Module: TD7003-30 - Marketing Skills

Level: 7

Credit Value: 30

Module Tutor: Anna Gravelle

Module Tutor Contact Details: a.gravelle@bathspa.ac.uk

1.Brief description and aims of module

The aim of this second studio module at Masters Level 7 is to advance your fashion and/or textile design practice in relation to becoming a professional in your chosen subject and/or industry.

You will begin to advance your studio practice by developing a contextual positioning underpinned by a greater understanding of the various professional considerations relevant to your chosen pathway. With a focus on product and context, you will need to significantly advance market research and planning skills, whilst continuing to develop broader research in a variety of forms including visual, material, and technical.

With an emphasis on marketing and business skills, the module therefore aims for you to develop your overall approach to your professional and creative aspirations, so that your research and practice lead you to establish a solid professional plan and product or career focus forwards.

At the end of the module you will present ideas, visual research, tests, designs and visualisations for fashion and/or textile design concepts. This will be supported by a comprehensive Marketing Report addressing all the issues pertinent to your chosen route in Fashion and/or Textiles.

2.Outline syllabus

The module will include seminars in Marketing and Business Skills, and independent studio practice (facilitated by tutorial guidance).

Students will communicate concepts, methods and contemporary thinking in group tutorials with peers and tutors, so that lines of enquiry have the opportunity to be explored and critiqued.

Students will outline an individually negotiated proposal of self­directed study, and will take an experimental approach to advancing fashion and/or textile techniques and the design process for a course work portfolio.

The module may include: presentations from industry professionals and/or research experts in the subject; and other opportunities to engage with industry. Studio space and specialist workshop facilities will provide the environment for planning and implementing tasks autonomously.

3.Teaching and learning activities

• Technical demonstrations where appropriate
• Self­directed project work
• Engagement with both hand and digital processes
• Active participation through seminars and peer learning
• Lecture series
• Group tutorials and critiques
• Independent study trips and gallery visits
• Personal presentation, display and documentation of work

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: A written Marketing Report (of no less than 3,500 words) which:
• Demonstrates an understanding of marketing and business skills
• Evidences robust research using appropriate methods of data collection and analysis
• Demonstrates a level of organisation, construction and research appropriate to marketing
• % Weighting: 50%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: Presentation of Product Development which:
• Demonstrates a level of creative/innovative thinking and problem solving evidenced in the work
• Chooses the appropriate presentation methods and actively engages in any discussion

This would typically include:

• A personal project brief
• Sketchbooks and/or other visual outcomes
• Visual research folders (including reflective annotations)
• Technical folders
• Reflective and evaluative process (journal, blog etc.)
• Experimental fashion designs and/or textile samples or other tutor negotiated outcomes
• Resolved and presented fashion designs and/or textile samples or other tutor negotiated outcomes
• Contextual visualisations of the intended market outcomes
• % Weighting: 50%