Graduate with teamwork and leadership skills, as well as the commercial awareness needed to embark on a career in the world of film, theatre or live performance.
During your first year on our costume design degree course, you’ll be introduced to the practical skills and knowledge underpinning both design and production. Over a series of projects, you’ll learn the fundamental processes involved in costume design, from designing around scripts and storylines, through to creating the end product.
In your second year, you’ll explore what it’s like to work in the industry through live projects and work placement opportunities. As well as developing your hands-on skills, you’ll also gain valuable first-hand industry experience, working alongside experienced costume and wardrobe professionals.
Your final year will begin with a module that will get you up-to-speed and ready to tackle your final major design project. Alongside this, you’ll expand your research skills and learn how to develop a personal design brief to use as the basis of your final major project.
The Foundation Year will provide you with a dynamic, exciting and collaborative environment in which you will become a confident self-learner, with the underpinning skills and knowledge to apply in your studies. You will be taught with students interested in progressing to different art, design and media programmes, and study modules that will help you increase your knowledge and understanding of basic art and design as well as other aspects of creative thinking.
Our strong connections within Greater Manchester’s thriving creative sector mean you will also hear from practitioners working in the industry right now about their practice, journey into the world or art and design.
In the first term you will study modules that introduce the key concepts, skills and knowledge of art and design. Modules will help you to develop your study skills such as note-taking and structuring reports. In the second semester, you will further develop your creative practice and be introduced to the creative industries.
The assignments are flexible enough to allow you to interpret and tailor your submissions to your preferred area of study. Tutors will help and support you, in creating a portfolio of work to progress onto the BA (Hons) Photography here at the University of Salford. You will be integrated slowly into the degree course with opportunities to meet tutors from the BA and by using our shared collaborative facilities within our vibrant New Adelphi building.
This programme prepares you to study on the three-year University undergraduate programme, meaning the duration of your degree is four years in total. The Foundation Year is not a standalone qualification.
Following the Foundation Year, the three years of BA (Hons) Graphic Design:
We support students to develop idea led solutions, embracing the digital and at the same time engaging with traditional processes such as bookbinding and printmaking. Teaching is informed by research and academic staff contribute to subject networks, international conferences, exhibitions, books and papers. Student learning is facilitated through a range of workshops, seminars and lectures with additional support from a team of demonstrators.
The curriculum covers a broad range of specialist skills in both traditional and emerging areas such as design research methods, ideas generation and creative thinking, typography, branding, art direction, print-making, illustration and image making, bookbinding, photography, motion design, ambient media, interactive and multimedia design.
From the start, you will be immersed in an exciting programme of discovery. You’ll explore the role of art and design in a modern society and, in particular, the role of costume design in the performing arts. The performance Costume programme offers specialist training in both Costume Design and Making for stage and screen. You will learn to respond to text, music and performance concepts and to develop designs for costume that are simultaneously innovative and supportive of the performer’s role. You will develop a repertoire of core skills, ranging from research, design for character, textiles, millinery, computer skills and illustration to pattern cutting and costume construction.
Who should study the BA (Hons) in Performance Costume?
Anyone with a passion for costume and a strong interest in the performing arts. If you have found yourself excited by costume in theatre, film, opera, musicals or dance, and longed to be involved in the creation of memorable and exciting images through costume, then this course is for you.
Join a vibrant creative community
Within ECA, you’ll find yourself at the heart of a dynamic community. You’ll be ideally placed to study the interaction between costume and the other arts, such as fashion, textiles, jewellery, film, animation, illustration, and also within the many courses in the wider University. You will take part in live productions in ECA and have the opportunity to undertake a wide range of work experience outside of the University.
Creative thinkers
You’ll be supported by academic staff and practitioners from the world of costume design. All will have specialist skills which will add to the range of your knowledge. And during your studies, you’ll have the chance to attend guest lectures from a range of inspirational creative designers.
The normal period of study for the degrees are as follows:
MSc: One year full-time or two years part-time
MPhil: Two years full-time or four years part-time
PhD: Three years full-time or six years part-time
For the MPhil and PhD in Composition degrees students are allocated principal and second supervisors who oversee and guide the development of their work.
Students submit a portfolio of original compositions in place of a thesis. The MPhil portfolio should include one work suitable to form the major item in a concert program.
For the PhD the portfolio should normally include one major work, the performance of which would occupy an entire evening (i.e. an opera). Part or all of the portfolio may consist of computer-based or electronic fixed-media works, interactive work or work involving new media.
There is no requirement for an additional thesis or commentary to accompany the portfolio, but students are required to develop an understanding of the cultural context of their work.
All research degrees require students to work closely with a supervision team. Please browse staff profiles to learn about the research specialisms and outputs of Music staff. If your research is interdisciplinary, look at staff profiles in other subject areas, too. We encourage you to approach staff directly to gauge their availability and suitability as a prospective supervisor.
When making first contact with either a prospective supervisor or the Programme Director, please introduce yourself and mention your research intentions as a composer. If you maintain a professional website or online portfolio, please include a link.
This helps potential supervisors to understand your vision of the scope of a PhD or MScR project, and your understanding of the type of practical - as well as intellectual - matters that postgraduate research entails. This early contact with staff should also be helpful to you, for decisions you will need to make about how to develop your proposal, and with whom you would like to work.
Our music course offers training in a huge range of styles from classical and popular, to musical theatre, jazz and contemporary music. You’ll be able to make music on your own and with others, perform in orchestras, choirs and bands, and work with improvisation.
As a performer, you’ll receive free instrumental/vocal lessons, enjoy 24/7 practice room access and the opportunity to take part in regular concerts. As a composer you’ll have access to excellent recording facilities, state of the art Mac labs and many opportunities to showcase your work. All music students benefit from visits by industry professionals, including: performers, composers, promoters, publishers and educators.
Whether you’re interested in performance, composition, music history, analysis or the music industry itself, our experienced staff and vibrant musical community can help unlock your musical potential.
Our award-winning Professional Training placements prepare students for roles in industry.
This course is offered by North East dance organisation, Dance City, in partnership with the University of Sunderland.
Our unique course has been designed by leading dance professionals to prepare you for a varied and multi-faceted career, ensuring you are able to thrive in a range of roles and settings within the dance sector and beyond.
The course begins and ends in the studio, and you’ll be dancing from morning to evening most of the time. It is a challenging course that will require much of you physically, socially, and creatively across the three years of practice and study. We are committed to offering a foundation of support and care to enable you to make to the most of this opportunity.
Dance City graduates are top-class performers, teachers, choreographers, producers, and cultural managers. We have mapped our graduates into more than 50 creative career paths so far. We are proud to be empowering the next generation of dance professionals and invite you to create your dance future.
This costume design course develops confident and experimental practitioners who push the boundaries of traditions and explore innovations in costume for live, film and digital performance.
Where graduates have gone on to work: graduates find employment as designers, assistant designers and costume supervisors in the theatre, film and music entertainment industry. Employers have included: the Royal Opera House, Netflix, Amazon, BBC, National Ballet, major film productions such as Harry Potter, Spiderman and clients such as Dior, Lagerfeld, Lady Gaga, Madonna and Kylie Minogue. Alumni are employed in leading academic roles for costume design and frequently win prizes in international exhibitions and competitions such as World of Wearable Art, Linbury Prize for Stage Design, World Stage Design.
Industry links: the course is firmly linked to industry partners, giving students the opportunity to showcase work to the public on professional platforms and regularly collaborate with professional companies. Previously students have worked with Sadler’s Wells and the V&A.
Facilities: students have access to highly specialist workshop facilities and the expertise of supporting technicians in areas of costume, technical effects, media and wearable tech.
BA (Hons) Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Performance teaches the specialist skills to enter the performance industry working as a make-up / prosthetics artist as well as hair / wig dresser and maker.
Why choose this course at London College of Fashion
Where graduates have gone on to work: graduates have worked on film productions, such as Harry Potter and War Horse, TV productions including Luther and The Hour and in West End and globally touring theatre productions.
Industry standard facilities and equipment: the course has dedicated rooms for sculpting, plaster casting and moulding. Students will also have access to fiberglass, silicone, spray and extraction rooms, a wig making room and specialized ovens and make-up and prosthetics application rooms.
Industry links: aided by its London location, the course has strong relationships with the industry, with studios and theatres being easily accessible. Previous work experience opportunities have included The English National Opera and Pinewood Studios.
Creative Direction for Fashion challenges the intersection between fashion, communication and divergent practices. Projects developed on this course seek to drive meaningful change in the discipline through informed, robust propositions with compelling creative vision, communication design, strategy and criticality at their core.
Why choose this course at London College of Fashion:
Skill building: you will develop proficient multidisciplinary skills within communication design, which will provide a wide range of graduate opportunities including: art director, trends and innovation researcher, experience designer, producer. Students will also build the range of skills needed to be proficient freelancers.
Industry links: you will have exposure to industry practitioners and have the opportunity to respond to knowledge exchange briefs. Past projects have included collaborations with H&M, the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, the Hyman Archive and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Placement opportunity: in your second year on the course you have the opportunity to do an integrated work placement as part of your study.
Emerging technologies: This unique course gives students the opportunity to engage with emerging digital technologies and identify innovative opportunities for how they can be used within the fashion media and communication industry.
BA (Hons) Costume for Performance offers a holistic approach to the study of costume. This course is for students who are interested in designing and making. This comprises physical and digital ways of designing and creating for live theatre, dance, film, and television, as well as more specialised performances.
We nurture every student’s distinctive voice, teaching them how to embrace challenge and how to lead their professional field with cutting-edge approaches across all channels: live, broadcast, digital, interactive, experiential and experimental. Through specialist research and collaborative work, we empower our students to think differently by combining traditional and digital techniques in design and costume-making that result in creative and sustainable practices that improve the way we work and live.
Why choose this course at London College of Fashion:
Students learn from professionals actively working in Film, TV and live performance.
The course gives you the advantage to collaborate with students from related disciplines like 3D effects and Hair
and Makeup.
Students have the opportunity to work on industry-related projects within the course.
Learning occurs in a collaborative and safe environment.
The course prepares students to integrate intellectual demands within the specialized design and the
craft skills required for the creation of original costumes.
