Textile Design

What is textile design?

Textile design incorporates surface pattern and constructed textiles; these areas then lead onto designing items including wallpaper, stationery, fabrics, garments and accessories.

What will I study?

Drawing is an essential part of the design process and students are encouraged to develop their own style. The emphasis of the course is to creatively explore a wide range of textile techniques to then put these ideas into context, for example making a range of elaborate notebooks or creating garments to then undertake a fashion shoot. Techniques that you will be taught include screen printing, heat transfer, fabric manipulation, weaving, hand and machine stitch. The opportunities are endless as you will really be encouraged to write your own briefs and develop your ideas with one-to-one tutorial input as well as class demonstrations. During the first year of the course you will complete self initiated coursework projects which allow you gain fundamental design skills. The emphasis is on designing and creating the surface pattern of fabrics, and will include: drawing for design; surface pattern design; colour theory and mixing; fabric printing techniques; dying; putting work into context and your presentation skills. The fabrics created can be used for fashion and garments, interior design, ‘fine art’ textiles, or surface pattern design for a range of applications.

In the second year, the course is more challenging and you are required to develop your skills to a higher level: projects will be based on individual interests; written work will support practical and design work; opportunity to develop and refine skills learnt throughout the course. Your progress will be monitored regularly. Feedback takes the form of group discussions and one-to-one consultations with your tutor. You will be given the opportunity to assess your own performance and to discuss and set future learning targets with your tutor. You are assessed on your ability to develop ideas, experiment with media and materials. Marks are also awarded for how you record your work, and present your work and final outcomes. There is no written exam.

Assessments

Assessments take the format of interim assessments  approximately every 5 weeks with written and verbal feedback. In the first year it is about experimentation and none of this work has to go towards the A level. There are 2 components in the second year that are added together to make the grade,  Component 1’s final mark is given in January of the second year and is 60% of the grade. Then for Component 2 you are given topics by the exam board to respond to and the final mark for this is given in May of the second year.  Alongside this there are one to one tutorials throughout the course.

Trips, visits and enrichments:

Visit to the New Designers in London

Students are encouraged to visit exhibitions

Students develop invaluable presentation skills

What can it lead to?

Typically around 70 % of A level Textiles students go on to study some form of design at HE. Some of our students opt to progress to an Art Foundation course, but many go directly to university to study subjects such as Textile Design or Surface Pattern Design, Theatre Design, Costume, Design for Interiors, Fashion Design, Buying, Marketing, Brand Management, Fashion Journalism, Fashion Photography, or Styling and Visual Merchandising. Students progress to a range of institutions, including: Nottingham Trent, De Montfort, Loughborough, Falmouth, Central Saint Martins, London College of Fashion and Ravensbourne.