This module gives you the opportunity to put into practice what you learned last term, focusing your ideas and ambitions and pursue an individual direction.   
Interdisciplinary dialogues set up in Semester 1 are continued through regular crits and project reviews with tutors and peers, engaging all students in critical discussion and sharing of knowledge.   

To build your portfolio, you have the opportunity to take part in live and industry projects, and you are encouraged to build a public profile for your practice or brand. These briefs will help you build an autonomous approach to independent enquiry-based projects that form the heart of the module. Through self-initiated projects you will develop your independent thinking, problem-solving and problem-setting skills, enabling you to show real engagement with current issues and critical or theoretical contexts that shape your field of practice. You will apply your subject knowledge, research skills and critical enquiry to propose an original inquiry-led project that responds to, or challenges, contemporary issues, situations and problems encountered on the course, engaging appropriate critical methodologies to identify a contemporary question or issue, in-so-doing focusing on a defined area of art or design practice as a ‘testing ground’ for your Independent Major Project next term.

The course provides you with a dedicated context to develop a bespoke strategy for your professional development, including applying for opportunities such as work experience, finding mentorships, residencies, or internships, helping you to develop industry contacts, build your CV, develop your creative portfolio, and to prepare you for work in a variety of roles in the cultural and creative industries, as well as establishing an independent art or design practice.   

Our collaboration with industry partner, Hearst UK, is a distinctive feature of the second term of the course. Through an initial series of industry-related talks, curated by Hearst, and open to all students, Hearst employees provide invaluable perspectives on employment in the post-pandemic creative industries. Then, each year sees a different department at Hearst setting a competitive creative brief, resulting in an invitation to our MA students to pitch their creative responses to the brief in one of the boardrooms at House of Hearst, in Central London. A panel of Hearst creatives selects their favourite responses, and the shortlisted students then progress to a second stage of scheme, during which they spend some time at Hearst. The final stage is the opportunity to apply for a paid internship at Hearst. Whilst the scheme is not a guarantee of further engagement with Hearst, previous students have gone on to further work experiences with Hearst across departments at Esquire, ELLE, Red, and ELLE Ukraine, Digital Spy, the Hearst Accreditation teams, as well as other departments. These experiences, and the perspectives arising from them, have helped previous students develop lasting professional contacts.  

Students may additionally identify their own limited period of work experience whilst on the course, during Study Block 2, which then forms the basis for the writing of a professional context report. This is also a means of developing working relationships with potential industry partners. For example, an MA student who recently developed a Professional Context report on the subject of NFTs and cryptocurrency used the experience to obtain a graphic design job at Wyre, a company providing crypto infrastructure for the New Economy.  

In addition, you will gain insight into industry through competitions, external projects and opportunity to engage in live briefs. Our art & design collaborations with the University of Cambridge provide unique opportunities for our students to engage with a range of opportunities to add this prestigious educational context to their CVs. Successful application to the Cambridge Creative Encounters scheme sees MA students receiving funding for developing art and design collaborations with University of Cambridge researchers. Our programme of Visiting Lecturers has included innovative professionals working across art and design, including Professor Timotheus Vermeulen; Futurologist Anne-Lise Kjaer; Inter-disciplinary fine artist, Alison Gibb; Elana Jeeaoo, Senior Visual Designer at Zoe; and Rifke Sadleir and Dan Baragwanath of DXR Zone, to name but a few. 

The course provides students with the experience and expertise to pursue career possibilities in the expanding creative industries and cultural sector in the UK and worldwide.  

Graduates of MA Art & Design have gone on to careers in magazine design and publishing; the Fine Art sector; freelance and in-house design positions; teaching and art and design education; fashion business and retail. 

Career advice is embedded throughout the programme. Teaching is provided by a team of experienced and industry-active staff and supported by Visiting Lecturers in practice and/or industry, working in the fields of art and design practice and education, fashion design, graphic design, digital media and communications, photography, illustration, fine art, curating and criticism, craft and product design and design research.