Curious about studying Textile Design with a Foundation Year - BA (Hons)at Birmingham City 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.
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
City Centre Campus (The Curzon Building)
Full Time
Sep 2027
4 Year
Textile Design explores the potential of fibres, yarns and processes to create cloth and materials with distinctive qualities and properties. It is a highly creative field with the potential to impact and enrich all aspects of our lives. Knowledge in this area is key in making informed choices that will reduce the environmental and social impact of products, and can be used artistically to raise awareness and inspire behavioural change. Our course nurtures fresh thinking and industry-ready designers and practitioners with expertise in the craftsmanship of Textile Design across the disciplines of Print, Weave, Knit, Embroidery and Material Innovation. The exciting potential of cross-disciplinary practice is supported and encouraged, giving you the option to either specialise or combine disciplines, embracing both digital technologies and traditional craft skills. The Foundation Year is an exciting step towards your chosen creative degree pathway. You will embark on a fun, creative year of discovery. An opportunity to innovate, experiment, develop craft and research skills, equipping your professional journey into the creative industries. We will support you to become part of the Birmingham City University’s Fashion & Textiles community, where you can fully explore yourself within an inclusive environment, amongst a likeminded and diverse peer group. Our bespoke course encompasses Fashion Design, Textile design, Fashion Business and Fashion Communication degree routes. Providing you a platform to collaborate, share and learn from others. You will develop visual communication, subject specific craft skills, and processes to build confidence and independence ready for the next stage of your degree. We aim to innovate, excite, engage, and challenge you. Inspiring and encouraging you to develop your personal aesthetic, offer sustainable awareness, and ignite a lifelong enthusiasm to learn. We are proud to see our foundation students continuing to thrive as they progress through the degree pathways and graduate as leaders within the industry. As you progress onto the degree programme, through experimentation in dedicated textile workshops equipped with cutting-edge industry facilities you will develop the specialist skills, knowledge and experiences required to thrive in a growing field of industry roles and opportunities. Creative play and problem-solving is at the heart of learning and you will be guided by passionate and experienced staff as you discover your own personal expression through the language of design – colour, pattern, surface, texture and im-age. Birmingham is a vibrant and multi-cultural city providing exposure to diverse perspectives and opportunities. Our inclusive creative community prioritises and celebrates individuality, empowering and supporting you to embrace and embed this within your practice. Career-focused teaching, industry live-briefs and integrated work-placements within the first two years of study will support you in identifying professional aspirations amongst the breadth of opportunities within textile design industry and other related fields. Choice points help you focus your experience and collaborative opportunities build your confidence and professionalism. You will develop a portfolio of responsible and future-thinking design concepts to drive the industry’s transition to a circular sustainable economy and build healthy communities. In your final year, you will have the autonomy to celebrate your individual practice and interests. Our Next Step module at the end bridges the gap between study and industry, helping you plan to achieve your ambitions within the support of your university network. You will graduate with a clear vision of where you personally fit in the industry and a tailored professional portfolio to get started.
As part of the fashion and textiles industries it is vital that you are able to utilise visual and written communication to convey a narrative. In this module you will learn about visual communication and specifically how it applies to these industries. You will learn key transferable skills that you can utilise in your degree pathways and in your future career.
Whether you are a fashion design, textile design, fashion business and promotion or fashion branding and communication student it is important that you understand the key construction and processing skills relevant to the Fashion and Textiles industry. In this module we will show you how these key skills inform your degree pathway and future career.
Trend forecasting is a global industry developed to research and formulate predictions to inform brands and retailers on what products should be designed and sold. This module you will focus on techniques and strategies for identifying, researching, and documenting trends, and how trend analysis can be used in professional practice. You will analyse what a trend is, exploring past, present, and future trends using a variety of sources. Researching an existing trend and communicate your findings.
This module will allow you to develop an understanding of how the world and lifestyles are changing, and how fashion and textiles respond to these changes. Through lectures and workshops, you will be introduced to a range of themes, discussion topics, exploring social and industrial changes, and their impact on society. You will develop skills and understanding of a fashion business through the set-up and development of a brand.
This module will allow you to plan, develop and deliver a project that draws on your own, personal creative strategies, it is your chance to show off a range of skills that embrace a plethora of ideas and concepts. This is an opportunity to showcase your personal design style and produce a body of work that will enhance your next steps onto your degree programme.
In this module you will explore the connections between the creative fashion and textile industries in the past, and how this informs present and future trends. You will be introduced to the way individuals have influenced culture, freedom of expression and experimentation, and how this pushes boundaries and explores identity. Through reflection you will analyse your research and the connections that you discover, developing core skills and communicating your findings and ideas through the use of industry-standard software. Shared content is delivered via blended learning, this is underpinned by your course-specific content which is delivered on campus.
The focus of this first Semester is experimenting with materials, processes and colour across the four key textile design areas, to build core skills and your awareness of the scope of our discipline. This module introduces you to the first two areas – Printed and Knitted textiles. Printed textiles tend to be more about image and surface qualities and Knitted textiles is more about yarn and construction. The contrasting experience will help you to discover where your strengths and interests lie.
This module continues to focus on experimentation with materials, processes and colour to build core skills and your awareness of the scope of our discipline. It introduces you to the other key approaches to textile design – Embroidery and Weave. Embroidery can be more about image, surface and textural qualities, and woven textiles is more about fibre, yarn and structure. As with the previous module, the contrasting experiences will help you to discover where your strengths and interests lie, whilst continuing to design with the world of fashion in mind.
The ability to put original ideas into an effective repeating pattern is core knowledge demanded by industry, and this module introduces you to the world of pattern creation, looking at compositional structures, theories, and the impact of colour, scale, rhythm and balance. There are a variety of textile-specialist software and equipment involved in textile design and production and digital technologies have a key role to play in reducing the resources involved in the sampling and development. Adobe Photoshop remains the key program for pattern creation. You will start the module by forming a personal concept and generating original, versatile imagery for pattern exploration. You will then test a range of compositional structures and problem-solve ideas using paper-based and digital approaches, including tablet-based drawing programs, Adobe Photoshop and AI.
Industry needs creative problem-solvers who can help implement sustainable design strategies that ensure that people and planet are considered equally alongside profit. For this module your starting point will be a tailored garment. You will begin by considering its likely production journey, undertaking research to explore its potential social and environmental impact. You will use a lifecycle approach and learn about systems-thinking to gain awareness of the complex nature of our industry and the different sectors that exist within it. You will also see that the decisions textile designers make can make a significant impact in minimising a products negative impact.
This level 5 undergraduate module is designed to equip students with the essential skills and knowledge necessary for a successful transition into the industry work placement and beyond. The module focuses on cultivating a deep understanding of professional practices, industry expectations, and personal development strategies. Through a combination of theoretical knowledge, practical exercises, case studies, and industry guest lectures, this module provides students with a solid foundation for their future careers empowering them to thrive in a competitive and dynamic industry landscape.
Level 5 is all about EXPLORATION. There are lots of exciting sectors, markets and job roles open to Textile Designers, each involving slightly different challenges, work requirements and skill sets. There is a demand for designers who can help drive change to build an industry that is sustainable and contributes to an inclusive and equitable society. This module focuses on Birmingham and the West Midlands offering a range of mini-briefs that simulates different design sector scenarios to help you begin to consider your place within industry and the contribution you can make.
Industry wants confident, informed, original thinkers who have the capacity to be both imaginative and pragmatic. What is your skill or what do you want to be known for? What have you been introduced to so far that you are curious to revisit and take further? What talent have you discovered that you want to nurture? In this module you will identify your strengths and interests to build distinctiveness and originality to your creative practice and portfolio.
This Level 6 undergraduate module is designed to further develop your research and inquiry skills within the context of the fashion and textile industry. You will undertake a range of research methods on a topic of personal interest. You will investigate and critically analyse the findings. You will be applying a reflective comment to the evidence to deepen your understanding of your field and considering real-world challenges in the industry. You will present conclusions and recommendations in a proposal that feed into an independent project.
Building on the research you have undertaken in the previous module, in this module you will write and execute a practical brief, one that enables you to immerse yourself in the materials, processes and approaches that make you shine and generates portfolio content that targets your career ambitions.
This module is about selecting and progressing key ideas from the portfolio of work presented in the previous module, undertaking focused design development to realise their potential as impactful resolved design statements. This may involve problem-solving aspects like: material sourcing, scale, composition, colour and application.
What now? What next? This module is the culmination of the research and design outputs of the last three modules and provides a supportive space to plan your transition between education and employment. In this module you will, strengthen your portfolio, build an online promotional presence and formulate an action plan, all designed to help you navigate the next step towards your career ambitions.
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