3D Design Innovation BA (Hons)

30 credits

This module introduces contemporary 3D digital design practice through a range of projects that integrate creative making with cognition, thinking, and reasoning. Knowledge is developed by providing solutions to today's social, environmental, and economic issues through the using of materials and digital fabrication processes.

Practice: Thinking Through Making Small focuses on researching, making, and designing user experiences by introducing the fundamentals of 3D digital design practice: idea generation, problem-solving, human-centred, and planet-centred design. This module places the planet, human experience, and prototyping at its centre, developing skills that translate theoretical concepts into practical objects as core research methods. Testing and making mistakes are essential for learning, fostering innovation in the prototyping process, enabling significant leaps and the creation of radically original designs.

By exploring and using methods of communication and interaction, you gain knowledge and understanding of the target market and customers. You are encouraged to explore entrepreneurial opportunities, utilising both internal and external resources.

30 credits

Materials and Making constitutes an introduction to design histories and the theoretical, historical and cultural contexts underpinning product and furniture design. Sessions address particular ideas and practices that have shaped and constructed our contemporary understanding of product and furniture design as a meaningful social, cultural and economic activity.

Attention is given to the relationship between design and contexts of production, consumers and consumption, technologies, technique, the politics of labour, materiality, and ethics/responsibility. The intertwined histories of design and modernity and modernisation will be addressed, as well as what practices, histories and conceptualisations of design were excluded from or displaced by such developments, from women designers to indigenous and vernacular craft practices.

An integral part of this module is the close consideration of designed objects and the understanding of these in relation to larger contexts of meaning and interpretation.

30 credits

This module introduces the tools, processes, and technologies employed in 3D digital design practice. Through a series of lectures and workshops you embrace 3D digital design and communication processes by exploring various CAD programs and CAM processes: 2D drawing and 3D modelling, digital fabrication processes, creating CAD render image, editing /retouching studio photography, and portfolio layout.

30 credits

Presentation: Start-Up underscores the significance of individual problem-solving in urgent social, environmental, and economic issues. It unveils the intricate processes behind realising creative ideas and explores how design can transform the world. Celebrating the human act of making, it recognises its pivotal role in shaping social activities. The module introduces entrepreneurship and enterprise principles, imparting you with the ability to identify, evaluate, and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities, fostering a comprehensive understanding of creative problem-solving.

This module introduces Future Skills through engagement with Navigate, emphasising individual and team activities to build confidence and skills for collaborative work and audience consultation. It develops portfolio creation skills, fostering self-selection, editing, and personal and professional identity construction. You engage with outward-facing briefs, exploring the professional landscape of 3D digital design and honing skills in problem-solving as part of a creative research process.

30 credits

This module connects your design practice to the wider world, linking interaction design to social, political, cultural, environmental, and technological contexts. You’ll explore how critical thinking and design research can help address pressing global issues, from climate change to digital inequality.

In the first half of the module, you’ll analyse real-world case studies using different theoretical perspectives. In the second half, you’ll explore research methods and approaches that support independent enquiry, preparing you for your final year research project.

30 credits

This module explores contemporary 3D digital design practice through a range of projects that integrate creative making with cognition, thinking, and reasoning. Knowledge is developed by providing innovative solutions to today's social, environmental, and economic issues through the utilisation of emerging technologies.

Practice: Thinking Through Making Medium & Large focuses on researching, prototyping, and designing user experiences, highlighting the vital role of prototypes and emerging technologies in 3D digital design. It centres on iterative prototyping processes and contextual exploration through diverse primary research methods, translating theory into practical objects and events. Testing with actual target audiences in real environments is essential for validating designs, enhancing user experience, and enabling significant leaps and the creation of radically original designs.

By exploring and using industry networks, contacts, and collaborative opportunities both inside and outside the university, you expand on your knowledge and outlook, adding rigour and credibility to your studies. You are encouraged to explore entrepreneurial opportunities, utilising both internal and external resources.

30 credits

Presentation: Scale-Up develops and supports individual approaches to solving existing world problems rooted in urgent social, environmental, and economic concerns by revealing the elaborate processes involved in bringing creative ideas to life. Presentation modules explore how our design practice can create the potential to transform the world for the better. This module celebrates the human act of making, recognising its fundamental role in shaping our social activities and environments. The module expands your entrepreneurial and enterprise competencies, guiding you to apply strategic thinking in developing and refining innovative projects.

This module nurtures your graduate attributes, delivering the Future Skills Explore Learning Outcomes. It integrates personal development activities to solidify professional identities and global citizenship, leveraging industry networks for insights into 3D digital design practice's industrial and professional contexts. This cultivates professional skills, particularly interdisciplinary collaboration, vital for future employment across diverse disciplines.

The module critically evaluates personal development through self-reflection, exploring problems beyond 3D digital design's confines. This is reinforced by constructing a professional portfolio and development plan, evidencing skill understanding for Level 6 preparation.

30 credits

Process: Tools of Innovation 2 develops and supports an individual approach to the tools, processes, and technologies used within 3D digital design practice. Through a series of workshops and projects, you will embrace the process and suspend judgment by exploring making through a diverse and challenging range of interconnected media and technologies, including CAD animation, video editing, parametric design, and creative computing. These methods are presented as options that can be selected and utilised in the formation of an individual creative practice. This module advances communication and modelling processes through testing, iteration, and consultation.

Digital animation, modelling, and digital fabrication workshops are presented as specialised working environments where you can practise skills and develop your craft as a 3D digital designer.

60 credits

This module fosters independent 3D digital design practices through a range of applied set and self-negotiated projects that combine creative making with cognition, thinking, and reasoning; knowledge is developed through both the manipulation of materials and by taking a questioning and empathetic approach to subject matter.

Practice: Personal Vision explores researching, prototyping, and designing user experiences, emphasising social, environmental, and economic sustainability in 3D digital design. It envisions technology's transformative role in daily life, fostering individual and collective design practices with contextual awareness. This module centres on the planet, human experience, and prototyping, cultivating skills to translate theory into practical objects, encouraging learning through testing, mistakes, and innovation. Testing and making mistakes are essential for learning, fostering innovation in the prototyping process, enabling significant leaps and the creation of radically original designs.

Emphasis on research, ethics, and inclusivity allows you to formalise your unique methodologies confidently. This module solidifies understanding and personal prototyping skills. Autonomy, resilience, and self-reliance grow through self-direction, culminating in an extended project proposals, negotiation, and delivery. Analytical thinking, reflexivity, and criticality are integral. Projects establish personal practice and professional relationships.

15 credits

This module supports an extended research project that deepens your understanding of critical issues relevant to your practice. You’ll explore a topic of your choosing, framed by questions emerging from your own design work and informed by relevant theory, history, or cultural context. Working independently and with tutor support, you’ll undertake rigorous enquiry using appropriate research methods and sources. Through this process, you’ll build your ability to reflect critically, argue persuasively, and contribute to contemporary discourse in interaction design.

30 credits

Presentation: Set-Up (Apply) endorses individual solutions to global issues, exposing complex processes in bringing creative ideas to life. It explores design as a force for positive transformation, celebrating the human act of making and its role in shaping social activities. The module builds on entrepreneurial concepts, focusing on advanced strategies for translating creative ideas into viable ventures, addressing urgent social, environmental, and economic concerns for a better world.

Future Skills evolve through engagement with Apply, guiding planning for ongoing personal and professional development. It fosters an individual approach to career management, strengthening professional skills, identity, and global citizenship. Recognising public presentation as a core principle, the module supports opportunities for sharing work with external audiences and collaborative partners in the field of 3D digital design practice.

You will critically evaluate personal development, reflecting on progress to enhance creative practice and explore challenges beyond the University. Personal development planning showcases evolving skills in coursework, setting goals, and taking actions to propel ambitions forward.

15 credits

This module gives you a dedicated opportunity to develop your Future Skills Graduate Attributes. 

At the start of the module, you will be supported to self-assess your current skills profile. You will determine which attributes and skills you need to develop to support your career ambitions. In this process, you will be supported by a dedicated career coach, helping you explore a range of options that includes self-employment/freelancing, starting your own business, higher level study, and other professional graduate-level opportunities. Throughout the module, you will be given opportunities to engage with external mentors, to support reflection and to develop a professional network.

You will undertake a tailored series of activities and projects, aligned to your goals, from a menu of development options. This could include short courses, enrichment activities and experiential learning options such as micro-placements. You will also be able to reflect on activities outside the University that develop your graduate attributes, such as work or volunteering.