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Best uni for furniture design?

Hello I am planning to study furniture design in England and I've been looking at 3D Design course from Brighton and Northumbria. What would you say are the best universities outside London to study furniture design at? Cheers :^_^:

Reply 1

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by vanng

I can't comment from direct experience but some of the universities mentioned in https://www.chatsworth.org/docs/default-source/education-documents/myc-teachers'-pack-webb95fdc944719450daa43c37e374d0029.pdf would be worth a look (it was a wonderful exhibition :smile:

and a number of the pieces were purchased by Chatsworth so they're still on display) [MMU, LCA, RCA, Sheffield Hallam, Brighton)

Reply 2

vanng

Original post by PQ

and a number of the pieces were purchased by Chatsworth so they're still on display) [MMU, LCA, RCA, Sheffield Hallam, Brighton)

Thank you

Reply 3

roy.tam

Original post by vanng

Thank you

Hi Vanng,

As a furniture designer maker and lecturer, I hope I can help.

To choose a course, I am going to start with careers. There are 3 main strands of furniture careers, roughly divided into fine furniture, contract furniture and designer makers.

Fine furniture involves mostly serious one-off commissions, and tend to be wood experts. Designers in this sector include John Makepeace, Joseph Walsh and Matthew Burt. Rycotewood (at Oxford Brookes) and Build Crafts College (London) are the most notable courses.

Contract Furniture tend to involve large batch produced reception, conference and cafe furniture. Companies in this sector are Vitra, SCP, Modus, Channels. They sometimes commission work from famous designers, and deal with making and selling it for them. Notable courses include Kingston, Nottingham Trent and Northumbria, and tend to be Product Design led.

Designer Maker furniture are made in small batches, more domestic, more suited to the Conran Shop than Ikea. You can set up your own business, and sell online too. Thomas Heatherwick was trained in 3D Design at MMU. Some other designer makers include Jethro Macey, Sebastian Cox, Nick Fraser, .... you should look up the London Design Festival. A quick look at 3D Design courses on the UCAS site that I admire include Brighton, Bath Spa, Camberwell, MMU, Northumbria, Nottingham Trent and where I am at Plymouth.

Another consideration is whether a course is run from a faculty of Arts or faculty of Engineering, as their approach to creativity vs problem-solving are different.

Finally, some courses allow you to be more hands-on than others, so you must visit and talk to current students.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your journey.

Roy