Program Overview

This course will push you outside your usual comfort zone and ask you to take creative risks. You will learn through playful experimentation and develop lateral-thinking strategies to approach problems from new perspectives. The course gradually moves from wide-ranging staff-led projects to a position of independence, culminating in a significant individual project in the final stage.

The ability to draw is one of an artist and designer’s most valuable tools— that is why drawing, in its many forms, underpins all course elements. Within this intensively creative environment, you’ll be helped to become more inventive and experimental. You will develop your understanding of the work of contemporary artists and designers, and the work developed by your peers.

You will be based at the University’s Vernon Street site and taught by experienced staff, including practising artists and designers, who have experience across a breadth of art and design disciplines. They will support you through the UCAS application process and help you find the most appropriate degree course. Our students’ diverse experience and innovative portfolios lead to a range of prestigious, highly competitive degree courses, including those at Leeds Arts University.

What You'll Study

Stage One – Based at the University’s Vernon Street site, the course begins with a range of short projects. These develop your understanding of art and design ‘languages’ through a wide range of media. You will also develop your technical knowledge across a range of processes.

Stage Two – Your work begins to follow a specialist path: Graphic Communication (which may include graphic design, comic and concept art, illustration, animation, creative advertising, photography, and filmmaking), Fine Art (which may include drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, and performance), Fashion & Textiles (which may include fashion or costume design, fashion branding, or textile design) or 3D Design (which may include product design, interior design, theatre design, design crafts, and architecture). You are encouraged to use a range of media and engage in one-to-one tutorials and group critiques.

Stage Three – You will undertake a ten-week project that you propose and time manage. The project forms the bulk of work you will exhibit at the End of Year Show. A programme of lectures, seminars, research, and reading will introduce you to the broad scope of art and design. You will develop an understanding of contemporary practice within your specialist pathway and compile a critical journal, preparing you for effective degree-course interviews.

Where Next?

Our students go on to study creative courses at the degree level and then on to careers across a wide range of disciplines. The nature of the course means that many make lifelong friends who become important members of their creative network. The course has a ‘family’ ethos and former students come back and visit to share their knowledge and experience with current students.