AS and A Level

“Form follows func­tion - that has been misun­der­stood. Form and func­tion should be one, joined in a spir­itual union.”       Frank Lloyd Wright

Do you like to make things?  Do you have a sense of style?  Do you appre­ci­ate products that look good and work well?

A Level Product Design is an excit­ing oppor­tun­ity to develop prac­tical making skills and an under­stand­ing of design theory. However the demands of the subject should not be under-estimated. Students complet­ing this course success­fully will be skil­ful makers able to select and work with a wide range of graphic and resist­ant mater­i­als. However they will also have a broad under­stand­ing of design theory which includes elements of psycho­logy, philo­sophy, art, ICT, busi­ness stud­ies, chem­istry, phys­ics, history, maths and more.

Product Design aims to prepare students to live and work in a rapidly chan­ging tech­no­lo­gical world. The subject requires students to become inde­pend­ent and creat­ive prob­lem solv­ers, able to identify needs, wants and oppor­tun­it­ies and in response gener­ate original design propos­als. Students are required to design products to meet a commer­cial need and consider all aspects of the design and market­ing of their products. Design­ing for quant­ity produc­tion rather than one-off products is an import­ant aspect of the course. It is expec­ted that students will make full use of our excel­lent ICT facil­it­ies includ­ing CAD/CAM and graphic software.

Course Require­ments
To be success­ful at A level, students will need to be well motiv­ated, creat­ive and have a genu­ine interest in design. They must possess enquir­ing minds and the abil­ity to recog­nise poten­tial for new or improved products. They must have the abil­ity to research inde­pend­ently, to organ­ise, analyse and present their find­ings using a wide range of commu­nic­a­tion tech­niques. Students should have the skill and confid­ence to commu­nic­ate and develop design ideas in graphic form and through model­ling in a range of materials.

This A level course is inten­ded to develop skills acquired at GCSE, so those with no previ­ous exper­i­ence of the subject are likely to find the work extremely challenging.

Assess­ment

At AS

Unit 1 – PROD1 Mater­i­als, Compon­ents and Applic­a­tion
50% of AS, 25% of A Level - 2 hour writ­ten paper
In prepar­a­tion for a two-hour exam in June, students will study the follow­ing topics:
Mater­i­als and Compon­ents
Design and Market Influ­ences
Processes and Manufacture

Unit 2 – PROD2 Learn­ing Through Design­ing and Making
50% of AS, 25% of A Level - Course­work – approx 50 hours
This unit is a ‘design and make’ activ­ity. Students must identify a prob­lem or gap in the market and in response, design and make a 3D product includ­ing support­ing graph­ics, pack­aging and promo­tion. A design folder must be produced includ­ing evid­ence of research, analysis, idea gener­a­tion and devel­op­ment, plan­ning, test­ing and evaluation.

This unit is intern­ally assessed then reviewed by an external moder­ator using the follow­ing criteria:
Context and Object­ives.
Plan of Action and Clari­fic­a­tion of Prob­lem.
Devel­op­ment of Design Proposal.
Manu­fac­ture and Model­ling.
Conclu­sions, Eval­u­ations and Recom­mend­a­tions.
Commu­nic­a­tion and Presentation.

At A2

The A2 Qual­i­fic­a­tion is very similar in struc­ture to the AS. In the second year of the course students will under­take two further units

Unit 3 – PROD3 Design and Manu­fac­ture
This unit is taught as Unit 1 through theory lessons and also assessed by a 2 hour exam­in­a­tion and is worth 25% of the A Level.
Based primar­ily on Design and Manu­fac­ture and consist­ing of two sections
Candid­ates answer three ques­tions: one ques­tion from three in each section,plus a final ques­tion from either section.
Includes synop­tic assessment

Unit 4 – PROD4 Design and Making Prac­tice
This unit requires students to design and manu­fac­ture a commer­cially viable product  and is worth 25% of the A Level
Course­work – approx 60 hours
Writ­ten (or elec­tronic) design folder
Manu­fac­tured outcome
Candid­ates submit evid­ence of a simple, substan­tial design­ing and making activity

Specific­a­tion: AQA Design and Tech­no­logy  - Product Design: 3D Design AS 1551  A 2551
Click here to down­load a copy of the specific­a­tion for this subject.

Options after A Level Product Design
Upon success­ful comple­tion of this course students will have the capab­il­ity and confid­ence to produce designs and make proto­types using the same proced­ures and prin­ciples used in industry. It is a signi­fic­ant academic achieve­ment, provid­ing an excel­lent found­a­tion for further study. Students may choose to progress to Higher or Further Educa­tion courses in Product Design, but the course is also recog­nised by employ­ers, colleges and univer­sit­ies as good prepar­a­tion for subjects such as Art, Busi­ness, Manu­fac­tur­ing, Engin­eer­ing, Archi­tec­ture, Model-making or Graphic Design.