Design for Textiles (Fashion, Interior, Art) - BA (Hons)

Heriot-Watt University

Our BA (Hons) Design for Textiles (Fashion, Interior, Art) programme will provide you with an expertise in designing and producing innovative fabrics for a variety of outcomes. You’ll be encouraged to develop your own visual handwriting and taught how to translate and express this using a variety of media. At the core of your textile design education is an appreciation of raw materials, innovation in technique, learning an in-depth design process, and how to design sustainably and responsibly to meet both the global and local challenges we face. The programme underpins originality and innovation with a strong technological understanding, so graduates are well equipped to join industry and make a meaningful contribution to the field. Recent graduate destinations include designers for printed, woven and knitted fashion and furnishing fabrics, accessories, wall coverings, gallery pieces, greeting cards, gift wrap and stationery, new textile product development, trend prediction and colour forecasting, entrepreneurs, practitioners, and educators in sustainable textile design including visible mending. The combination of general textile lectures with teaching in innovation and design process, will boost your knowledge in both traditional and cutting-edge approaches. You’ll acquire an understanding and knowledge of knitted, woven and printed textiles, digital and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) technologies, marketing strategy, and sustainable practices within the fashion, interior, and textile art industries. This will enable you to respond effectively to the design challenges facing textile and related companies and apply your designs skills to the current and future needs of industry, making you highly employable upon graduation. In your third year, you will have the opportunity to specialise in print, weave, or knit and either complete an industry placement or a collaborative industry project. Staff will support you in securing placement opportunities or in answering the collaborative design brief. This experience will further develop your knowledge and experience of working with industry and build upon your existing practical and theoretical skills providing you with invaluable industry experience for your CV. During your placement or project, you will have the perfect opportunity to make industry contacts and take another step towards your dream career. In addition, you will have opportunities to travel internationally, such as optional field trips to Paris for Premier Vision or Milan for Fashion Week, or to study abroad via our many well-established exchange programmes to the USA, India, or France to gain a global perspective of the textile industry. Exchange opportunities exist with Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in the USA, The Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC in the USA, the National Institute of Design in India, or at ENSAIT, Anger Cholet or Lyon in France. In your fourth year, you will complete a textiles project, developing visual, written, and verbal evaluation skills, in response to your self-identified project/design brief. You’ll be required to demonstrate your mastery of textiles, by using colour, fabric making and finishing techniques to produce a contemporary design statement. This programme allows you to develop and apply your learned skills, techniques, and knowledge to undertake your honours project in your final year and build upon your specific interests in design for textiles, which culminates at our Graduate Showcase and normally exhibition at New Designers in London which are both well attended by industry professionals. Potential career pathsDesign occupationsInformation Technology ProfessionalsArtistic, literary and media occupations