Entertainment Design - BA (Hons)
Currently viewing course to start in 2026/27 Entry.
We all want to be entertained — but what if you could be the one who designs the magic? From film sets to festivals, live events to immersive worlds, BA (Hons) Entertainment Design puts you centre stage in shaping unforgettable experiences.
- Level Undergraduate
- Study mode Full Time
- Award BA (Hons)
- Start date September 2026
- Fees View course fees
- Subject
- Location Margaret Street
This course is:
Open to International Students
Overview
Our BA (Hons) Entertainment Design course prepares you to work across the dynamic and fast-growing entertainment industry where creativity meets experience. The scope and opportunities in entertainment design are boundless. Whether it’s immersive theatre, theme parks, music festivals, museum exhibitions, escape rooms, film sets, interactive installations, brand activations, a live event or digital environment, entertainment designers are the creative minds behind the scenes who design the spaces, narratives, atmospheres, and interactions that bring all these experiences and more to life.
Rooted in a rich legacy of performance design at BCU, the BA (Hons) Entertainment Design degree builds on the decades of experience we have gained in creative practice while preparing you for where the industry is heading next. You’ll explore what entertainment can be, and how you can shape it.
What's covered in this course?
This is a doing course. You’ll design, prototype, make, test, present, and refine. Every module offers a balance between developing academic knowledge, building technical skills, and harnessing creative autonomy, so you can develop a practice that’s both grounded and ambitious.
You’ll work with the core principles of entertainment design — storytelling, space, figure, and audience — and learn how they interact to create impactful experiences. You’ll also develop your own direction through research, studio practice, collaboration, and critical reflection.
Throughout the course, you’ll engage with industry-informed briefs and real-world challenges using emerging tools and technologies, while also exploring sustainable design practices and the ethical use of AI to ensure your work is both innovative and responsible. Our affiliation with creative professionals ensures that you’re learning is relevant—and what you create makes you industry-ready. Informed by sector leading organisations such as the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Blackhurst and Co, Katapult, Scruffy Dog Creative Group, Digbeth Loc. Studios, and Boomtown Festival, you'll have the opportunity to gain invaluable exposure to the creative processes, expectations, and innovations driving the entertainment design industry.
Over the duration of the course you will:
- Explore the core principles of entertainment design: Storytelling, Space, Figure, and Audience.
- Design and realise immersive, live, and digital experiences across events, festivals, theatre, exhibitions, film and themed environments.
- Develop hands-on creative and technical skills in both analogue and digital making, including model-making, visualisation, and prototyping.
- Engage with real-world briefs and industry collaborations with organisations such as Boomtown, The RSC, Scruffy Dog, and more.
- Engage with critical thinking, sustainability, and the ethical use of emerging technologies including AI.
- Build a distinctive creative portfolio and professional identity, preparing you for employment or independent practice in a fast-moving industry.
Whether you're interested in designing and making for immersive live events, large scale production design, themed environments, interactive media, or something entirely your own, our aim is that you’ll graduate with the confidence, portfolio, and vision to shape the future of entertainment design.
The course provided insight into the vast scope of career options within the entertainment industry. Through completing a variety of projects, the course allowed me to zero in on my choice of career and then pushed me to start learning the necessary knowledge to succeed in that career. I developed many skills and gained a lot of practical knowledge throughout the course, whilst still enjoying every moment. I would highly recommend this course to anyone that strives for a job in the entertainment industry.
Connor Woodey – Senior Visual Effects Texture Artist, Cinesite
Why Choose Us?
-
Built with industry – co-designed with sector leading partners from across the breadth of the entertainment industry.
-
Legacy meets innovation – over 70 years of performance design expertise, reimagined for today’s entertainment industry.
-
Hands-on from day one – design, make, and create through real briefs and immersive studio projects.
-
Career-focused – gain professional skills, certifications, and a portfolio that opens doors across creative sectors.
-
Explore your path – shape your own direction with support for specialisms in live, digital, or immersive design.
-
Future-Ready Thinking – constantly evolving in response to new approaches, industry shifts, and emerging creative opportunities.
Open Days
Join us for an Open Day where you'll be able to learn about this course in detail, chat to students, explore our campus and tour accommodation.
Next Open Day: 15 November 2025
Entry Requirements
Essential requirements
112 UCAS Tariff points. Learn more about UCAS Tariff points.
As creativity is an important part of this course, you are expected to submit a portfolio as part of the selection process. This is your opportunity to show your ideas and skills to our tutors.
If you are not studying a creative subject at Level 3, you can still apply for this course. Our portfolio guidance information includes alternative options for how you can show us your passion for art.
If you have a qualification that is not listed, please contact us.
Fees & How to Apply
UK students
Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.
Award: BA (Hons)
Starting: Sep 2026
- Mode
- Duration
- Fees
- Full Time
- 3 years
- £9,535 in 2026/27
- Apply via UCAS
International students
Annual and modular tuition fees shown are applicable to the first year of study. The University reserves the right to increase fees for subsequent years of study in line with increases in inflation (capped at 5%) or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament. View fees for continuing students.
Award: BA (Hons)
Starting: Sep 2026
- Mode
- Duration
- Fees
- Full Time
- 3 years
- £18,570 in 2026/27
Guidance for UK students
UK students applying for most undergraduate degree courses in the UK will need to apply through UCAS.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is a UK organisation responsible for managing applications to university and college.
Applying through UCAS
- Register with UCAS
- Login to UCAS and complete your details
- Select your course and write a personal statement
- Get a reference
- Pay your application fee and submit your application
Guidance for International students
There are three ways to apply:
1) Direct to the University
You will need to complete our International Application Form and Equal Opportunities Form, and submit them together with scan copies of your original academic transcripts and certificates.
2) Through a country representative
Our in-country representatives can help you make your application and apply for a visa. They can also offer advice on travel, living in the UK and studying abroad.
3) Through UCAS
If you are applying for an undergraduate degree or a Higher National Diploma (HND), you can apply through the UK’s Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
You can request a printed form from your school or nearest British Council office. You will be charged for applying through UCAS. Birmingham City University’s UCAS code is B25 BCITY.
Portfolio guidance
If you receive an offer to study this course, you will be required to submit a portfolio. We ask that this is submitted within four weeks of receiving your offer.
Please see our portfolio guidance page for tips on putting your portfolio together.
Personal statement
The personal statement gives you a crucial opportunity to say why you’re applying and why the institution should accept you.
Here are the three areas you’ll need to address:
- Why do you want to study this course or subject?
Here’s where you explain what makes this course exciting to you. Think about your motivations for studying the course and your future plans. If you’re planning to take a year out, don't forget to give your reasons.
- How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
This is your chance to show what you’ve learned at school or college. You should include the skills and knowledge you’ve gained from education or training and how this will help you succeed in your chosen course.
- What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
Not everything you’ve learned comes from the classroom. Life experience counts too! You might want to talk about work experience, employment, or volunteering and how they’ve helped you develop the skills needed for your chosen course or future career.
Worried about Personal Statements?
If you've got no idea where to start or just want to check you're on the right track, we’ve got expert advice and real examples from our students to help you nail your personal statement. You can even download our ultimate personal statement guide for free.
Course in Depth
Year one
In order to complete this course you must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 120 credits)
In this module, you will begin your journey into the world of entertainment design by exploring the four foundational principles that will shape your entire degree: storytelling, space, figure, and audience. You’ll investigate how these principles operate across different entertainment contexts through research, observation, and hands-on experimentation. Each principle will be addressed individually through focused tasks and thematic exercises, allowing you to explore storytelling, space, figure, and audience in isolation before understanding how they interrelate.
In this module, you’ll build a hands-on understanding of how tools, techniques, and materials can be used to shape meaning in entertainment design. You’ll experiment with a range of analogue and digital processes—drawing, sculpting, modelling, fabrication, digital creation, and emerging tools such as artificial intelligence (AI)—so you can begin forming a personal toolkit of creative approaches.
This module is where things start to collide—in the best possible way. You’ll explore what happens when the four guiding principles of entertainment design—storytelling, space, figure, and audience—interact. Rather than treating these principles in isolation, you’ll experiment with how they combine, intersect, overlap, and even challenge each other.
This module invites you to pause, reflect, and ask an essential question: Who are you designing for, and why does it matter? As your first year in entertainment design progresses, you’ll begin to consider your own values, creative instincts, and areas of curiosity. This module is designed to help you step back from practice and investigate where your interests might be pointing you.
Year two
In order to complete this course you must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 100 credits)
In this module, you’ll build on your foundational understanding of the four core principles—storytelling, space, figure, and audience—by exploring how they work together to create meaningful experiences. This is where you begin to discover what makes an experience resonate emotionally, socially, or intellectually with an audience.
In this module, you’ll refine how you communicate your ideas—visually, verbally, digitally, and physically. As a designer in the entertainment industry, it’s not enough to have great ideas—you need to present them clearly, compellingly, and professionally to a variety of audiences, including clients, collaborators, and end users.
This module is designed to help you explore and clarify where your creative practice is heading. Building on your skills, experiences, and emerging interests from Level 4 and early Level 5, you’ll undertake a sustained enquiry into your personal design direction within the entertainment industry.
In order to complete this course you must successfully complete at least 20 credits from the following list of OPTIONAL modules:
This module provides an opportunity for you to apply your knowledge and skills to an external, professional brief. The brief will be ‘real’, set in negotiation with an external client/agency/community, or it may be a simulation, inspired by a typical professional scenario you might experience in a work situation. T
he brief will enable you to apply your discipline-specific skills broadly, collaborating with your fellow students and, where relevant, across disciplines and with other stakeholders. Your project should consider sustainability and address relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals as a key aspect of contemporary creative industries work.
Creative careers often lead individuals on unexpected journeys, traversing diverse paths. Recognizing and seizing opportunities becomes pivotal in shaping a fulfilling portfolio career—one that harnesses your creative abilities while sustaining your livelihood. Whether you’re crafting artistic artifacts, performing, providing services, or offering consultancy, the art of promoting and pitching ideas lies at the heart of an independent, entrepreneurial journey.
Central to this experience is a 70-hour work placement, which you can complete either in a concentrated block or spread out over the duration of the module. During this placement, you’ll have the opportunity to develop your professional attributes and subject-specific skills.
To align closely with real-world job market conditions, you should expect to prepare a current and relevant CV, attend interviews, conduct research to source your own placement.
Core modules are guaranteed to run. Optional modules will vary from year to year and the published list is indicative only.
Final Year
In order to complete this course you must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 120 credits)
In this module, you’ll take your technical, material, and creative skills to the next level by refining the tools and techniques that define your personal and professional design practice. This is your opportunity to push beyond what you already know, focusing on excellence, innovation, critical thinking, and synthesis.
In this module, you will develop the intellectual and creative foundation for your final major project, The Intersection: Resolved. It’s your opportunity to define, investigate, and articulate a personal line of enquiry that will shape the work you create in your final semester.
This is your final and most ambitious project—the culmination of your work across the course. In this module, you will produce a significant creative output that demonstrates your vision, values, and contribution to the future of entertainment design.
This project should be informed by the research, insights, and design direction developed in the Framing Direction module, enabling you to build on a strong foundation of contextual and conceptual understanding.
Download course specification
Download nowOn the BA (Hons) Entertainment Design course, learning is hands-on, collaborative, and rooted in real-world creative practice. You’ll work on live briefs, explore new tools, and test ideas through studio projects, workshops, and critical discussions. Each year builds your confidence, technical skill, and creative independence — preparing you for an exciting career in the entertainment industries.
Level 4: Explore and Experiment
Your first year is about discovery. You’ll be introduced to the core principles of storytelling, space, figure, and audience, and learn how they shape experience. You’ll work across media, materials, and methods — building foundational technical skills and learning through play, research, and experimentation. Projects will help you explore what entertainment design means and discover what excites you creatively.
Level 5: Deepen and Develop
In your second year, you’ll develop more ambitious responses to complex briefs. You’ll explore interdisciplinary collaboration, communication, and design thinking, responding to real-world challenges and industry-aligned opportunities. You’ll also complete a work placement or industry-focused project to help define your personal direction and understand the professional landscape.
Level 6: Refine and Realise
Your final year is about refinement, synthesis, and innovation. You’ll take creative and intellectual ownership of your work — developing a major self-directed project that reflects your interests, specialism, and aspirations. Alongside this, you’ll sharpen your professional presentation skills and articulate your place within the future of entertainment design.
Employability
Enhancing employability skills
From day one, BA (Hons) Entertainment Design is designed to prepare you for a career in a dynamic, competitive, and ever-evolving industry. Employability isn’t just an outcome of the course — it’s embedded in everything you do.
You’ll develop a wide range of transferable skills that are highly valued across the creative sector, including visual communication, storytelling, problem-solving, project management, collaboration, and critical thinking. Through practical modules and studio-based learning, you’ll also build strong technical skills in both analogue and digital making, giving you the confidence to design, prototype, present and realise your ideas to a professional standard.
Live briefs, industry-led projects, and collaborations with organisations give you insight into professional workflows, expectations, and emerging trends. These opportunities allow you to test your ideas in real-world contexts, receive constructive feedback, and build valuable industry contacts.
You’ll have the opportunity to undertake enhanced professional certifications and training, including Working at Height, Risk Assessment, and Manual Handling — skills that are highly regarded in production, theatre, events, and installation-based careers.
In your second year, you’ll complete a work placement or equivalent industry-engaged project, helping you to explore career pathways and apply your skills beyond the classroom. In your final year, you’ll develop a self-directed project that reflects your creative identity and is supported by a strong professional portfolio and personal design statement.
Whether your ambitions lie in themed attractions, film, festivals, exhibitions, digital media, or independent practice, you’ll graduate not only with a standout portfolio — but with the mindset, tools, and confidence to thrive in the entertainment design industries
Placements
At BA (Hons) Entertainment Design, we believe industry engagement should be active, not passive. Placement opportunities are not just about observation — they’re about participation, contribution, and growth. In your second year, you’ll have the option to choose a dedicated Work Placement module, offering focused, credit-bearing experience with professionals in your chosen field.
But real-world engagement doesn’t stop there. We actively embed industry touchpoints across all three years of the course — from live briefs and guest lectures to workshops, portfolio reviews, and collaborative projects. These encounters can be assessable or non-assessable but are always meaningful.
Whether you're shadowing a designer at a festival, helping realise a museum installation, or presenting ideas to creative studios, these experiences offer genuine insight into the professional world. They help you build networks, understand industry expectations, and develop the confidence and skills needed to transition into a creative career with impact.
Facilities & Staff
As a student on BA (Hons) Entertainment Design, you’ll be based at Margaret Street, the historic home of Birmingham School of Art. Here, you’ll have access to inspiring, light-filled studio spaces where you can design, experiment, and collaborate. You'll benefit from a vibrant creative community and specialist workshopssupporting analogue and digital processes — from woodworking, metalwork, and castingto3D printing and laser cutting.
Our on-site media and AV resources support photography, video, sound, and digital documentation — essential for capturing and presenting your work professionally. You’ll also have access to dedicated technicians helping you bring ambitious ideas to life through one-to-one guidance and technical support.
In addition, as a student within the Department of Art and Design, you’ll benefit from access to facilities across the wider School of Artsincluding those at Parkside such as digital studios, fabrication labs, and specialist software suites. This inter-campus flexibility gives you the freedom to explore, test, and expand your creative toolkit across a wide range of media and formats — supporting both your individual practice and professional development.
Our staff
Paul Barrett
Course Director/ Academic Lead
Paul Barrett has been the course director for BA Hons Design for Performance: Theatre, Film and Live Events since 2001. A practising scenographer, his professional credits include designs for large-scale theatre, small-scale outdoor touring productions, corporate events and festivals. He has many years’ experience as a freelance designer, company...
More about PaulHollie Wright
Senior Lecturer in Scenography
Hollie has a passion for immersive environments and dining experiences; having worked as a designer maker with experience in sculptural work and spatial design. Hollie’s professional credits span theatre, puppetry, and music festivals from Glastonbury and Download to 2000 Tree and Kendall Calling. Hollie has been lecturing on BA Hons Design for...
More about Hollie