Welcome to the
BA(Hons) Commercial Surface Design course
Our BA (Hons) Commercial Surface Design undergraduate
degree course offers a unique opportunity to work with our
extensive industry partners through live project briefs,
placements and trade exhibitions across fashion and interior
surfaces, through tableware, graphic - packaging design,
stationery, homeware, to automotive, wallcoverings and wall art.
Course Overview
Explore the multi-disciplinary global surface design industry through design fields such as surface pattern, illustration, photography, graphic art, textiles and fine print.
In our practical modules, we regularly set up industry-relevant live projects with external organisations and companies. These build your experience in working to industry standards, help you learn the realities of working to design briefs and offer insights into current professional practice.
Featured opposite is a live project with Standfast and Barracks, part of the Sanderson Design Group, in celebration of their centenary. Selected design artwork was taken by the sales team to North America, including winner Caitlin Smith, who also had her entire collection printed onto furnishing fabrics.
Graduate alumni of the former Textiles & Surface Design course and now Head of Design at Standfast & Barracks comments;
“It is great to be back at Bolton, I loved my time here. The work I am seeing today has exceeded all expectations. It is so important to get industry experience and the course’s close connections with industry was one of the things that attracted me to the University of Greater Manchester [formerly Bolton].”
Rebecca Pye Head of Design - Standfast & Barracks
Future Creatives
A key focus of the course is on developing your commercial awareness and entrepreneurial skills. These include marketing yourself, exhibiting your work to national and international audiences, working in design studios and starting your own business.
We also aim to help you develop lifelong learning skills so that you can take ownership of your professional development for the future and maximise your potential for success. We’ll support you in planning for a successful career and exploring alternative choices in the wider creative industries, such as:
Multi-disciplinary Designer | Creative Artworker | Interior Furnishings Designer | Stationery & Giftwrap Design | Homeware Designer | Fashion-Graphic Print Designer | Greetings Card Designer and Illustrator | Textile Designer | Digital Artist & Artworker | Colourist | Surface Pattern Designer | Graphic Packaging Designer | Wallpaper Designer | Academic - Teacher or Lecturer | Technician | Buyer | Visual Merchandiser
Casie Kennedy produced a collection informed by Brutalist architecture recorded from visits to Manchester, York and Liverpool, and responding to the Worth Global Style Network forecasted trend - Curve: The New Retro. Working with predominantly digital processes, this collection is aimed toward the high-end interior market and offers a contemporary reinterpretation of mid-century modern pattern.
AWARDS
Creative Show Award
Surface Print Fine Wallpapers
Highlights
This highly creative course is taught by dedicated professionals with extensive experience in research, design, self promotion, selling and exhibiting.
You’ll have the chance to showcase your work to international manufacturers and design studios at trade show events, where continuous links with the industry confirm our up-to-date course content. We have access to the worlds largest trend forecasting service WGSN.
We also hold an Industry Advisory Board who input on our curriculum design including companies and arts organisations - TexIntel, Edmund Bell Ltd., Manchester Craft and Design Centre, ARC Stockport, AVA CAD CAM and Woodchip & Magnolia.
Our graduates have gained impressive studio positions, or work as freelance creatives for national and international companies such as;
Alexander McQueen
Clarke and Clarke (Sandersons Group)
Edinburgh Weavers Ltd
Edmund Bell Ltd
Habitat
Hallmark UK
Harrods
JRS Home
Graham and Brown Wallcoverings
Lemon Ribbon
Macys New York USA
Osborne and Little
Prestigious Textiles
Sainsburys Home
Standfast and Barracks (Sandersons Group)
Surface Print Fine Wallpapers
SketchTwenty3 Fine Wallcoverings
UK Greetings
Course Content
Throughout the programme you can extend your understanding of surface design and print, with image making across digital and analogue processes.
These are supported by key modules which underpin business and commercial design across the creative industries at each level.
HE4
Creative Industries Contexts
Introduction to Design Practice
Printmaking for Creative Practice
Surface Design Principles and Processes
HE5
Surface Design Digital and Print
Professional Studio Practice: Concept, Design and Realisation
Creative Careers
HE6
Advanced Commercial Surface Design
Incubate (optional module)
Innovate (optional module)
Professional Practice and Self Promotion
Major Project
You’ll have formative assessments to help you learn and develop your knowledge and skills, as well as summative assessments on which you are graded.
You’ll receive individual help and advice on your work in one-to-one tutorials. Peer reviews, where you present your work to a small group of fellow students for their comments, also provide helpful feedback.
Facilities
Our expert team will support you to experiment with multi-disciplinary materials and techniques. You can take advantage of our print and embellishment facilities for fabric, paper, wood, plastic, metal, glass and ceramics and explore the possibilities and potential of digital embroidery, laser cutting and printing.
You’ll also benefit from opportunities to work in our specialist workshops, including photographic studios with dark rooms, industry standard computer suites running the latest design software, and textile and fine print workshops, as well as in our spacious design studios.
Design studio spaces.
Industry-standard computer/graphic suites.
Workshops for wood, metal, ceramics, fine print, laser cutting, materials, printed textiles, and photography.
Industry-standard digital software, including graphic design, illustration, pattern repeat and design, large-format scanners, digital print and embroidery equipment.
Industry-standard large format paper, fabric and vinyl digital printers.
Access to the latest global forecasted trends.
Planchest drawers and lockers.
Materials provided for workshop demonstrations.
We’ll introduce you to the varied working practices of studio designers in the industry and guide you as you investigate the range of materials and products surface designers create.
Exhibitions & Study Visits
We offer numerous opportunities to visit national and international trade fairs. In recent years, we’ve organised optional study trips* to Milan Design Trienniale, Comocrea at Lake Como, Printsource and Surtex New York, Indigo Paris, Heimtextil Frankfurt, Surface Design Show, Decorex and New Designers in London.
We’ll encourage you to enter national and international competitions. We are proud that many of our students have gained prestigious awards through Première Vision, Heimtextil. Surtex, New Designers, TexIntel - Green Grads Eco Stories, Bradford Textile Society, and I-dott.
Exhibition opportunities are organised from your first year and you are offered the opportunity to take part in event preparations and marketing.
By choosing to study with us, you’ll have the chance to enjoy Bolton’s many shops, bars, restaurants and leisure facilities. Manchester, one of the UK’s most multicultural and lively cities, is less than 20 minutes away by train. Not forgetting, the North West of England is renowned for its beautiful countryside, coastline and heritage. This makes Bolton an ideal base from which to explore some of the best cultural and outdoor activities the UK offers.
*Additional costs are associated with trips.
NEW YORK, USA: Manhattan City | Brooklyn Art Library | World Trade Centre | Printsource Trade Show | Metropolitan Museum of Art.
ITALY: Lake Como and Milan | Milan Trienniale | Comocrea Trade Show | Anteprima Design Studios.