Product Design

The programme spans over 4 years (BDes) or 5 years (MEDes – Master of European Design) in duration, with the two-degree pathways sharing a common “core” in years One and Two. The programme covers the spectrum of making practices associated with design across two, three or four dimensions, including the design of products, tangible services and experiences. Throughout the programme, the studio component is complemented by courses that offer critical writing opportunities. Across years 2 and 3, students will be offered choice through elective courses where they can select from a range of thematic strands and methodologies pertinent to the broader study of ‘product design’. In the third year of study students will be given the opportunity to diversify their study by following one of the degree-pathways, each having the named award of Bachelor of Design in Product Design and Master of European Design in Product Design.

Product Design within The Glasgow School of Art provides a creative and critical learning environment that produces highly skilled graduates that are confident, imaginative, articulate critical thinkers who can navigate complex social, environmental, political and technological topics through their emerging design practice. Our graduates are well placed to extend their study onto Masters or PhD, or enter the profession through public sector organisations such as the NHS and Scottish Government, and through multi-scale private sector organisations and consultancies such as EY Seren, and New Commercial Arts.

BDes Product Design The B.Des/MEDes programme seeks to encourage thinking through design, the use of materials and images to forge an intellectual engagement with the world and our lived experience, by combining research, critique, communication of complexity and exploration of divergent possibilities, multiple material decisions, leading to innovation-led design propositions. Product Design as a practice is taught as an experimental method for engaging with and evaluating the world and its constituent components, which, in turn, offers the opportunity for its modification, manipulation or transformation. Consequently, the context of PD (Product Design) practice is crucial – social, economic, cultural, environmental or technological – in shaping the application of disciplinary expertise. Studio projects reflect this by challenging critical and creative skills that forge innovative design propositions for now and for the future.

MEDes Master of European Design (MEDes) The Master of European Design pathway sets the school’s trans-disciplinary approach to product design in an international context, providing an opportunity for immersion in different cultures and experiences through exchange with our six partner institutions: Aalto University Finland, KISD University in Cologne Germany, Politecnico Di Milano in Italy, ENCSI in Paris, University of Aveiro in Portugal, Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Sweden. Students will have the opportunity to explore social, ethical and environmental issues as subjects for design projects, and learn how to apply research methods and analytical skills from the social sciences in an international context. Through exchange partner specific programmes of studio-based learning, students will acquire a wide range of visualisation, communication and material-making skills that bring together user insights, expert input and ethnographic information to drive the design and innovation process. Students will forge connections throughout their two years of exchange that create vital professional international networks. As part of the programmes international outlook, students will study a foreign language in year two to support their integration and orientation into a new educational and social culture, although most of our partner schools deliver courses in English.