Textile Design

Textile design is concerned with the creative and technical development of cloth and material: using fibres, yarns, weave structures, print, and surface techniques to produce fabrics with particular qualities, patterns, and purposes. It is a discipline that sits at the intersection of fine art, craft, and industrial design, and its reach is wide, spanning fashion, interior design, performance textiles, sustainable materials, and the development of entirely new functional fabrics. Good textile design involves both aesthetic imagination and a deep understanding of the properties and behaviour of materials.

At Birmingham City University, this three-year full-time programme gives you the opportunity to explore the full creative and technical potential of the discipline. You will work with fibres, yarns, and processes to develop cloth and materials with distinctive qualities, experimenting with techniques including weave, knit, print, embellishment, and digital design methods. The programme includes a sandwich placement year and work placement opportunities, giving you direct experience of how the textile industry and related creative sectors operate in practice.

This professional exposure is central to the degree, connecting your creative development to real industry demands and helping you build the portfolio and contacts that a career in textiles requires.

Textile design graduates go on to work in fashion, including as surface pattern designers, knitwear designers, and woven fabric developers, as well as in interior textiles, theatre and costume, the technical textiles sector, and in their own independent practice. Many work at the boundary between textiles and other creative fields, contributing to product design, visual communication, and material innovation. The growing interest in sustainable and innovative materials has created new opportunities for textile designers who can combine traditional craft knowledge with forward-looking technical thinking.

Further study at postgraduate level in textile design, material culture, or fashion is also open to graduates who want to deepen their practice or move into research and teaching.