Looking to study Product Design

As title, but have no idea where to start! I'm pretty sure I want to go ahead and study Product Design, but how similar are the different courses to the AS/A2 course?

Aiming for ABB at A2, and am taking Product Design, Maths and Physics, with Photography that I'll drop after this year, and the courses I've looked at seem to be asking for BBB, but I may have been looking at worse unis/slightly wrong courses, as I said before, I'm completely lost :biggrin:

Any guidance as to what uni's I should be looking into, or general help would be brilliant

Reply 1

vicky_

2

It sort of depends on what route you want to go down, for example commercial or conceptual design, or industrial or model based? Once you figure that out you can find which course suits you, also some product design courses focus a lot on marketing, which from your A Levels may not be something you are particularly interested in.
If you are thinking more conceptual, you may be required to do an art foundation course, especially at universities with high applicant volumes.
Hope this is helpful, although I'm not at university yet, but have just done the whole application process and accepted offers and did a lot of research before I applied.

Reply 2

reviresco

9

Id go to Loughborough or Brunel and do product design and technology or industrial design and technology.

Reply 3

LosMutos

Could I do product design at uni with these a-levels; biology, chemistry, maths and computing?

Reply 4

vicky_

2

you would probably have to complete a foundation year, as you wouldn't have any material for a portfolio, which is the main part of your application

Reply 5

WillKail

OP

Cheers for the replies, I really don't know what form of design I want to do, but due to my maths and physics I suppose I should go more towards the calculations side rather than the art side. I had a quick look onto the Brunel website and couldn't find anything about needing a portfolio, it just says applicants need maths, physics and product design.

Reply 6

ac132

12

Brother is going to study it at Nottingham, with his insurance at Loughborough. Should look into those.

Reply 7

Cheshire_Cat

14

Original post by WillKail

Cheers for the replies, I really don't know what form of design I want to do, but due to my maths and physics I suppose I should go more towards the calculations side rather than the art side. I had a quick look onto the Brunel website and couldn't find anything about needing a portfolio, it just says applicants need maths, physics and product design.

If you're going for BSc Product Design then you probably won't need a portfolio that's why :smile:

Reply 8

WillKail

OP

Original post by pippa90

If you're going for BSc Product Design then you probably won't need a portfolio that's why :smile:

What are the differences between each of these courses then?
Sorry I'm being so vague, it doesn't help that there are about 10 different product design courses at each uni, with each one sounding near identical :tongue:

Reply 9

Cheshire_Cat

14

Original post by WillKail

What are the differences between each of these courses then?
Sorry I'm being so vague, it doesn't help that there are about 10 different product design courses at each uni, with each one sounding near identical :tongue:

10 different ones really? I do Interior Design and we have classes with BA Product and Furniture Design students but I'm not an expert :tongue:

From what I know, BSc will be more focused on the engineering of the product, developing well functioning products. Whereas BA would be less technical in it's engineering (although the degree is what you make of it really, but you wouldn't be expected to have great engineering knowledge), and it would have quite a focus on the form or look or the product. Obviously there's no point in creating a product which looks great but doesn't work, but BA is probably form over function a little bit, or at least balanced, whereas BSc is definately function over form.

Sorry if I've rambled on a bit but yeah that's what I know about it. Then again I've never properly looked into BSc Product Design as I'd prefer BA!

Reply 10

ac132

12

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/engineering/departments/m3/undergraduate/undergraduatecourses.aspx

you don't have to just do a BSc, there is also a BEng/MEng depending how long you want to be at uni.

Reply 11

WillKail

OP

Original post by pippa90

10 different ones really? I do Interior Design and we have classes with BA Product and Furniture Design students but I'm not an expert :tongue:

From what I know, BSc will be more focused on the engineering of the product, developing well functioning products. Whereas BA would be less technical in it's engineering (although the degree is what you make of it really, but you wouldn't be expected to have great engineering knowledge), and it would have quite a focus on the form or look or the product. Obviously there's no point in creating a product which looks great but doesn't work, but BA is probably form over function a little bit, or at least balanced, whereas BSc is definately function over form.

Sorry if I've rambled on a bit but yeah that's what I know about it. Then again I've never properly looked into BSc Product Design as I'd prefer BA!

OK maybe not 10 :wink:

Thanks muchly for all of your advice though, really appreciated :smile:

Reply 12

Cheshire_Cat

14

Original post by WillKail

OK maybe not 10 :wink:

Thanks muchly for all of your advice though, really appreciated :smile:

No worries :smile:

Hope you find the best course for you!

Reply 13

edlambeth

10

i do Product Design at lincoln, its a really good course with a broad range of design skills taught,
if you do not know what kind of deign you want to go into in the future that is fine, most of design is the same in the fundememntals of it.
design is usually all taught the same in the first year, with focus on drawing and 3d modelling, and 2d computer work,
these are the main things used within the design industry and the skills are all transfferable.

some places offer modules in level 2 to choose further what type of design you want to specialise in (if any) eg. furniture, interior, or straight product.

as for the differece between A level and degree, yes it is very different in the way design is taught and the way that it is marked and graded etc.

in alevel it is all set out like, research...draw some things... do more research.. develo...research more... final developments.. more research... and then a final project and presentation.
whereas in the industry nothing works like that, you may do some research then design, but the devlopment may come straight away, and you dont need to research those things, its much more fluid rather than in steps.

unis with good courses in product design are (and these are my own views, based on firends and experience and not official data)
lincoln (im a little biased :P )
nottingham Trent,
loughbrough
brunel

hope this helps, and any more questions just give me a shout

Reply 14

emeses

Product Design at Lincoln's awful, unless you're fine with finding yourself work to do and teaching yourself literally everything.

The tutors have probably told you that they teach you how to use software that all designers need to use for example Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign etc. This isn't true, I'm in second year and at the moment we don't even have a computer suite. We have to bring in our own laptops all year and the software they taught us in First Year was Maya which is an ANIMATION software and in no way useful to a Product Designer in the Industry. True it's good for visualization but that's what it's for, and animating. I haven't used it once this year so I have no idea what the point was, I hardly learnt anything anyway.

I wouldn't recommend it for Product Design at all, and I wouldn't recommend living in Lincoln either. If you wanna do it go to places like Brunel or Loughborough who have a name in the design world.

Looking to study Product Design

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