Foundation Year Design

The aims of the Foundation Year in Art / Design are to:

• To inform you of the range of practice in art and design and to provide an experience that will enable you to make an informed choice about your future study.
  

• To prepare you with a range of practical skills, knowledge understanding and abilities in concept formation through the development of ideas.
  

• To provide a balanced knowledge of the contexts and issues of art and design in a way which informs your developing practice, and to provide you with the appropriate research and study skills to enable you to undertake higher level study with confidence.

• Read Design Foundation Year course information (PDF, file size: 847.06KB)

This course forms the first year of an integrated 4-year degree programme. The intake caters for a range of backgrounds from School leavers to Returning Students. Academic Staff ensure that learning is conducted in a mature and relaxed environment with projects that allow individuals to discover and explore their own respective pathways.

You will undertake a series of projects, workshop instructions and demonstrations, lectures, seminars, individual and group activities that will characterise your learning. The outcomes regularly being displayed around the University campus allowing you and your peers to have a profile beyond the confines of the working studio environment.

In addition, your Theory and Practice module will relate to your studio practice and your personal interests, whilst also ensuring that you gain an awareness and appreciation of areas of art and design other than your chosen specialism.

Right: Work from the 'Eccentric Animals' Exhibition

Year 1
A series of projects, workshop instructions and demonstrations, lectures, seminars, individual and group activities. There is also a Theory and Practice module.

The assessment is considered to be an important part of your learning process, and is therefore designed to be interactive, and open. We also believe it is very important that you learn how to evaluate your work for yourself and acquire the critical judgment necessary to develop your work to the best of your ability.

You will be assessed on a portfolio of work that will be based on your module outcomes; this could take the form of sketchbooks, presentations and final outcomes. This informs you of your progress on the course and assists you in the development of the self-critical qualities essential for artists and designers.

• We are committed to placing you at the centre of the educational experience.
• We know that building your confidence and self-awareness is one of our main tasks, if you are to take full advantage of your future pathway.
• We are committed to informing you of the range of practice in art and design through a wide-ranging experience, which will enable you to make a clear decision about your future pathway.
• We adopt an open and transparent use of assessment as a teaching tool, and the use of self-evaluation as an essential part of learning.
• Whilst it is very important at this level for you to have more guidance and support from staff than at Level 1, the aim will be to develop those abilities and skills that enable you to work more independently as you progress through the course, and this is reflected in the Major Project module.
• As well as this the University has a structured support programme to ensure that students are supported whatever their specific needs may be.

Michael Branthwaite – Award Leader Foundation Year in Art
Michael is a practicing Artist working in site-specific Sculpture and installation as well as Creative Director of Rednile Projects Limited. He has exhibited nationally and internationally; recent projects include a sculpture commission for the Wirksworth Festival and a site-specific video installation for Olyimpolis Project. Platamonas Train Station, Greece.

Tim Forrester – Award Leader Foundation Year in Design
Tim is one of Britain’s most innovative furniture designers whose work has received both national and international recognition. He achieved great success during a substantial period working in Milan and returned to the UK to maintain a vibrant furniture design practise. Tim’s work is regularly featured in leading design publications worldwide and has continued to exhibit internationally at the likes of London design week, Salone del Mobile and Euroluce in Milan.

consideThe Primary aim of the course is to prepare students for BA Hons Degree Courses within the Faculty of Art Media and Design at Staffordshire University. Students that successfully complete the Foundation year automatically progress to a range of BA Hons Degree Courses such as BA Hons Fine Art, Design disciplines and Craft.

For information on the specific degree you may want to study please refer to the web-site.

Foundation Year Art

• Art Foundation Year; Design Foundation Year Programme Specification (PDF, file size: 146.87KB)

For more information about Design Foundation Year please contact: