Design Products

You will learn through a range of teaching typologies in each unit including briefing, critique, exhibition, group tutorial, individual tutorial, lectures, seminars, demonstrations, workshops, peer reviews and independent study. Each unit will comprise of one or more projects which will develop learning up to the assessment point.

We will formally assess learning once in each unit with a formative and summative assessment. A critique or demonstration will be used for either the formative or summative assessment with asynchronous assessment methods including explanatory short video, desktop display, portfolio, visual presentation, and demonstration used for the other assessment point. The formative assessment will provide you with feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of their work-to-date and recommend strategies for improving learning to enhance the outcome of the summative assessment.

You will submit work in a range of both digital and physical formats depending on the unit project briefs. Examples of submission formats include writing, videos, 2D drawings, sketches and diagrams to test rigs, proof of principle, demonstrators, simulations, prototypes or models.

The programme is delivered across three terms and includes a combination of programme, School and College units. Learning will develop during the programme through terms 1 and 2 via a series of short projects focusing on experimentation and developing a strong and adaptive personal creative process, building a portfolio of projects culminating in the independent research project in Term 3.

Term 1

In the first term we help you locate your own practice at the forefront of the design products landscape (Locating Practice). This is supported by enhancing research skills and identifying additional technical and intellectual skills to develop new and improved design methods and approaches connecting research and making.

Experimental Design allows you to expand the range and ambition of your design practice through various forms of experimentation to uncover new skills, methods and ideas. This unit covers a broad spectrum of experimentation from methods to materials, technology, making, manufacturing, futures, social and participatory.

Term 2

The second term engages with Advanced Practice by deepening your own creative methods and application based on programme ethos themes.

You will also collaborate with other School of Design programme disciplines in a team-based School-wide Grand Challenge tackling a major emerging strategic design issue. The aim of this unit is to connect and challenge all students in the School through the introduction of a ‘wicked’ design problem that requires a cross disciplinary approach to problem solving which may involve external international partners. This unit and lecture series has been hugely successful in connecting and disrupting disciplines, people, philosophies and approaches to design thinking whilst providing our student body with very unique networking opportunities.

There are also opportunities to take part in commercially sponsored projects in Terms 2 and 3, depending on availability.

Terms 1 and 2

Across Terms 1 and 2, you will participate in AcrossRCA (College-wide unit). This unit aims to support you to meet the challenges of a complex, uncertain and changing world by bringing you together to work collaboratively in cross-programme interdisciplinary teams. In your team you will develop a selfinitiated themed project, informed by expertise within and beyond the College. These projects will challenge you to collectively use your intellect and imagination to address key cultural, social, environmental and economic challenges. In doing so, you will develop and reflect on the abilities required to translate knowledge into action, and help demonstrate the contribution that the creative arts can make to our understanding and experience of the world.

Term 3

In the third term you will synthesise learning from Terms 1 and 2 by independently developing, managing and delivering a high-resolution Design Products project (Independent Research Project). The emphasis here is showing how you have brought together skills, learning and design practices from across Terms 1 and 2 to design and deliver a project that sits at the forefront of the design products landscape and enables the delivery of a design discourse that argues for the new design space within which it sits.

The Independent Research Project (IRP) will be delivered through a supervision model, and it is expected that students will spend the majority of their time on personal study and making. You will be expected to develop an initial major project proposal and refine this, based on learning and experiences throughout Terms 1 and 2. The project will then be supported by targeted strategic supervisions from lecturers and support from technical resources.

AcrossRCA is a compulsory 30-credit unit which is delivered as part of all MA programmes.

Situated at the core of your RCA experience, this ambitious interdisciplinary College-wide unit supports you in responding to the challenges of complex, uncertain and changing physical and digital worlds. Developed in response to student feedback, AcrossRCA creates an exciting opportunity for you to collaborate meaningfully across programmes.

Challenging you to use your imagination and intellect to respond to urgent contemporary themes, this ambitious unit will provide you with the opportunity to:

• make connections across disciplines
• think critically about your creative practice
• develop creative networks within and beyond the College
• generate innovative responses to complex problems
• reflect on how to propose ideas for positive change in local and/or global contexts

AcrossRCA launches with a series of presentations and panel discussions from acclaimed speakers who will introduce the themes and act as inspirational starting points for your collaborative team response.

Delivered online and in-person across two terms, the unit has been designed to complement your disciplinary studies and to provide you with a platform to thrive beyond graduation.