Textile Design with Foundation Year
Textile design is concerned with the creation of cloth and materials, exploring the potential of fibres, yarns and processes to produce textiles with distinctive visual, tactile and functional qualities. It is a discipline that spans handcraft and industrial production, tradition and technological innovation, and it has applications across fashion, interior design, healthcare, architecture, automotive design and technical textiles used in aerospace and medicine. Textile designers work with colour, pattern, texture, structure and the specific properties of materials to create cloths and surfaces that are both beautiful and fit for their purpose.
At Birmingham City University, this four-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, providing a thorough grounding in art, design and creative practice before you move into the specialist textile design degree. Through the main programme, you will explore a wide range of processes including weave, print, knit, embroidery, mixed media and digital textile design, developing both the hand skills and the digital capabilities that contemporary textile practice demands. You will engage with the historical, cultural and commercial contexts in which textiles are made and used, developing your creative vision alongside the technical knowledge needed to realise it.
Birmingham's art and design community and the city's strong connections to the fashion and textile industries provide a rich context for your studies.
Graduates of textile design programmes go on to careers as textile designers, surface pattern designers, print designers, knitwear designers and weave designers working for fashion houses, interior design companies, retailers, manufacturers and specialist textile studios. Others move into roles in costume, theatre and film, technical textiles, design management, fashion styling and visual merchandising. Further study at master's level in textile design, fashion design or a related creative practice is available for those who want to pursue specialist or research paths.