Product & Furniture Design MA
- Architecture and interiors
- Design
- Postgraduate
Challenge, expand, and progress definitions of design with Kingston University’s Product & Furniture Design MA. Kingston is ranked Top 10 in the UK for Art & Design (The Complete University Guide 2026).
Create positive change for people, communities and places
Collaborate with industry professionals to expand your design practice
The Product and Furniture Design MA course at Kingston School of Art welcomes designers from varied disciplines who want to redefine the making of products and furniture.
We see conventional notions of product and furniture design as a starting point – not a limit – to our individual and collective output.
We are about the real and the imagined design, creating positive change for people, communities and places.
We are interested in the making of design and who does it, the economies of design and who can access it, and how design responds to current and emerging needs and behaviours.
We ‘make’ and ‘do’ through a studio and workshop culture that is experimental and evolves both the theoretical and practical.
We collaborate with students from other courses in the Design School, brands, organisations, and manufacturers to address design challenges beyond the university.
Previous project partners have included: IKEA, Camden Town Brewery, Magis, The Leathersellers Foundation, Travel Things Museum and Herman Miller.
You will build a portfolio that positions you for future design practice.
The course concludes with an external London exhibition – attended by design professionals and the press.
See what we are up to on the Product & Furniture Design MA Instagram.
Join a creative and collaborative environment that challenges conventional thinking:
Redefine your design practice with this globally respected course, situated at Knights Park campus:
- This course is open to designers from varied backgrounds who want to challenge, expand, and progress product and furniture design definitions.
- You can benefit from expert tutors, professional designers, and specialist practitioners, as well as field trips, workshops and talks, and opportunities for external collaboration.
- You can focus on product or furniture design for the real and the imagined, creating positive change for people, communities and places.
Student work
Why choose this course
At Kingston, you'll join a community passionate about designing, making, and redefining the discipline of product and furniture design. This course encourages experimentation and collaboration across disciplines and externally to support future design practice.
You'll gain insights into areas such as material exploration, research methods, and the cultural contexts for design. Through live projects with industry partners, you'll develop your professional practice.
With access to state-of-the-art workshops, facilities and the guidance of leading practitioners and academics, you'll develop your ability to design products and furniture for real, imagined, and future scenarios. Reviews, group discussions, workshops, and a supportive studio culture will help you situate your practice.
We ‘make' and ‘do' through an experimental studio and workshop culture that evolves both the theoretical and practical. Beyond practical approaches, you’ll question the economies of design, who can access it, and how design responds to current and emerging needs and behaviours.
At Kingston, you'll build skills in:
- Innovative thinking and opportunity-finding
- Iterative making and advanced prototyping techniques
- Positioning your design practice
You’ll benefit from top-quality teaching at Kingston University. We ranked Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework, and our staff are leading practitioners and academics in product design, furniture design, social design, strategic design, innovation design, and related topics.
The Complete University Guide 2026 ranks us in the Top 10 in the UK for Art & Design – covers Fashion, Fashion Promotion and Communication, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration Animation, Interior Design, and Product and Furniture Design.
The Art School Experience
As part of Kingston School of Art, students benefit from joining a creative community where we encourage collaborative working and critical practice.
Our workshops and labs are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Student work
Course content
The course offers a hands-on design approach, including research techniques, participatory methods, experimental making, prototyping, and testing with intended audiences. You'll work in the studio and workshops on specific projects reflective of the course's modules. Activities can include specialist lectures, workshop inductions, group and individual tutorials, seminars, and symposiums.
You'll think critically about product and furniture design and your developing practice, engaging with related theoretical and contextual studies. You'll be encouraged to bring your interests and experiences to the project briefs – to explore aspects of the product and furniture design discipline that resonate with you. You'll need to be self-directed, reflective, and practical in your approach, with direction and purpose.
This course is part of the Design School's postgraduate programme. The structure, shared with students from other design courses, enables you to explore your specialist interests within an integrative learning environment that provides an understanding of the value and role of interdisciplinary methods and ways of working. The influences and impact of thinking from other related design subjects on your specialist study is an essential aspect of the identity and the community of interdisciplinary practice at masters level in the Design School.
Modules
The two shared modules of the Design School's postgraduate framework both commence with a symposium, in which high-profile external speakers present their work and contribute to a debate on a topic of relevance to all courses in the Framework.
Core modules
Optional placement year
Many postgraduate courses at Kingston University allow students to do a 12-month work placement as part of their course. The responsibility for finding the work placement is with the student; we cannot guarantee the work placement, just the opportunity to undertake it. As the work placement is an assessed part of the course, it is covered by a student's Student Route visa.
Optional modules
Career opportunities
Graduates of this MA have gone on to design innovative products for global companies, launch their own design studios, progress to PhD study, and lead sustainability initiatives in the design sector.
Graduates work in:
- product design
- furniture design
- social design
- circular design
- biophilic design
- strategic design
- CMF design
- in-house and at design consultancies
- Start-ups
- social enterprises
- government organisations
Employers of recent Product & Furniture Design MA graduates include, Asus, Bill Amberg, Cassina, CircleSquare, the Design Museum, FINH, Glithero, Goldfinch, Ice Breaker, Lenovo, Made, New Territory, Notpla, Pentatonic, and Surrey County Council.
Teaching and assessment
Assessment will be made at the completion of each module. Module marks are added to achieve a total final mark. Assessment will be made through practical design projects, presentations, main masters project and exhibition.
External exhibition
View images from the Product & Design MA external exhibition held in 2023 at Herman Miller, London.
Fees and funding
Fees for future course years
Part time
If you start your second year straight after Year 1, you will pay the same fee for both years.
If you take a break before starting your second year, or if you repeat modules from Year 1 in Year 2, the fee for your second year may increase.
Funding support for postgraduate students
If you are a UK student living in England and under 60, you can apply for a loan to study for a postgraduate degree. Find out more through the government's website.
Scholarships and bursaries
For students interested in studying Product & Furniture Design MA at Kingston, there are several opportunities to seek funding support:
Additional course costs
Some courses may require additional costs beyond tuition fees. When planning your studies, you’ll want to consider tuition fees, living costs, and any extra costs that might relate to your area of study.
Your tuition fees include costs for teaching, assessment and university facilities. So your access to libraries, shared IT resources and various student support services are all covered. Accommodation and general living expenses are not covered by these fees.
Where applicable, additional expenses for your course may include:
How to apply
Before you apply
Please read the entry criteria carefully to make sure you meet all requirements before applying.
How to apply online
Use the course selector drop-down at the top of this page to choose your preferred course, start date and mode, then click 'Apply now'. You will be taken to our Online Student Information System (OSIS) where you will complete your application.
If you’re starting a new application, you’ll need to select ‘new user’ and set up a username and password. This will allow you to save and return to your application.
Application deadlines
We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Applications will close when the course is full.
Information required to confirm your place
If English is not your first language, we will require proof of your proficiency to allow us to confirm your place on the course. This will generally be either an IELTS or TOEFL test certificate, which can be forwarded to us after you have submitted your application. If you do not hold a formal English language qualification, please indicate how you have acquired your proficiency in written and spoken English.
After you have applied
For courses that select on application alone, applicants should normally receive an initial decision or a request for more information within four to six weeks of receipt of their application. Our admissions team will notify you of the decision by email.
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Find out more about course changes
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.