We were the first Industrial/Product Design programme in the UK.

Since 1938, our lecturers & alumni have been responsible for many groundbreaking products such as the first laptop computer (Bill Moggeridge), the London Routemaster Bus (Douglas Scott), and the Apple iPhone (Daniele De Iuliis/Apple Industrial Design Group) amongst many other well-known products. We look to our graduates to carry on in this tradition, to innovate, to be questioning practitioners who understand the potential and the responsibilities implied by their contributions to the material world.

Design is about people

The outcomes of design need to meet the wants and needs of real people. Designers therefore, have to understand people and their behaviours before formulating a design response to their wants and needs.

We engage directly with industry

We work with the business world throughout the programme and we have strong links with many major enterprises including of late: Proctor & Gamble, Kodak, Body Shop, Panasonic, ICI, Coca-Cola, Samsonite, Artek, Samsung, Liberty, and Absolut amongst others.

We stay up to date with the shifting practices of design.

All of our design teaching staff are engaged in professional practice today.

Design is a process - not a thing

Product design is the practice of applying a specific process to particular contexts. Mastering this practice makes our graduates flexible, confident and creatively adventurous.

Learning is deepest when undertaken collectively

We believe in the intensity of the design studio as a forum for teaching and learning.

The incredible diversity of backgrounds brought to the student group enriches the learning experience.

BA (Honours) Product Design currently boasts some 38 nationalities aged 20-36, working together at the centre of the World's most cosmopolitan city.

London is an incredible creative resource - and we use it

The production of products is also the production of meanings, and both bring responsibilities for the designer.

Our graduates are well equipped for, and are expected to, question and justify their work's existence and purpose in the world.

The course runs for 90 weeks full time over three years, and is divided into three Levels, (or Stages) each lasting 30 weeks.

Product Design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design is externally recognised as a distinctive course within the UK, one where rigorous critical thinking develops creative practitioners who generate work that is highly diverse, creative and commercially relevant. The course gives you a clear framework for your personal development providing the intellectual, academic and subject-specific skills required for you to define your own professional practice in product design.

Stage 1

Stage One starts by building your subject knowledge and skills whilst introducing you to our brand of studio working and integrates you within our community of practice. Through a series of projects you focus on the acquisition and development of specific product design skills such as computing, 2D & 3D sketching, workshop skills in wood, metal, & plastics, knowledge of design for manufacture intellectual skills such as semiotics. The year finishes with a tour of London design studios to give you intimate insights into the breadth of practices naming themselves product design.

Stage 2 

Stage Two extends your skills and locates you in professional contexts through external briefs provided by industry. Here you get the opportunity to consider and plan your future as a practitioner and to take more responsibility for initiating and managing your own work.

Stage Three provides you with an extended opportunity to address your own agenda by through writing and design exploration. This is a great opportunity for you to bring together the creative, intellectual, entrepreneurial, and practical capacities you have developed in the previous two years and results in a product design outcome which is limited only by the time allocated and your own ambitions. The final year closes with a real-world scenario in which you are partnered with an external client to undertake a specific project. Absolut, Body Shop, Habitat, Kodak, Proctor & Gamble, & Samsung have been recent collaborators. This project provides a really useful springboard into professional design practice.

Main Study Practice comprises:

• Design Studies,
• Technical Studies
• Contextual Studies

Main Study Practice 

The course believes that to have validity a design must be clearly rooted within multiple contexts. These may be social, technological, market, manufacturing, and cultural contexts; and any resolved product design outcome must be capable of manufacture, either in batch or mass-produced volumes. The following should provide you with some insight into the rationale for each of these areas of study.

Design Studies

The ability to generate and translate ideas into resolved designs is a crucial capacity. Design Studies develops your creativity with idea generation and problem-solving methods and the drawing and presentation techniques, sketch and finished model making, project management, and verbal presentation skills that you will need to develop and communicate your designs.

Technical Studies

With reference to industrial contexts of batch and mass-production, Technical Studies enables you to gain an understanding of materials and processes, manufacturing methods, 2D and 3D CAD skills. It develops your ability to research and specify the components, materials and manufacturing processes, appropriate for any product design project.

Contextual Studies

Contextual Studies examines some of the key historical, theoretical, and social contexts from which products acquire meaning and in which product design practice operates. Crucially in our programme, it is taught in-studio alongside Design Studies to introduce ideas and thinking from radically different disciplines to inform and energise design projects.

Career prospects

Students leave with a broad and valuable understanding of product design practice in its many forms. The skills acquired enable graduates to become versatile practitioners in many exciting and diverse modes and international locations. Some progress their studies to postgraduate level on courses such as Central Saint Martins' MA Industrial Design.

Industry links

The course is committed to the embedding of external links in the programme. Recent projects with Proctor & Gamble, Absolut, Mathmos, Vtech, Panasonic, Vertu, and Liberty have been built as vehicles to fit the curriculum and meet the sponsoring company's objectives.

The programme also benefits from an incredibly cosmopolitan student population and uses this breadth to deepen the learning experience for the entire cohort by promoting peer learning via self-managed peer group sessions, a "buddy" scheme which brings students together to support each other, and in cultural exchange projects with international partners such as Musashino Art University, Tokyo, and Coca-Cola, Africa.

Minimum entry requirements

• Passes in 2 GCE A Levels (80 UCAS tariff points normally including one single award)
• Passes at GCSE level in 3 other subjects (grade C or above) or
• A Foundation Course in Art and Design
• Passes at GCSE level or equivalent in 5 subjects (grade C or above) or . A Foundation Course in Art and Design . A pass in 1 GCE A level
• Passes at GCSE level or equivalent in 4 subjects (grade C or above)

This educational level may be demonstrated by:

• Possession of the qualifications named above
• Possession of equivalent qualifications;
• Prior experiential learning, the outcome of which can be demonstrated to be equivalent to formal qualifications otherwise required, or; 
• A combination of formal qualifications and experiential learning which taken together can be demonstrated to be equivalent to formal qualifications otherwise required.

English language requirements

All classes are conducted in English. If English is not your first language you will be asked to provide evidence of your English language ability at enrolment. The standard English Language requirement for entry is IELTS 6.0. For further information visit: www.arts.ac.uk/languagecentre

Suitable candidates

We are not only looking for a passion for product design, but also for people open to new ideas, to informed risk-taking and to new challenges. Those willing to involve themselves collaboratively with the student group and with the different disciplines and practices informing product design.

Selection criteria

Applicants are selected according to their demonstration of potential and current ability to:

• work imaginatively and creatively in product and three dimensional design
  • engage with experimentation and invention
  • show imagination and ambition in your work
• demonstrate a range of skills and technical abilities
  • demonstrate a high level of visual awareness and
  • sensitivity to three-dimensional form
• provide evidence of intellectual enquiry within your work
  • show relevant research and critical reflection on your learning
  • demonstrate a passion for design and a fascination with ideas
• demonstrate cultural awareness and/or contextual framework of your work
  • demonstrate an awareness of historical and contemporary product design practices
  • identify social and/or cultural influences on your work
• articulate and communicate intentions clearly
  • discuss your work in individual and group situations
  • present your work appropriately and effectively
• demonstrate commitment and motivation in relation to the subject and the course
  • develop your own ideas and address project briefs
  • show willingness to collaborate
  • be informed about this course
  • demonstrate a mature outlook and high levels of self-motivation

Portfolio and interview advice

Your portfolio should demonstrate the following:

• design development, whether for a college project or in personal work, i.e. designs and design ideas that have originated through personal experience and visual research and progressed through logical stages to a finished design solution. This could be two-dimensional work or mae of 3-dimensional work, but not necessarily related to product design;
• the design work included should show creative thinking, initiative and personal commitment to a particular project; good drawing and design sketching skills.

Both in your portfolio and at the interview we are interested in you as an individual, your personal interests, your creativity and initiative in finding out about your proposed area of study. We would also like to know about your favourite designers and artists, where you have seen their work at first hand and how you have acquired more information about the work that interests you.

How to apply

Application should be made through the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) online at www.ucas.com. Go to 'Apply' from UCAS home page, where you will be able to register and create a password to provide you with unique access as you complete your application form online.

UCAS makes an administration charge of £21 for all applicants (the charge is £11 if you only apply for one course at one institution). UCAS also provides advice and information through electronic media on all aspects of access to Higher Education in the UK. More information can be found on the UCAS website

When to apply

For entry in October, you must apply by 15 January 2011. If you apply later than 15 January 2011 you will be treated as a late applicant and priority will be given to those who applied before the deadline.

Study Abroad

To apply, visit the Study Abroad area.