Product Design with Professional Experience BSc(Hons)

Course structure

You will spend 40% of your time at the university with academic tutors who teach, listen and support you as you progress through the course. Technicians are also on hand to provide support and encourage you to actively solve problems.

Workshops, activities and events provide informal contact with and support from tutors, and you can contact them via email or in person at their offices and the design studio.

Practical project work is key to the course, whether in engineering, technology or user-centred design (UCD). Assessment takes place through your coursework and project work.

The course is three years without a placement and four years without placement.

University of Brighton Product Design graduate Emily Brooke MBE is the creator of the Laserlight, a revolutionary bike safety light which uses lasers to project symbols on to the road ahead of cyclists

From concept to completion

Each year is centred on four core themes – product research, product ideation, product development and product launch – in which you take a product from concept to completion. Working in this way allows you to gain practical experience of product design as you build your skills year on year.

Product research 

• Research and analyse relevant literature, and understand how to apply your findings to develop your own product
• Apply core design research methods to solve real-world design challenges
• Analyse yours and others' research data
• Document the knowledge in a formal and accessible format that you can use to inspire your own designs

Product ideation 

• Master creative techniques that you can apply at concept stage
• Produce concept sketches, technical drawings and rendered images to professionally communicate your ideas
• Create principle models using appropriate techniques and materials to explore, test and illustrate your ideas and any working mechanisms
• Present and pitch your ideas in a live group setting and on your digital online portfolio

Product development 

• Evaluate, specify and select suitable materials for your product 
• Find practical solutions to engineering problems
• Create and develop working prototype models using professional standard techniques

Product launch 

• Begin to plan how to market your product by applying costing techniques
• Gain awareness of product testing and evaluation before you release your product commercially
• Select and apply basic visual techniques to promote your newly developed products

Syllabus 

Year 1 

Modules

• Product Desirability

  This module investigates the notion of physical beauty and its role in the design of mass-produced products. It covers four different attributes of desirability (form, surface, proportion and detail), showing how each can be manipulated, specified and applied to the design of products.

  Additionally, the module will introduce you to some of the key 2D, 3D and digital skills that are required to translate your ideas into products.

• Product Durability

  This module explores ways of increasing the longevity of mass-produced products; both physically and psychologically. You will examine why these things matter and how they can be optimised. This knowledge will then be applied to the design of a product through a group project.

  This module will introduce the research, ideation, development and launch design process (RIDL). Additionally, the module will aim to enhance your 2D, 3D and digital skills.

• Product Usability

  This module explores the issue of functionality in mass-produced products both from a technical and user perspective.

  The basic technical and ergonomic principles covered will be applied to the design of a practical product within an individual project which follows the research, ideation, development and launch (RIDL) design process. Additionally, the module will aim to enhance your 2D, 3D and digital skills.

• Design Studies 1

  This module introduces you to the designers, design styles and movements that have helped to shape the world we live in and the way we design today. It also introduces the analytical skills needed to interpret and understand the issues at work in order that you can better understand and apply your own thinking in the design of contemporary products.

Year 2 modules

• Design and Everyday Life
• Design and Social Interaction
• Design Studies 2

Year 2 options*

• Design for a Global Context, or choose from a list of architecture and design option modules 

Final year modules

• Design Research
• Product Ideation
• Product Development
• Product Launch
• Professional Design Pathways

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

Peter Barr, 2018 graduate, with his VASO portable device which helps to locate patients’ veins for cannulation. Designed for his final project, Peter was interviewed by BBC Breakfast about his product.

Alexander Matthams, KAY jar opener

Placement year

The experience you gain on your year-long placement is invaluable in helping you on your way to becoming a professional designer.

Many students find that this year informs their final year projects and enhances their employment prospects after graduating. Some go into their final year with a job offer from their placement company when they graduate.

You might choose to spend this year in local or international industry, gaining professional experience. If you want a more varied experience, you can work for a number of companies rather than just one. You may even try your hand as a self-employed designer, honing your entrepreneurial skills.

Our Product Design students have undertaken placements with industry heavyweights in the UK and abroad, including Adidas, L’Oréal, Triumph, The Body Shop, Amplicon, Triumph, Trivista, Puma, Mini, Jaguar, Nokia, Mars and Dyson.

Facilities 

Product Design students have their own design studio workspace – a light, open and dynamic space equipped with a presentation area including screens and whiteboards. Computer facilities include specialised software such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Solidworks.

You will also have full access to the 3D print workspace – which hosts over 12 different printers and finishing areas – as well as the wood workshop, the metal and welding workshop, the finishing room equipped with spray booths, the wind tunnel and a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) workshop with a five-axis CNC machine.

Technicians are on hand to offer expert guidance on the use of all facilities. They offer support and training with machinery and software as well as providing professional knowledge and advice for making and manufacturing your prototypes.

Product Design students using the Faro laser scanner in our Advanced Engineering Building. The machine is used for extracting digital information from physical objects.

Exhibitions

At the end of each year, students normally exhibit their work publicly, with the final-year exhibition forming part of the Brighton Fringe Festival. Some final-year students go to the New Designers event in London.

New Designers is where industry professionals scout for new and emerging talent. It attracts over 20,000 visitors each year and is a fantastic way for you to show off the hard work you have created and skills you have mastered. Students are often approached at New Designers with offers or recommendations for work.

Taking part in New Designers puts you in a strong position as you graduate from university. It is an opportunity not only to showcase your work to industry, but also to be inspired by other young professionals who are entering the world of design.

A stand at New Designers showing George Jump's project Bamboo. It is a modular office solution, that heightens the users sense of ownership and provides a biophilic connection, in a rapidly urbanising environment.

Study abroad 

Our course exchange programmes give you the opportunity to study overseas at one of our partner institutions, for example in Barcelona, Berlin, Milan or Transylvania.

On exchange you can experience different cultures, see alternative perspectives in design and add to your knowledge in specialist subjects. When coupled with the wider experience of your placement year, this can make a significant improvement to your final degree grading.

I studied in Milan. It’s difficult to pinpoint one thing I enjoyed the most – I made friends from across the world and now I feel like I’ll always have somewhere to stay wherever I am. Everyone was on the same wavelength, wanting to go and study in a new place and learn a new language. I now know how easy it is to live in another country and I’d like to do it again.

Louie Amphlett

Staff profile

International requirements

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

Interview

Applying for a place in 2019?
You will be invited to attend an interview at one of our applicant days, held between February and April. Applicant days are an opportunity for you to meet our staff and students, and to find out more about our courses and facilities.

The interview is a chance to ask us questions, present your portfolio and tell us about yourself. In particular, be prepared to tell us about your:

• research skills
• creative strengths
• technical abilities
• understanding of people and behaviour
• business acumen.

We are interested not just in your educational qualifications but in your personality and potential as a professional designer, so you should also be prepared to talk about your aspirations.

Portfolio advice

Applying for a place in 2019?
We appreciate that a school curriculum may affect what you are able to present and that some applicants may not have a formal portfolio. However, you should look at presenting a range of work that demonstrates an understanding of the skills that you need to undertake design project work. These skills include:

• an eye for insight
• determination
• analytical as well as creative working
• practical as well as theoretical working.

You can draw from your extracurricular activities as well as your schoolwork.

It can be tempting to include a lot in your portfolio, but we advise you to limit it to a few pages of your best work. This is a good way to more concisely demonstrate your abilities

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 £1,000 for home students and £2,000 for international students. This fee may be subject to small increases, in line with inflation.

The costs of the basic materials needed to produce working prototypes are included within the tuition fees, although some students, particularly in the final year, may provide additional resources as they seek to optimise the commercial success of their products on graduation.

An educational licence for Solidworks CAD software is also normally provided.

You may benefit from the university's stand at the New Designers' exhibition of emerging design talent or our inclusion in the EU-funded Erasmus overseas exchange programme.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2019–20.

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.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. 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. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Moulsecoomb campus map