Manchester Metropolitan University

MSc Product Design

This course is at the forefront of contemporary product design practices and brings together students from creative and technical backgrounds, to foster original approaches to the application of product design and design innovation. It supports you to explore and develop personal design methodologies and philosophies, and locate these within a deep understanding of historical, contemporary and future design practices, and wider social and cultural contexts.

You will undertake core modules, delivered by product design specialists, consisting of design theory and practice lectures, group seminars, individual tutorials, live external projects, and research study trips. Practical design development is supported by extensive hand and machine workshops for wood, metal, ceramics, glass and plastics, and digital workshops for laser cutting and large-scale CNC routing.

Optionality within modules facilitates innovative cross-disciplinary opportunities, supporting the development of collaborative working with students from across the wider postgraduate design community.

You will be able to explore and challenge all aspects of product design, embracing opportunities for innovation across markets and production levels, from one-off making and batch fabrication, to flexible digital manufacture and high-volume industrial production.

Your programme of study is managed through personal tutorials, developed in response to your individual creative and professional ambitions. The final Synthesis unit determines the postgraduate award, with the MSc reflecting work that has a more technically and functionally innovative focus, and the MA for work that addresses more materially creative or culturally focussed agendas.