Creative Lighting for People and Places
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DES11138
)
Focusing on how light can shape people’s experience of interior and exterior spaces, this module gives you the opportunity to explore, develop, and critically evaluate creative lighting solutions. You will investigate the perception of light, the interaction of colour and movement, and how lighting can enhance mood, wellbeing, and atmosphere in a space.Through workshops, site visits, and input from industry experts, you will explore working with daylight, artificial light, and light–material interactions, testing your ideas to develop both technical skills and conceptual approaches at scale. You will also develop your own process to communicate your designs, using photography, sketching, drawing, or digital methods as appropriate. You will learn to calculate lighting levels and apply principles that support your creative decisions. Sustainability will be integrated into your approaches, encouraging you to consider responsible, innovative lighting solutions and design choices.Throughout the module, you will receive guidance and feedback on your experiments and design explorations, culminating in a lighting installation for either an interior or exterior public space that demonstrates your skills, creativity, and professional standards.
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Creative Research Portfolio Part 1
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DES11155
)
This module enables you to prepare the groundwork for an extensive individual research project that tests creative practice and design issues through primary and secondary research. Over the course of this module you will be supported through your management and preparation of a literature review. This module will enhance your ability to critically assess methodological applicability, research credibility, ethics and develop an understanding of research in and through creative practice and guide your management of a research project. The suitability of format and research content will be agreed between you and your tutor early in the module. This module is a standalone module that is related to Creative Research Portfolio Part 2 where you are expected to apply the methods discussed in Part 1.
Further information
Creative Research Portfolio Part 2
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DES11156
)
This module responds to work proposed in Creative Research Portfolio Part 1. This module enables you to prepare the groundwork for an extensive individual research project that tests creative practice and design issues through primary and secondary research. This module usually involves the delivery and evaluation of the research proposed in Creative Research Portfolio Part 1. This module is assessed through portfolio and is a rigorous demonstration and discussion of the work undertaken throughout the module. You will be guided through the delivery of your portfolio by an allocated supervisor.
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Design for Heritage and Culture
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DES11137
)
This is an interdisciplinary module that will require you to place your own subject specialism within the broad context of design for culture and heritage.Through this module you will develop your understanding of the core aspects of design for Heritage and Culture. User journeys, engagements, interactions and experiences will form the foundation of explorative studies where prototype designs will aim to change visitor relationship to heritage and culture. The module introduces you to a variety of design strategies used by designers to address thematically driven project briefs in a variety of physical contexts.Studio-based design projects form the core of the module. Within the projects you will critically explore current themes in areas of heritage and culture and you will look towards forecasting and designing for future potentialities. In developing design proposals, you are required to undertake thematic, contextual and material research and to illustrate how your design solutions provide for enhanced user experience and interaction in a defined heritage and cultural role.
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Light Art & Projection
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DES11122
)
You will apply principles of light art and projection to architectural and spatial design schemes. This will include the specification of hardware and software for light art installations and interpretation of proposed locations. You will consider human factors along with technical issues (installation, power supply, control schedules). Physical and CAD modelling will be used to prototype and communicate location and layout, and details for installation. Costing and budget constraints are also included.
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Live Projects
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DES11136
)
There are three ways in which you can engage with this module. You should select one approach:1) Edinburgh Napier University has sourced a number of work placements relevant to the MA Design Suite. These placements can be applied for through a competitive process involving the placement provider, and the Student Futures Team.2) You may already be working or volunteering in a role relevant to your degree and you may wish to use your ongoing employment (or volunteering) to complete the assessments for this module.3) You may want to pursue a new employment or volunteering opportunity once you have built up experience on the programme and decided where your interests lie. The programme staff, in conjunction with the Student Futures Team will support you in taking route 3).Through engaging in a work placement, or relevant voluntary work, related to your course you will explore the concepts, debates, policies, initiatives, and funding related to the area in which you will be working. You will also relate your work experiences to the academic content of your course and reflect on the value of your prior learning. You will undertake self-assessment and reflective and critical thinking will be a key part of your submissions.
Further information
Moving Image Design
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DES11140
)
This module enables you to explore, develop, and critically evaluate your creative practice in moving image and motion graphic design. You will work on an applied design brief to produce moving image content that communicates ideas effectively and enhances user experience for a defined audience.You will develop skills in concept generation, script and storyboard development, and animation or motion graphic techniques, applying industry-standard workflows and software to realise your ideas. Research into existing work and audience needs will inform your creative decisions, allowing you to experiment with visual style, pacing, and content strategy.Through guided workshops, tutorials, and independent research, you will plan, develop, and refine a cohesive moving image outcome. You will document your process, present work in progress, and reflect critically on creative choices, production methods, and the effectiveness of your final output.The module supports the development of transferable skills in research, project planning, visual storytelling, and critical reflection, equipping you for professional or freelance practice in moving image and related creative industries. By the end of the module, you will have produced a professional portfolio-ready outcome that demonstrates your ability to research, plan, realise, and communicate ideas in motion.
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Research and Entrepreneurship Projects
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DES11144
)
This module gives you the opportunity to explore and understand your own professional practice.Whilst engaged with the module you are encouraged to consider entrepreneurial practice. Projects and opportunities may arise from the ongoing practice and research within the university, or may be initiated by yourself. You will work to produce a professional online presence and/or portfolio detailing your professional abilities. Over the course of the module you will be introduced to entrepreneurial skills and encouraged to consider starting your own professional practice.Learning on the module will be demonstrated through a written reflective report where you will critically analyse and appraise your own work within the context of your own professional practice.
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Research as Critical Practice
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DES11143
)
This module is designed to develop the knowledge and skills required to undertake an advanced range of research methods appropriate to contemporary creative practice in design and lens media, from ethnography and interviews to phenomenology, collaborative methods and practice-based approaches . You will explore advanced research paradigms for creative practice which include critical, participative and performative-oriented research approaches and methods. You will develop and refine your skills in creative research methods, analysis of creative and practice-based research precedents, and critical and reflective interpretation of your projects. Using a wide range of primary and secondary sources you will learn to critically explore and evaluate design or lens media research practices. The module will cover research methods that will enable you to ask, learn, look and try things during the early exploratory stages of the creative process.
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Sketching in Hardware & Software
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DES11106
)
You will critically engage with sketching and prototyping for electronics and hardware with an introduction to microcontroller-based prototyping platform (e.g. arduino). You will work with electronics components: LED, resistor, potentiometer, switches, LDR, using breadboards, wiring, testing, debugging. Exploring the context and precedents from working practitioners, you will upload simple example programs onto target system.You will also engage with programming/sketching in software with an overview of design concepts: execution, code vs data, variables, programming language, edit-compile-execute-test cycle. You will build graphics programmes using suitable environment (e.g. Scratch or Design By Numbers, then Processing), and respond to syntax errors, run-time errors, debugging.
Further information
* These are indicative only and reflect the course structure in the current academic year. Some changes may occur between now and the time that you study.