We are makers - with a sensitivity and understanding of materials, design and context.
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Overview
This course blends design principles with an innovative approach to process and material through hands-on making.
You will be given plenty of opportunities to gain professional experience over your three years at HCA, participating in live briefs, presenting your ideas and products to national and internationally recognised companies and crafts people within the sector and entering respected competitions designed for up-and-coming makers. You will also regularly take part in exhibitions, gaining valuable experience in industry.
We work collaboratively across a range of disciplines, creating the opportunity for exciting innovations. Empowering you as a maker to create sustainable, workable business models and prepare for a variety of post programme trajectories.
Insight from outstanding artists, designers & makers
Studio Morison
Jin Eui Kim
Lin Cheng
Emily Kidson
Verity Howard
Seetal Solanki
Gareth Neal
Jennifer Collier
Christina La Sala
Sheng Zhang
Katie Treggiden
Fritz Fryer
Make work that gets noticed
We support you to innovate within your practice and explore new technical skills and conceptual ideas that break new ground and make you stand out as a designer.
In the last few years, HCA students have been spotlighted in Crafts magazine and Dezeen as new talent, they have been selected as Green Grads and Creative Conscience changemakers and have scooped various awards at New Designers, the UK premier showcase for design grads.
92.05
In the 2023/2024 NSS Survey HCA students rated the teaching on their course at 92.05. This is significantly higher than the sector average and something we aim to continuously improve on.
NSS 2024
What you will learn
INVESTIGATIVE, EXPERIMENTAL AND ANALYTICAL
The first year focuses on providing a thorough grounding in technique together with research and exploration for interdisciplinary and mixed media design.
The programme is based around studio and workshop-based projects that encourage creative thinking, experimentation and becoming more articulate about design crafts.
Emphasis is placed upon the development of drawing, design and material skills. You will use personal visual research and learning journals to develop a reflective, analytical and evaluative approach to your practice.
ESTABLISHING PRACTICE
The second year of the programme encourages you to specialise in particular materials and processes.
You will gain greater knowledge of materials, combining traditional approaches with new technologies. Structured projects offer live and research-led projects as well as professional work experience opportunities.
RESOLUTION OF PRACTICE
This final year provides you with the intellectual and creative space to fully realise your creative ambition.
Emphasis is placed on students’ ability to evaluate and make informed choices when selecting techniques and processes, creating innovative outcomes. Your work will become increasingly self-directed, to a professional standard, as you produce a body of work for public exhibition.
The professional and entrepreneurial skills you need for a self-sustaining practice are embedded in the final year. Students participate in a series of business seminars, create a professional portfolio, and develop an online digital presence.
Workshops & Resources
Digital Design
Digital Design and Making is embedded into both curriculum and your practice. Offering the ability to test possibilities, accelerate iterations and resolve outcomes efficiently.
The use of digital tools allows makers to visualise, prototype and refine project work across a range of materials and processes in additive and subtractive manufacturing.
In the Queens workshop, you can explore and experiment with various materials and processes in a well-equipped space. The facilities include small metals, wood, cold casting, 3D printing, and MDF/Plywood laser cutting, as well as welders and jewellers' benches. You can learn techniques such as woodturning, steam bending, resin and Jesmonite casting, various welding processes, 3D printing, vinyl, and veneering.
The Queens workshop is divided into four zones: Metals (jewellery, silversmithing, machining, welding, fabrication), Woodwork (steam bending, lamination, woodturning), Cold Casting (silicone mold making, jesmonite, resin), and Digital Fabrication (scanning, laser cutting, 3D printing).
The Small Metals workshop has fully equipped communal and individual workspaces to practice your bench skills.
The workshop is equipped for a variety of specialist processes and has two larger silversmithing hearths. The walls are adorned with process samples for inspiration, and the space is overseen by highly skilled Technical Demonstrators.
Our textiles workshops provide an open and accessible space to explore print, dye, weave, knit, and mixed media surface design techniques. Focusing on sustainability and innovation, you’ll combine methods from across various disciplines, pushing your creative boundaries throughout your degree.
The technical support, along with academic and industry guidance, encourages you to develop an original, innovative design practice.
The Ceramics and Glass workshop offers an opportunity to explore the tactile nature of clay and the artistry of glass cutting, fusing and slumping. You can develop skills in slab building, slip casting, and throwing, either for conceptual art or commercial projects. Technical demonstrators are available to guide you through all processes.
The glaze room lets you explore glaze alchemy, from mixing recipes to applying them with dipping and spraying. With 10 kilns, including a glass kiln for fusing and slumping, achieve stunning results in your ceramic and glass projects.
The printmaking workshop offers you a huge range of print possibilities, including lino cutting, woodblock, letterpress, dry point, collagraph, etching, lithography, and screen printing. Use our 180-year-old Albion press and vintage wooden and metal type collection.
A dedicated art and design library carefully curated by knowledgeable librarians who will support you to access the materials in the collection.
Includes books and magazines from a comprehensive selection of creative disciplines, critical & cultural theory and specialist journals. Plus, study spaces and IT provision. A college hub and key workshop area.
Opened in 2024 our Digital Skills Centre is an alternative space to the Graphic and Media Design Studios to craft your designs.
Kitted out with new Macs and PCs, the area is staffed by Digital Demonstrators who also run weekly intro and How To classes on design software.
Our photography studios and darkroom facilities offer extensive opportunities to gain hands-on experience with both digital and traditional techniques. You will acquire invaluable skills ensuring you take superb photos of your creative process and final outcomes. Work alongside professional photographers and technical specialists to get outstanding images of your work.
My time at HCA was incredible, giving me the freedom to find my voice through my making.
I would say so often that I look forward to Mondays more than Friday.
Be part of a crafts resurgence that is committed to shaping a better future, rooted in material understanding. Participate in an ongoing dialogue between independent makers, designers and entrepreneurs, whilst advancing your skills within our specialist workshops.
With regular sessions in wood, metal, ceramic and textiles you will develop expertise in key making practices - and get the space, access and feedback you need to become a master of your craft.
A community you can make your own
As a student of The School of Materials and Design, you will be surrounded by likeminded creatives with a broad range of skills and knowledge. You will also have the benefit of a packed programme of visiting lecturers from around the world sharing their cutting-edge practice with HCA students on a regular basis.
You will get the opportunity to show your own work from the year one, building your confidence and your portfolio within a supported environment.
Your connection to the industry will be reinforced through HCA's active honorary fellows which include furniture designer John Makepeace OBE, materialist Seetal Solanki, Ceramicist Edmund de Waal and artist-designers Heather Peak and Ivan Morison (Studio Morison).
As part of your Contemporary Design Craft Degree, you will explore the interface of new and old technologies in the intellectual and creative context of an arts college.
We are at the forefront of education in multidisciplinary design, participating in a vibrant community of practice. You will have the unique opportunity to learn to use a wide range of materials and combine them with creative design skills and critical thinking.
In one day you can experience the materiality of Wood, Metal, Textile and Clay, and then switch to exploring design possibilities in our new £1m Digital Skills Centre.
You’ll discover design tools such as laser cutters, 3D printers and scanners and a professional suite of software to enable you to visualise, iterate and test outcomes quickly, and to convey your intention before bringing them to life back in the workshops. The next day you’ll be drawing and designing in your dedicated space in the design studio followed by an afternoon lecture or seminar that will hone your critical thinking skills through analysis, evaluation and debate, supported by our dedicated Art & Design library.
While studying for your degree, you will connect with the larger world, through visiting lectures and master classes, featuring nationally and globally known designers and artists.
You’ll have opportunities to network within the Contemporary Craft community, building connections that you can draw upon as you build your own practice. Those include independent designer-makers, national craft event organisers and gallery owners.
This course gives you the opportunity to build your influences and technical skills across disciplines, and opportunity to test and pursue those areas you enjoy most - in preparation for a fulfilling career as a designer, maker, artist or creative professional.
A robust and resilient creative practice is founded on the application of critical thinking skills, from idea development in the studio to process execution in the workshop.
During the course, your critical thinking will be honed through lectures, seminars and studio discussions. You will learn to enrich and contextualise your emerging practice through reflection on themes and processes in historical and contemporary making, and gain knowledge about cultural and critical theory. Through this, you will become equipped with skills in research, analysis and evaluation. The aim is for you to learn to express your ideas within your profession and in a way that is specifically relevant to you realising your authentic creative voice.
By graduation you will have identified your place in contemporary art practice and be able to articulate your position with clarity and confidence.
This is a course tailored to those people who like to think with their hands. You aren't assessed through exams, because the course is designed to mirror contemporary practice within the industry.
However the Contemporary Design Craft programme is designed to help you both find your voice and develop your skills.
Throughout your study will become adept at drawing on contextual research to enrich and inform your ideas. Historical and contemporary making will be analysed and scholarly ideas debated in studio and seminar sessions.
You will establish a practice of critical thinking, enabling you to identify your authentic individual creative practice and articulate it with confidence. Your abilities will be honed in the creation of your own body of work, the development of a dissertation, your participation in the annual degree show, and your involvement with creative industries’ events.
As part of the CDC degree programme you will:
1 / Learn multiple material disciplines
You are not asked to choose a specialism on Day One or in Year One or ever.
You will be able explore and access all the workshops throughout your time at HCA and develop a practice that is individual to you - whether you want to master a distinct craft, or explore a more interdisciplinary practice.
2/ Discover community
You will develop a strong peer network with highly-motivated students in the programme and in the arts college as a whole.
This is a dynamic atmosphere, with the opportunity to exchange ideas and collaborate across disciplines. HCA is located in a region known for outstanding making, and you will be working in a heartland of independent craftspeople.
3 / Connect with the design world
Connect with the wider world through visiting lectures and master classes, featuring nationally and globally known designers and artists.
You will have the opportunity to visit major design collections and events, both in the UK and abroad.
4 / Design the life you want to lead
On this course you will master design and creative process, develop your own voice and practice, learn to articulate your work through theoretical conversation.
You will build up a portfolio that will stand out by exhibiting your work, and developing networks with galleries and makers.
5 / Make an impact
Find your own path and learn to make a difference through making.
The impact you have through your work may be personal - shaping your own life - or tied to something bigger. Making can be a vehicle to explore and communicate social issues, from sustainability to representation, identity and accessibility.
UCAS Points: Applicants applying for September 2025 entry and beyond, should have achieved 96 – 112 UCAS Tariff Points or more. However, whilst qualifications are important, our offers are not solely based on academic results. We may make offers based on other evidence of talent and suitability for the course – for more details about UCAS Tariffs tariff explanation and advice on the UCAS website. We expect all applicants to have examples of their current creative work available for submission on request.
Mature students: Applications from mature students with relevant experience will also be considered.
If you are unsure or have any questions, please contact us at registry@hca.ac.uk and we can offer further advice on HCA and the UWTSD awarding body requirements.
You can apply to HCA by making us one of your options on your UCAS application. In some cases, such as with current students, student transfers and top-ups, we also accept direct applications.
We receive a high number of application all our subject areas so we recommend that you make your application as early as possible.
You can find out out everything you need about the application process using the link below. If you have any questions, just email registry@hca.ac.uk.
As soon as you apply, our Registry team will be in touch to let you know they have received your application. At this point they will also send out information on portfolios or auditions.
Portfolios and auditions are a chance for you to showcase yourself in a different way. They give us an idea of what excites you about the subject, and what you might want to explore further on the course.
We will send out guidance on how to submit your portfolio, or book and audition date, and if you have any questions you will always be able to reach out to us for assistance or clarification.
After submitting your portfolio online, your work will be reviewed by a course lead, and you will receive personal feedback alongside your offer.
Studying is an investment in yourself, and in your future. It’s important to understand the financial support that is available to you, and to be clear about any fees or funding associated with the course you want to study.
Follow the link below to visit our Fees and Funding pages. These pages are designed to help you plan for your future, so you can start your course with confidence in your financial situation.
Everyone’s personal circumstances are different. If you can’t find the information you need, our Student Finance team can offer additional advice.
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