Curious about studying MA Creative Directionat Leeds Beckett University? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
MA - Master of Arts
City Campus
Part Time
Sep 2027
2 Year
Take a practice-led exploration into creative direction, strategy, storytelling, and design to enhance your career and collaborate in the creative industries. What is creative direction? Creative direction sits at the intersection between creative strategy, communications, and design, encompassing campaigns and editorial work, public engagement, content, and branding. You'll gain the insight and experience to develop your practical and critical skills, while using your creative values to position your distinctive practice in industry. As part of this course, you'll: Develop concepts and strategies to instigate partnerships, initiate projects, and bring together creative teams Build the skills to anticipate changes within your field and adapt to new contexts and interdisciplinary opportunities Expand and connect your research in a critically engaged, supportive, and focused learning environment Connect environmental and societal impact with debates and issues in your chosen sector of the creative industries and research field Devise creative strategies to communicate your practice to diverse audiences via a range of platforms, formats, and opportunities for professional development Become familiar with creative leadership and collaborative working skills to support teams and deliver impactful projects What do creative directors do? Creative directors grow and maintain cultural relevance for organisations, clients, and partnerships. They work strategically and collaboratively to support an organisation's broader reach and positioning in the wider cultural landscape. As a creative director, you'll be responsible for defining and shaping creative briefs, and leading and collaborating on creative campaigns, projects, and touchpoints to engage diverse audiences. Industry insight You'll gain insight into the different facets of design and associated creative industries through activities, including guest lectures, collaboration, live projects, presentations, and feedback sessions. Your academic team are also active design practitioners who'll share their expertise through the modules you'll study. You'll receive regular feedback on your project work to contextualise your understanding and support you in enhancing your employability and opportunities for future work.
This module establishes design as a method of enquiry, introducing critical frameworks, design thinking, and iterative research to build on your prior knowledge and experience. Through individual and group activities, you'll explore methods such as fieldwork, participation, co-design, prototyping, and problem-solving, examining how design intersects with other disciplines and industries. You'll engage with historical and contemporary theories that inform design practice, developing a more reflexive, context-aware, and research-led approach. The module positions design as a space for agency, critical enquiry, and ongoing development. By the end of the module, you'll have defined a personalised direction of study, identifying key questions, methods, and areas of investigation that will underpin your postgraduate research and practice.
This module enables you to develop and realise ambitious design projects in response to complex, real-word challenges. Working individually or collaboratively, you'll define your own line of enquiry, applying advanced research, experimentation, and prototyping methods to test and refine your proposals. You'll extend your engagement with established and emerging technologies, processes, and interdisciplinary approaches, challenging conventional boundaries within design practice. Through sustained contextual research and critical reflection, you'll produce work that demonstrates a distinctive creative position and engages diverse audiences, users, and stakeholders. Projects developed within this module will contribute to a specialist body of work aligned with your professional aspirations. Outcomes may include practical projects, and process documentation, and critical writing, evidencing an advanced, research-driven approach to creative direction.
Expanded Practice is the culmination of your postgraduate study. You'll establish and realise a substantial self-directed project that synthesises your research, practice, and professional positioning. Your project will articulate a clearly defined research enquiry, demonstrating advanced engagement with relevant theories, histories, and contemporary issues. Through critical analysis and sustained development, you'll produce work that reflects methodological rigour, conceptual clarity, and informed decision-making. This module requires you to manage complexity independently, situating your practice within wider local and global contexts. You'll evaluate how your work operates within professional and cultural frameworks, positioning yourself within relevant communities of practice and identifying opportunities for engagement beyond the programme. Expanded Practice prepares you for professional leadership or further research by evidencing your ability to initiate, sustain, and communicate advanced creative enquiry with authority and purpose. Your final outcomes should demonstrate responsible decision-making in relation to resources, collaboration, participation, methodologies, and appropriate external engagement.
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