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Postgraduate

MA Fashion Media and Communication

Digital installation showing student work across multiple screens.
Digital installation for the LCF2021 Summer Show at Victoria House | London College of Fashion | University of Arts London | Photography by Ana Blumenkron
College
London College of Fashion
Start date
September 2023
Course length
15 months

Our dynamic, practice-based course has been created to produce leaders in the field of fashion media and communication. Students will engage with new and emerging technologies to envision, plan and design fashion environments, experiences, events and installations.

Innovation is central to the course, and graduates will be equipped with the skills, methods and professional confidence to push boundaries and forge new ways of working in the creative industries.

Applications closed 2023/24

We are no longer accepting applications for 2023/24 entry to this course.

Visit the Courses with places available page for a full list of UAL courses that are open for application.

Why choose this course at London College of Fashion

  • Emerging discipline: Students focus on new creative disciplines that develop their critical, creative and technical skills, empowering them to shape the future of fashion, through the design of media and communication experiences.
  • Practice-led: Benefit from collaborative studio practice and technical workshops to gain relevant, practical experience. Graduates will be well equipped to work with practitioners and specialists from the creative industries.
  • New media: Critically engage with emerging technologies including virtual reality, artificial intelligence, digital platforms and augmented reality. As well as developing concepts and prototypes, students will critique ethical issues around these platforms.
  • Industry projects: Students will have the opportunity to work with industry partners on live projects in media and communication design, where they’ll work collaboratively to deliver a strategic proposal for a real-world brief.
  • Collaborate: Collaboration is core to the course, and students will work together, as well as with our pioneering research centres and labs, to further develop their skills and strengthen their critical capacities.

Open day

The next Virtual Open Event for this course will take place on Thursday 2 November. Book your place.

Course overview

MA Fashion Media and Communication is a ground-breaking practice-based course that challenges the sector and seeks to develop agile, innovative, creative leaders for emerging and future roles in industry.  

This dynamic course is radically transdisciplinary in its approach to the creating and learning process. Here, existing disciplinary boundaries are traversed and different areas of practice come together to form emergent disciplines and build new models of making that are native to the project at hand and the present now in which they arise. 

As a course that is actively future-focused it is aimed at those who want to disrupt existing approaches to fashion media and communication. Through design thinking, prototyping and entrepreneurship you will craft innovative and agile creative practices equipped and able to intervene in the challenges of our times to facilitate meaningful change.  

You will explore the opportunities offered by emerging and advanced technologies for the envisioning, planning and design of extended reality environments and experiences. This includes investigating AI, gaming and platform systems, hybridised fashion experiences, community building and curatorial interventions, as well as strategic and speculative initiatives.  As the rate of technological, social, and climate change continues to intensify, the demand for design professionals with technical, creative, critical and agile skillsets has never been greater. 

Positioned at the intersection of this new paradigm, MA Fashion Media and Communication furnishes you with the skills, methods and professional confidence to push boundaries and innovate approaches to creative practice. Working with LCF’s pioneering research centres and creative labs you will engage with an expansive range of media, methods and contexts. In addition to developing the creative, technical and soft skills, you will strengthen your critical capacities through practice. You will learn contemporary organisational and workflow methods such as project management, system logistics and social engagement.

The MA comprises three sequential stages – Explore, Situate, Integrate – and a series of distinct practice-based units that blend individual and group work through a combination of rapid ‘sprint’ briefs and in-depth investigations. You will engage with diverse theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches that inform and enrich experiential design thinking and practice. Through a range of methods and approaches, the course is designed to guide you towards an individual critical position, informing your future transdisciplinary design practice. 

On graduation you will work in emerging fields such as experiential design, creative direction, organisation design, community management, design research and innovation, design insight, strategy and futurology.

Climate, Social and Racial Justice 

We are committed to ensuring that your skills are set within an ethical framework and are working to embed UAL’s Principles for Climate, Social and Racial Justice into the course.    

Course units

Stage 1: Explore  

Stage 1 commences with a two-day summit, consisting of reading seminars, guest expert lectures, and group discussions. The summit will provide the conceptual and theoretical foundation for the course and kick starts the stage’s key themes for the practice-led units that follow. 

Unit 1: Collaborative Challenge (20 credits) *  

This unit is designed to enable you to innovate, engage in developmental processes and participate in collaborative working practices. You will be encouraged to develop the professional negotiating and networking skills that will be needed to be successful in the cultural and creative industries. The nature of this collaboration may be within the course, with students on other courses, with research centres such as the Digital Anthropology Lab, or with industry.  

Unit 2: Prototyping Practices (20 credits) 

Led by the key conceptual themes developed in the Stage 1 ‘Explore’ summit, and with a focus on the body, this unit will explore current design making methods, present-day digital media and communication discourse, and sensory-based technologies within the context of contemporary fashion media and communication practices. The unit is structured around a set of short ‘sprint’ assignments undertaken both collaboratively and independently in class and through independent creative practice. You will initiate a series of iterative and process-led prototypes that will investigate the potential use of emerging ‘extended reality’ technologies within a fashion media and communication context.

Unit 3: Experiential Ecologies (20 credits) 

With a focus on the convergence of digital and physical environments, this unit will explore the transdisciplinary development of hybrid fashion experiences. The unit will introduce you to contemporary co-design methods and processes, as well as essential ideation, organisational and community management skills that are necessary for building complex omnichannel experiences. Over the course of the unit, you will develop a hands-on and reflective understanding of the dynamics of working within a multidisciplinary creative team as you explore how community-driven platforms, multi-player gaming environments, and physical interactions can be used to create richly textured fashion experiences. Working in small groups, you will develop a design concept for a hybrid fashion experience as well as critically situate it within a broader socio-technological context.   

Stage 2: Situate 

Stage 2 commences with a two-day summit, consisting of reading seminars, guest expert lectures, and group discussions. The summit will build on the conceptual and theoretical foundation established in stage 1 by situating it within a broader socio-technological and climate context that will define stage 2’s research and practice-based units.

Unit 4: Research Proposal (20 credits) *  

This unit introduces you to a range of research methods, approaches and tools that are available to you in order to conduct your post graduate project. The unit will cover philosophy and ethics in research, primary and secondary research methods, including quantitative, qualitative, visual and practice research methods. The unit will consider research in a range of contexts relevant to the cultural and creative industries and enable you to understand the relationship between theory and practice. 
 
Unit 5: Emergent Futures (40 credits)

Led by the key conceptual themes developed in the Stage 2 ‘Situate’ summit, this unit focuses on systemic transformation and thought leadership. On this unit you will explore the potential roles fashion media and communication could play in response to present and near future planetary scale environmental, social, and technological challenges.  

You will be introduced to insight generation, strategic thinking, and speculative design as well as system technologies such as machine learning, the blockchain and biotech. Through a series of rapid sprints, and working in small groups, you will develop and present an insight report that addresses a real-world issue by responding to the potential implications of social, technological and environmental drivers. You will then produce and present a speculative design outcome that offers a compelling vison of an alternative future and will operate as a projective model of how to conceive and initiate systemic transformation within a fashion media and communication context. 
 

Stage 3: Integrate 
  
Unit 6: The Masters’ Project (60 credits)* 
 

The Masters’ Project is the final stage of your Masters’ course and is the is the culmination of your studies and provides you with a space to synthesise all the knowledge and skills you have gained on the course so far. Your project will be self-directed and you will negotiate the shape and direction of your project at the outset with your supervisor. This important final phase of your studies is where you will effectively communicate your work along with your ability to critically interrogate your practice with robust approaches to research and theoretical analysis. Upon completion of your project, you will have generated a high-level Masters’ quality piece of work that will showcase your practice, academic literacy and the professional standards that will act as a platform for your future career and professional development. 

* Three cross-college units that are common to all LCF MA courses – Collaborative Challenge (20 credits), Research Proposal (20 credits) and Masters’ Project (60 credits) – have been validated separately.

 
 

Learning and teaching methods

Units 1 to 5 

Study is facilitated through regular activity briefs, sprints and reading tasks, workshops, peer and self-evaluation in group and individual tutorial feedback in both online and face-face format. Group workshops and seminars during the face-to-face study time support your engagement further.  
 
The supported development of cognitive skills such as problem solving, reflection, progress monitoring, and self-assessment, as well as affective skills such as curiosity, motivation, and resilience will further support independent learning.

To achieve this, the programme of study will typically include:  

  • Unit briefing and introduction; 
  • Studio & workshop practice; 
  • Enquiry-based learning; 
  • Group on-line ‘orientation’ exercise; 
  • Reading tasks; 
  • Face-to-Face workshops, introducing different ways of locating, interrogating, and interpreting a number of theoretical models’ 
  • Team work; 
  • Collaborative learning; 
  • Independent learning; 
  • Knowledge Exchange; 
  • Expert talks; 
  • Technical delivery; 
  • Student presentations to tutors and peers; 
  • Peer and external feedback; 
  • Peer-to-Peer learning; 
  • Tutorial facilitation/ evaluation related to team/ individual and cohort; 
  • Blended Learning. 

Unit 6 Master’s Project 

This unit is focused on self-directed learning as students bring together the various components of the course. Students will be assigned a supervisor, who they will engage with through a blended learning approach, including face-to-face, and digital interaction, taking account of the allocated learning and teaching hours for this unit.  

The MA award classification is based solely on the achievement in Unit 6. 

Queer AI with heavy make-up on bright green background.
DIS Presents: 'The Metaverse in Janky Capitalism' by Daniel Felstead | MA Fashion Media and Communication | London College of Fashion | UAL

DIS Presents: 'The Metaverse in Janky Capitalism' by Daniel Felstead

MA Fashion Media and Communication presents:

Katharina Korbjuhn - Time to Shift the Paradigm

HYPERHYPERBODIES: MA FMC Class of 24 Work-In-Progress Exhibition

Welcome to HYPERHYPERBODIES summit 2023

HYPERBODIES: A Summit on the Role of Bodies in an Age of Extremes  

Student and graduate work

MA Fashion Media & Communication: Squad Neuromind

Yiyang Lu, Ruiting Tang, Qianlan Wang, Jinglan Wu, Jingyi Yu

MA Fashion Media & Communication: Lab Intelli

Sen Gao, Harry Liu, Eico Lu, Haixu Zhang, Wenjie Zheng

MA Fashion Media & Communication: Experiential Ecologies Unit Showreel 2023

Staff

Dr Daniel Felstead, Course Leader

Dr Daniel Felstead is an integrative thinker, working both as a leading academic and an experiential designer and strategist with over two decades of industry experience. Through his practice, Felstead has exhibited internationally and produced works for the likes of BBC, Google, Tate, and V&A Museum, as well as contributed to numerous essays for industry publications. His PhD thesis examined the artistic practice of Tino Sehgal in relation to speculative modes of production, group dynamics and plasticity. In addition, Felstead co-founded Emergence of Tomorrow, an online discussion space and community think-tank.

Jenn Leung, Lecturer Creative Technology & Design

Jenn Leung is an educator and technical artist. Working across different emerging technologies in game development, virtual production, mocap, AR/VR, 3D asset optimization, and real-time streaming tools, she has exhibited in multiple international shows and festivals. Jenn is co-founder of Xalon, a multiplayer community project to foster learning in networked environments. She is also a member of Off World Live, an engineering and research group for Unreal Engine Creators.

Carrie Mok, Programme Director

Both as an educator and a creative director, Carrie Mok focuses her work on driving innovation through connection, co-creation and collaboration as well as nurturing creativity in its purest forms. Throughout her career, Mok has worked with leading global brands including Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Gucci, along with major educational institutions. She is also the founder of Soft Launch, a creative community incubator that supports emerging talent through mentoring, thoughtful partnerships and entrepreneurial development.

Hannah Zeilig Phd, Lecturer

A widely published researcher and an enthusiastic teacher, Hannah Zeilig is Reader in Arts and Health at London College of Fashion and a visiting research fellow at the University of East Anglia. Her work is transdisciplinary and influenced by her own experience of living with bipolar disorder. Throughout it, Zeilig explores co-creativity as an approach to support agency, wellbeing, and citizenship for people with dementia and severe mental illnesses. She supervises multiple PhD students and gives lectures on ethics, qualitative research, as well as older people and fashion.

Fees and funding

Home fee

£12,700

This fee is correct for 2023/24 entry and is subject to change for 2024/25 entry.

Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.

Home fees are currently charged to UK nationals and UK residents who meet the rules. However, the rules are complex. Find out more about our tuition fees and determining your fee status.

International fee

£25,970

This fee is correct for 2023/24 entry and is subject to change for 2024/25 entry.

Tuition fees may increase in future years for new and continuing students on courses lasting more than one year. For this course, you can pay tuition fees in instalments.

Students from countries outside of the UK will generally be charged international fees. The rules are complex so read more about tuition fees and determining your fee status.

Scholarship search

Entry requirements

The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:

  • An Honours degree at 2.1 or above in a related discipline;
  • Applicants with a degree in another subject may be considered, depending on the strength of the application;
  • OR Equivalent qualifications.

APEL (Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning):

Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered in exceptional cases. The course team will consider each application that demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might, for example, be demonstrated by:

  • Related academic or work experience (minimum of three years)
  • The quality of the personal statement
  • A strong academic or other professional reference
  • OR a combination of these factors

Each application will be considered on its own merit but we cannot guarantee an offer in each case.

English language requirements:

IELTS level 7.0 with a minimum of 6.0 in reading, writing, listening and speaking. 
Please check our main English Language Requirements.
 

Selection criteria

The course seeks to recruit students from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds and welcomes applications from mature students. 

The recruitment procedures fully comply with the Equal Opportunities Policy at UAL and all interviewers have undertaken Fairness and Equality in Student Selection training.

We are looking for students who demonstrate some of the following: 

  • A clear academic interest in the study of fashion media and communication through an interdisciplinary approach
  • Appropriate knowledge and skills commensurate with your planned entry into this post graduate level course
  • A capacity to develop and undertake risk-taking speculative design in a range of communication disciplines, in particular using frontier technologies
  • A willingness to operate in digital and physical realms, showing an awareness of cultural, social, political and climate debates
  • An ability to work collaboratively and independently when required to successfully complete the programme of study
  • An ability to engage in and contribute to critical discussion
  • Demonstrate the necessary skill and fluency in your own design thinking and creative practice to benefit from and contribute to the course
  • Possess appropriate levels of visual, written and verbal presentation
     

Apply now

Applications closed 2023/24

We are no longer accepting applications for 2023/24 entry to this course.

Visit the Courses with places available page for a full list of UAL courses that are open for application.

This section includes all the information you need on how to apply, how your application is considered and what happens next.

UK/EU students can apply to a postgraduate course at LCF by completing a direct application.

Deferring your place

This course accepts requests from offer holders to defer their place for one academic year. Deferral requests are granted on a first-come, first-served basis until all deferral places are filled, or a deadline has been reached, whichever is sooner. Read our Admissions Policy for details, including how to request a deferral and by when.

External Student Transfer Policy

If you are currently studying at another institution and if you have successfully completed 60 credits in the equivalent units/modules on your current PG course and wish to continue your studies at London College of Fashion, you can apply to transfer. The Admissions Tutor will consider applications on a case by case basis, subject to places being available. You must apply directly to the course via the course webpage as early as possible.

Please check our Student Transfer Policy for more important information and be ready to provide us with your current course handbook and transcripts.

Please be ready to provide an official document (translated into English if necessary) from your current university, explaining the learning outcomes of the units you have completed.

Extra information required for applications to this course

When you are submitting your application form, you will also need to provide the following pieces of documentation in support of your application:

Portfolio

You will be required to submit a digital portfolio of visual and/or written work with a maximum of 30 images or written pieces that you consider would help support your application. Label and present any visual work with care, including dates and captions.

Visual work could include (though not limited to):

- Moving Images
- Sound
- Photography
- 3D Visualisations
- AR/VR
- Exhibition and Installation Documentation
- Strategy/Insight Decks
- Speculative Design Proposals
- Concept Designs


Written work could include (though not limited to):

- Essays
- Articles
- Reports
- Fiction

Please be aware that you will need to submit any written work either in one of the 500 word text boxes available, or uploaded as a saved jpeg file.

Submit your portfolio via the university’s digital portfolio tool, PebblePad. More details will be sent to you after you have submitted your application.

Video task

We'd like you to submit a 2-3 minute video to help us learn more about you.

  • Please speak clearly in English and face the camera.
  • Your video is submitted along with your portfolio via PebblePad.
  • Read our guidance for more information about how to submit your video task and the file types we accept.

As part of your video task, please respond to the following direction:

  • We would like you to identify one project of yours that challenged you and your understanding of emerging technologies. Explain how this experience has inspired you to apply to MA Fashion Media & Communication LCF?

Curriculum Vitae

You will be required to submit a Curriculum Vitae (C.V.) in support of your application. This should include your full education and employment history.

Personal statement

You should communicate your motivation for studying this course in no more than 500 words.  You should use the following questions as a guide:

  • Why do you want to study for this MA?
  • What are your main areas of research interest and how do they fit with the structure of this course?

What happens next

All application forms, personal statements and relevant documents are read and considered by the course team against the selection criteria listed in the Entry requirements and Selection Criteria sections.

If the course team wish to consider your application further, you will be invited to attend an interview. If you are selected for interview, these will take place online using Teams from Microsoft – please ensure that you download this software prior to the interview date; this is available as a free download from the Microsoft website. We will send you further details at a later point about how we will connect with you for your interview.

If you are successful at the interview stage you will be offered a place. Please note that applicants are not guaranteed an interview.

Please note that if you are unable to attend, the College may not be able to re-schedule.

How we notify you of the outcome of your application

The result of your application will be communicated to you through your UAL Portal. If your application has been successful, you will receive a full offer pack including details of accommodation, fees, and other important information.

Applications for this course can only be accepted for this year of entry. Applications for deferred entry cannot be accepted.

Application deadline

19 December 2022 and 3 April 2023

Our equal consideration deadlines have now passed. This course will remain open to applications for 2023 entry until places have been filled. Please be aware that courses can close without notice.

We recommend you submit your application as early as possible to allow the Admissions team to resolve any initial queries about your application as quickly as possible.

When you'll hear from us

If this course requires a digital portfolio as part of the application process, you will be invited to submit this through UAL’s online submission tool, PebblePad. We will request this separately after initial processing of your application is complete. Once we request your portfolio, you will have 7 days to submit it.

Once you’ve sent in your application, this will be sent through to our course teams for review. Find out more about what happens after you apply.

Applications closed 2023/24

We are no longer accepting applications for 2023/24 entry to this course.

Visit the Courses with places available page for a full list of UAL courses that are open for application.

This section includes all the information you need on how to apply, how your application is considered and what happens next.

There are 2 ways international students can apply to a postgraduate course:

Read our immigration and visa information to find out if you need a visa to study at UAL.

You can only apply to the same course once per year. Any duplicate applications will be withdrawn.  Read the UAL international application advice for further information on how to apply.

Deferring your place

This course accepts requests from offer holders to defer their place for one academic year. Deferral requests are granted on a first-come, first-served basis until all deferral places are filled, or a deadline has been reached, whichever is sooner. Read our Admissions Policy for details, including how to request a deferral and by when.

External Student Transfer Policy

If you are currently studying at another institution and if you have successfully completed 60 credits in the equivalent units/modules on your current PG course and wish to continue your studies at London College of Fashion, you can apply to transfer. The Admissions Tutor will consider applications on a case by case basis, subject to places being available. You must apply directly to the course via the course webpage as early as possible.

Please check our Student Transfer Policy for more important information and be ready to provide us with your current course handbook and transcripts.

Please be ready to provide an official document (translated into English if necessary) from your current university, explaining the learning outcomes of the units you have completed.

Extra information required for applications to this course

When you are submitting your application form, you will also need to provide the following pieces of documentation in support of your application:

Portfolio

You will be required to submit a digital portfolio of visual and/or written work with a maximum of 30 images or written pieces that you consider would help support your application. Label and present any visual work with care, including dates and captions.

Visual work could include (though not limited to):

- Moving Images
- Sound
- Photography
- 3D Visualisations
- AR/VR
- Exhibition and Installation Documentation
- Strategy/Insight Decks
- Speculative Design Proposals
- Concept Designs


Written work could include (though not limited to):

- Essays
- Articles
- Reports
- Fiction

Please be aware that you will need to submit any written work either in one of the 500 word text boxes available, or uploaded as a saved jpeg file.

Submit your portfolio via the university’s digital portfolio tool, PebblePad. More details will be sent to you after you have submitted your application.

Video task

We'd like you to submit a 2-3 minute video to help us learn more about you.

  • Please speak clearly in English and face the camera.
  • Your video is submitted along with your portfolio via PebblePad.
  • Read our guidance for more information about how to submit your video task and the file types we accept.

As part of your video task, please respond to the following direction:

  • We would like you to identify one project of yours that challenged you and your understanding of emerging technologies. Explain how this experience has inspired you to apply to MA Fashion Media & Communication LCF?

Curriculum Vitae

You will be required to submit a Curriculum Vitae (C.V.) in support of your application. This should include your full education and employment history.

Personal statement

You should communicate your motivation for studying this course in no more than 500 words.  You should use the following questions as a guide:

  • Why do you want to study for this MA?
  • What are your main areas of research interest and how do they fit with the structure of this course?

What happens next

All application forms, personal statements and relevant documents are read and considered by the course team against the selection criteria listed in the Entry requirements and Selection Criteria sections.

If the course team wish to consider your application further, you will be invited to attend an interview. If you are selected for interview, these will take place online using Teams from Microsoft – please ensure that you download this software prior to the interview date; this is available as a free download from the Microsoft website. We will send you further details at a later point about how we will connect with you for your interview.

If you are successful at the interview stage you will be offered a place. Please note that applicants are not guaranteed an interview.

Please note that if you are unable to attend, the College may not be able to re-schedule.

How we notify you of the outcome of your application

The result of your application will be communicated to you through your UAL Portal. If your application has been successful, you will receive a full offer pack including details of accommodation, fees, and other important information.

Applications for this course can only be accepted for this year of entry. Applications for deferred entry cannot be accepted.

Application deadline

19 December 2022 and 3 April 2023

Our equal consideration deadlines have now passed. This course will remain open to applications for 2023 entry until places have been filled. Please be aware that courses can close without notice.

We recommend you submit your application as early as possible to allow the Admissions team to resolve any initial queries about your application as quickly as possible.

When you'll hear from us

This course receives a high volume of applications. We need to make sure that we give all applications equal consideration, so the course team will review them in two rounds. This means that offers won’t be sent to successful applicants until after the relevant application deadline date. Outcomes for Round 1 will be released by 31 March 2022 and outcomes for Round 2 will be released by 30 June 2022.

Remember to check the outcome of your application in the UAL Portal. If you apply in Round 1 and don’t hear back from us, we will consider your application within Round 2.

Find out more about what happens after you apply.

After you apply

After you’ve submitted your application, you’ll receive a confirmation email providing you with your login details for the UAL Portal. We’ll use this Portal to contact you to request any additional information, including inviting you to upload documents or book an interview, so please check it regularly.

Once we’ve reviewed and assessed your application, we’ll contact you via the UAL Portal to let you know whether your application has been successful.

Careers

All our postgraduate courses offer career development, so that you become a creative thinker, making effective contributions to your relevant sector of the fashion industry.

LCF offers students the opportunity to develop Personal and Professional Development (PPD) skills while studying through:

  • Access to to speaker programmes and events featuring alumni and industry.
  • Access to careers activities, such as CV clinics and one-to-one advice sessions.
  • Access to a graduate careers service
  • Access to a live jobsboard for all years.
  • Advice on setting up your own brand or company.

Career paths

Alumni