Design for Costume and Performance

The course explores the breadth of performance design and provides opportunities that you will give you the skills to succeed in an exciting and competitive employment market. The course consists of three levels, each one lasting one academic year with each level building in complexity and demands. In the introductory stages of the course you will undertake a series of basic skill gathering that informs your learning throughout the course. These consist of character drawing, model-making and design skills together with an introduction to research and writing skills through text evaluation and analysis. As the course progresses, artistic and intellectual enquiry deepens to adapt to individual needs and career aspirations within costume design for screen and scenography.

The course will encourage you to test the boundaries of your ability in order to develop creative and proactive responses to problem solving and team working. Through the delivery of teaching by a diversely experienced team and working with a wide range of external collaborators, the curriculum focus ensures the currency and relevance of the skills and academic knowledge of graduates. This learning is developed by a series of study units, both speculative and in a ‘live context’.

Studios and resources

• dedicated design studios with space for design development
• access to a costume store and fabric archive
• a course-specific computer suite with the latest software (Adobe, AutoCAD Sketch-Up)
• bookable digital drawing tablets
• iPad Pros and iPencil with relevant drawing application
• an on-site workshop for laser-cutting, prop making, fibre-glassing, vac-forming, CNC cutting and 3D printing
• a large off-site workshop for set, prop and puppet building and painting
• a dye and textiles studio, where you can use dyeing and screen-printing equipment
• studio theatre on campus and proscenium arch theatre in the centre of Bournemouth
• sewing machines and associated costume making equipment
• photo/ model box lighting booth
• access to digital hub for textiles printing
• access to film studios through live projects