need to budget between £200 and £1,000.
• For some courses you may also need to budget up to £100 for specialist personal protective clothing which, with care, will last for the whole of your course and beyond.
• For most courses you will have the opportunity to attend field trips and off-site visits, for example to galleries, exhibitions and studios both in the UK and overseas. These are optional and are not required to pass your course. The amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken, and typically range between £100 and £700 across the duration of your course.
• You will have access to computers and necessary software at City campus and at other locations across the university. However, many students choose to buy their own hardware – usually a laptop, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.
• Course books and a wide range of magazines and journals are available in the university libraries. You do not need to have your own copies, but if you wish to, you should budget up to £200 over your course to buy them.
• For courses in which there is an optional placement year, you will need to budget for living costs (rent, food, travel etc) in that city/country, as if you were on site at the university.

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2020–21.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK/EU students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps