Grounded in contemporary design principles with a strong emphasis on sustainability and heritage, the HCA Textile Design course actively engages with emerging local industry partners to celebrate Herefordshire's rich rural traditions. Rethink and innovate the role of textiles in the context of today’s dynamic and evolving global landscape.
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Overview
Sustainability
At HCA, sustainability is at the heart of your learning experience. You will engage with eco-friendly practices, utilizing sustainable materials, inks, and pigments, while sourcing fibres from local farmers. You’ll address key issues, such as fast fashion and dye pollution, working with regenerative farmers and explore undervalued materials, like nettle fibres and British wool, to foster a positive environmental impact.
Tradition and Innovation
You will revive traditional textile techniques, including cordage and smocking, while also experimenting with modern innovations like 3D-printed knitwear and biomaterials. Our curriculum will guide you through a blend of classic practices, such as lace-making and haute couture embroidery, alongside cutting-edge textile applications, promoting a dynamic approach to material and technique exploration.
Professional Practice
By the time you complete your three year degree, you will be fully prepared for the industry, with practical skills and a comprehensive portfolio. You’ll receive support with CV writing, job applications, and interview preparation. Hands-on experience through local arts projects and partnerships with companies like Roger Oates and Flaxland will be integral to your journey. Work placements and opportunities to develop transferable skills will ensure you’re ready for a variety of career paths.
Facts and figures
RECENT INDUSTRY INSIGHT:
Anna Podlewska: Print Design // Anthropologie, Topshop, Roksanda
Isa Marie Cardin: Embroidery Design // Alexander McQueen, Hermès, Paris
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.
> Discover lesser-known artisan techniques like cordage, smocking and lace-making.
> Use textiles as a vehicle for interdisciplinary research into biomaterials or future textile applications
> Develop a deep understanding of more conscious textile production, from flaxland farming to the use of undervalued materials like nettle fibres and British wool
Design a career you will love
A degree in textiles unlocks a world of exciting career opportunities, whether you envision yourself in the textile industry, as a textile artist, or as an independent designer/maker. You can explore roles across fashion, interiors, research, trend analysis, product and automotive design, costume, conservation, journalism, teaching, and curation.
Our program equips you with versatile skills and personalized support to shape your career according to your ambitions. You’ll have the chance to compete in prestigious awards such as the Bradford Textiles Society DesignCompetition, Weavers Company Scholarship, The Shrewsbury Drapers Competition, Hand and Lock Prize for Embroidery, and The Batsford Prize, with many students achieving remarkable accolades.
Our graduates succeed at leading organizations like Jaguar Land Rover, Fine Cell Work, Domestika, Roger Oates, Cockpit Arts and Forseven, highlighting the diverse career options available. Recent alumni have also worked with the Chanel X King's Foundation Métiers d'Art Fellowship, with work featured in Vogue and Dezeen.
What you will learn
Participate in an intense year of guided technique testing and exploration with an introduction to the key textile disciplines of print, knit, weave and embellishment during the Practice Modules 1 and 2.
Broaden your array of textile technique knowledge through weekly taster workshops into less commonly explored skills such a spinning, bundle dyeing and shibori during the Skills 1 Module. Additionally, particate in our‘Skill Share Scheme’, where students are asked to introduce the group to a lesser-known textiles or visual art related skill.
Develop key visual research and abstract drawing methods through weekly ‘Research Skills Sessions’in collaboration with other college departments such as Illustration, Photography and Fine Art.
Improve your digital competency for design and professional presentation through weekly‘Digital Skills Sessions’
Collaborate with students from across the college and widen your creative network through our introductory Foundations For Learning Module.
Delve into the history of costume and textiles and understand the influence on current fashion and style during thePractice in Context 1 Module.
Build upon and deepen your creative design journey through exciting industry led design briefs as part of your Practice 3 and 4 Modules. Participate in projects relating to a variety of industry contexts such as CMF design, gallery installation and design studio contexts and continue to develop your digital and traditional skills.
Continue to broaden your skill set with an introduction to forgotten techniques such as lace-making, basket-weaving and natural dyes as part of the Skills 2 Module. Hone one skill to perfection during the ‘Deep Dive Project’.
Undertake work experience and prepare yourself for industry during the Professional Practice 1 Module. Participate in conferences and lecture series where you’ll hear from successful practising artists and designers.
Understand design analysis and theory in the Practice in Context 2 Module, allowing you to bring more meaning to your creative practice.
Develop your own personal style through self-led design briefs, allowing you to identify and define your own unique artistic trajectory in the Practice 5 Module.
With the support of academic and technical staff, reach your full creative potential whilst working towards yourFinal Major Projectin the Practice 6 Module.
Participate in a college-wide Degree Show attended by industry professionals as well as friends and family in a celebration of your creative achievements.
Produce an Extended Essay linking your creative practice and design theory as part of the Practice in Context 3 Module.
Consolidate your work and create professional marketing materials in the Professional Practice 2 Module.Leave Hereford College of Arts with an industry-ready tailored physical/digital portfolio in preparation for your creative career upon graduation.
Workshops & Resources
Individual studio space
The Textile Design studios provide you with a vibrant, open space where you can develop your creative practice over your three years on the course.
You will have your own individual workspace, which supports both your professional growth and a sense of community. This setup encourages conversation and collaboration, enriching your overall learning experience throughout the course.
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 open-plan textile workshop is equipped with single and double-bed knitting machines for you to explore both hand and machine knitting. Using domestic machines, you’ll create advanced technical samples with specialist yarns and sustainable dye processes. The space encourages you to combine technical skills, helping you advance your textile design practice.
Focusing on sustainability and natural dye techniques, you’ll explore industry-standard processes through innovative approaches to textile colouring. Combined with traditional pattern and forming methods, the dye workshop helps you develop a deep understanding of fibre, colour, and dyeing processes, enhancing your skills and creativity in textile design.
Our mixed media facilities allow you to explore hand and digital techniques such as embroidery, embellishment, pleating, and smocking.
Emphasizing the use of innovative materials, the course combines traditional processes with experimental equipment like laser cutting, 3D printing, casting, and embossing, encouraging your creativity and technical exploration in textile design.
The textiles workshops offer you comprehensive equipment and expertise throughout the course. You’ll have access to 5-meter print tables for traditional repeat printing, screen exposure, pigment development, and specialist surface effects.
Designed to support experimentation and professional-level technical development, these workshops help enhance your skills and creativity across all aspects of textile design.
The textiles weave facility gives you a dedicated space with both digital and manual looms. Focusing on sustainable and regenerative design, you’ll gain in-depth knowledge of weave technology, fibre identification, and yarn spinning.
You will explore traditional fibre development to create sustainable and innovative textile designs, all while focusing on the future of the textile industry.
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.
The textile workshop’s digital print facility offers you an affordable, hands-on approach to fabric printing on various fibres, supporting a commercially focused design path. As a key aspect of the contemporary textile industry, you’ll refine your digital design skills with expert support, enhancing your creativity and professional practice.
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. Techniques you can learn include woodturning, steam bending, resin and Jesmonite casting, various welding processes, 3D printing, vinyl, and veneering. Skilled Technical Demonstrators support your learning, ensuring a comprehensive experience.
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).
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.
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.
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 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 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.
HCA was great for building my confidence as a creative person.
Since it is smaller than most unis, you get a lot more 1-1 time with tutors and technical demonstrators, and you have a lot more chances to ask questions and delve deeper.
Rose Hutton, BA(Hons) Textile Design, Shrewsbury Drapers Award winner
At HCA I was able to freely explore all my passions while building a portfolio.
Under guidance from tutors, I was encouraged to be brave and take risks while also learning how to curate and analyse my work. It gave. me building blocks to follow to create a body of work, which I still follow to this day in my practice as a designer-maker.
Milly Morgan
At HCA, textiles is great because we are encouraged as individuals to explore our own creativity and develop our own unique style.
They encourage us to look at things differently also smaller group sizes are brilliant and the tutors are so helpful and inspiring.
Amy Roberts, BA(hons) Textile Design
In your journey through the HCA Textile Design course, you’ll thrive in small, close-knit groups where you are valued as an individual and can make a real impact. Weekly one-to-one tutorials with your tutors will give you tailored support and in-depth guidance, helping you shape your unique design path.
Dive into a vibrant mix of workshops, activities, and trips that offer a hands-on, immersive learning experience. Embrace a mixed media approach by combining various textile techniques and incorporating skills from ceramics, metalwork, and photography.
Collaborate with students from the School of Material and Design to broaden your design horizons and seize unique opportunities for creative partnerships. Benefit from industry collaborations, work experience opportunities, and portfolio preparation that ensure you’re industry-ready upon graduation.
We’ll encourage you to be brave, creative, and independent, equipping you with the resilience to forge your own path and design the life you aspire to lead.
One to one weekly tutorials
Professional Practice modules 1 and 2 with Professional Practice Conferences, careers fairs and real-wrold industry briefs
Unlike many Textiles courses where you are required to specialise, at HCA we encourage you to mix techniques across print, knit, weave, embroidery and mixed media and give you the space and time to Explore lesser-known techniques.
Support crafting a unique portfolio. The individuality of your profile to make you stand out when you graduate.
Our ethos as an institution is about preparing you to be industry-ready but putting the focus on creativity.
Small group teaching enables staff to provide tailored, high quality feedback and shape sessions around the group
We encourage students to absorb themselves in as much culture and creativity as possible. We challenge you to find your own inspiration, and bring it into the building - not to rely on a house style.
Rurally located, but deeply connected to the global design world; you’ll immerse yourself in a dynamic learning environment that blends local tradition with international trends. You’ll gain experience showcasing your work, both online and in major exhibitions like New Designers in London, the Cheltenham Crafts Festival, and the London Design Festival.
You’ll learn how to leverage social media to boost your design practice and build your digital presence. Engage with leading textile practitioners from across the globe, including experts from France, Switzerland and Belgium. Recent talks have featured notable figures like goldwork specialist Hannah Mansfield, nettle fibres expert Nyrees Titchener, and 3D weave innovator Sophie Zajicek.
You’ll work on live briefs with prestigious companies such as Dash + Miller, Sage Automotive Interiors, and local luxury brand Roger Oates. Additionally, you’ll go on international trips to Paris and Copenhagen, and explore UK cities like Oxford, Bristol, and Birmingham; all designed to expand your creative vision and professional network.
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.
A comprehensive array of hand and digital looms
Advanced digital, screen, and sublimation printing facilities
Diverse knitting equipment, including domestic machines, chunky gauges, double beds, linkers, and ribbers
Extensive hand and machine stitching and embroidery resources, featuring sewing machines, overlockers, embellishers, pleaters, embroidery frames, and tambour hooks
A dedicated dye lab for both natural and synthetic dyeing
Yarn-making, carding, and spinning equipment
Needle punch and tufting guns
Cutting-edge laser and vinyl cutting machinery
State-of-the-art 3D printers and scanners
Full access to 3D workshops for metalwork, woodwork, ceramics, vacuum forming, jesmonite, and casting
Access to professional-grade photography equipment, studios, and darkroom facilities
Access to Fine Art printing resources, including lino-cut, etching, and risograph printing
New £1m digital PC and MAC suites equipped with Adobe Creative Suite and additional specialist software
A community you can make your own
Our vibrant, close-knit community offers a unique, family-like atmosphere, where mutual support thrives. As a member of the School of Materials and Design, you’ll immerse yourself in shared teaching that broadens your creative horizons and sparks exciting collaborations. Dive into a dynamic calendar of events, from the CMYK Print and Illustration Festival to Fashion Revolution Week, Sustainability Fortnight, and Colour Month. With countless local, national, and international trips, as well as engaging social events - you’ll experience a rich tapestry of opportunities that ignite inspiration and foster a strong sense of community.
Applying to HCA
Minimum age 18.
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.
Monday 23rd September 2024 – Friday 27th September 2024
Term
Semester 1
Dates (2024 - 2025)
Monday 30th September 2024 – Friday 13th December 2024, Tuesday 7th January 2025 – Friday 31st January 2025, Monday 3rd February 2025 – Friday 7th February 2025 (Research Week)
Term
Semester 2
Dates (2024 - 2025)
Monday 10th February 2025 – Friday 11th April 2025, Monday 28th April 2024 – Friday 13th June 2025
Term
Dates (2024 - 2025)
Enrolment
Monday 23rd September 2024 – Friday 27th September 2024
Semester 1
Monday 30th September 2024 – Friday 13th December 2024, Tuesday 7th January 2025 – Friday 31st January 2025, Monday 3rd February 2025 – Friday 7th February 2025 (Research Week)
Semester 2
Monday 10th February 2025 – Friday 11th April 2025, Monday 28th April 2024 – Friday 13th June 2025
Your degree
All undergraduate degrees at HCA are validated by University of Wales Trinity St David.
You can view a detailed breakdown of the course content in the Key Information Document.
This can be downloaded below.
How to apply
Everything you need to know about applying to HCA - and starting the next stage of your journey as an artist
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