This module establishes design as a method of enquiry, introducing critical frameworks, design thinking, and iterative research to build on your prior knowledge and experience. Through individual and group activities, you'll explore methods such as fieldwork, participation, co-design, prototyping, and problem-solving, examining how design intersects with other disciplines and industries. You'll engage with historical and contemporary theories that inform design practice, developing a more reflexive, context-aware, and research-led approach. The module positions design as a space for agency, critical enquiry, and ongoing development. By the end of the module, you'll have defined a personalised direction of study, identifying key
questions, methods, and areas of investigation that will underpin your postgraduate research and practice.
This module enables you to develop and realise ambitious design projects in response to complex, real-word challenges. Working individually or collaboratively, you'll define your own line of enquiry, applying advanced research, experimentation, and prototyping methods to test and refine your proposals. You'll extend your engagement with established and emerging technologies, processes, and interdisciplinary approaches, challenging conventional boundaries within design practice. Through sustained contextual research and critical reflection, you'll produce work that demonstrates a distinctive creative position and engages diverse audiences, users, and stakeholders. Projects developed within this module will contribute to a specialist body of work aligned with your professional aspirations. Outcomes may include practical projects, and process documentation, and critical writing, evidencing an advanced, research-driven approach to creative direction.
Expanded Practice is the culmination of your postgraduate study. You'll establish and realise a substantial self-directed project that synthesises your research, practice, and professional positioning. Your project will articulate a clearly defined research enquiry, demonstrating advanced engagement with relevant theories, histories, and contemporary issues. Through critical analysis and sustained development, you'll produce work that reflects methodological rigour, conceptual clarity, and informed decision-making. This module requires you to manage complexity independently, situating your practice within wider local and global contexts. You'll evaluate how your work operates within professional and cultural frameworks, positioning yourself within relevant communities of practice and identifying opportunities for engagement beyond the programme. Expanded Practice prepares you for professional leadership or further research by evidencing your ability to initiate, sustain, and communicate advanced creative enquiry with authority and purpose. Your final outcomes should demonstrate responsible decision-making in relation to resources, collaboration, participation, methodologies, and appropriate external engagement.