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Fashion Branding & Communication at UCA

Fashion isn’t just about the catwalk – there’s a whole world of marketing, communication, and branding behind it. On our BA (Hons) Fashion Branding & Communication degree course, we’ll help you become an expert in the fashion arena.

As well as teaching you the fundamentals of business, this course, taught at UCA Epsom’s Business School for the Creative Industries, will develop your knowledge of the fashion industry to an expert level, with a particular focus on how brands communicate, operate, and innovate. You’ll use what you learn to develop methods for communicating your own creative ideas to consumers.

You’ll also get the chance to broaden your knowledge by applying these skills in a range of other specific areas of interest within the creative industries. And in your second year you’ll be able to pick from a host of exciting elective units to extend your knowledge.

By the time you graduate, you’ll have gained the experience to build lasting relationships throughout the global fashion industry using communication, promotion, networking, and technology.

And we’re confident you’ll follow in the footsteps of our many successful graduates, who have gone on to work for the likes of ASOS, Celine, L’Oréal, Paul Smith, Farfetch, Burberry, and Chanel.

 

Course entry options

Select from the following options to find out more about the different study options available for this course:

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
WN65
Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
3 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points 

International equivalent qualifications

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
WN6A
Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

32 UCAS points

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Institution code
C93
UCAS code
WN6C
Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

12 years of schooling (with good grades)

Close
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
WN66
Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
4 years full-time
Entry requirements

112 UCAS points 

International equivalent qualifications

Close
Institution code
C93
UCAS code
WN6B
Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
5 years full-time
Entry requirements

32 UCAS points

Close
Institution code
C93
Campus
UCA Epsom
Start date(s)
September 2024, September 2025
Duration
5 years full-time
Entry requirements

12 years of schooling (with good grades)

What you'll study

What you'll
study

The content of the course may be subject to change. Curriculum content is provided as a guide.

UCA’s Integrated Foundation Year is designed to give you the skills you’ll need to start your degree in the best possible way – with confidence, solid knowledge of creative practice, study skills and more.

You’ll explore a range of creative techniques and develop your portfolio, with your chosen subject in mind. We’ll work with you throughout the year to ensure you’re on the right track and give you the tools to achieve your highest potential on your degree.

Find out more about the Integrated Foundation Year

For our students coming from a non-UK educational background, UCA has an Integrated International Foundation Year to bring students from around the world to one hub of creativity. 

This year of preparatory study is designed to give you the skills you’ll need to start your degree in the best possible way – with confidence, solid knowledge of creative practice, study skills and the English speaking and writing skills you’ll need to succeed.

You’ll explore a range of creative techniques and develop your portfolio, with your chosen subject in mind. We’ll work with you throughout the year to ensure you’re on the right track and give you the tools to achieve your highest potential on your degree.

Find out more about the Integrated International Foundation Year

Core units

You will study the following core units:

Principles of Marketing

This is the introduction to to the concepts, theories and models utilised in marketing and communications, providing the basis for further study. Specifically, this unit introduces you to the objectives and theory of marketing as a business function. It explores the role of marketing within organisations and how marketing can be used in the achievement of an organisation's goals and objectives.

Creative Fashion Branding Communications

Through lectures and group discussions, you will be introduced to the key concepts of fashion as a vehicle of cultural communication, and how fashion brands utilise these techniques within a range of advertising campaigns. 

Fashion and Beauty Industry Brand Generation

This unit will guide you on an exploration where fashion and beauty brand development intertwine with trend forecasting. You’ll be challenged to delve into the creative process of researching and developing ideas to craft your own fashion or beauty brand. Through in-depth analysis of your chosen market, you will determine your target consumer, and develop a commercially viable brand proposal. You will discover the fusion of design aesthetics and commercial acumen that sets your brand apart.

Understanding Consumers and Audiences

The consumer is at the heart of the marketing process. Understanding how and why we behave in response to products and services is complex, involving social and psychological dynamics. This unit explores what happens before, during, and after the point when someone buys something, examining the ways consumers find and engage with information during the decision-making process and how their own lived experiences impact the ways they interpret data and make decisions.

Industry Brief in Branding & Communications

Assuming the role of an industry professional in your field, you will respond to a brief provided by an internal UCA client. You’ll take part in client meetings, check-in presentations and deliver a final pitch in which you will explain your research, insights and concept development.

Elective units

You will study one of the following elective units:

Experience Economy

In this unit you will explore experiences as a distinct fourth economic offering (beyond commodities, goods and services). Using case studies from a range of businesses, this unit will focus on creative insights sought by businesses that aim to generate memorable experiences for their users, audiences and/or consumers.

Brand Logo and Design

A brand is built of many things, and crucial amongst those are the visual and lived experience of the brand. We can understand brand as the external image of a specific product or service that consumers connect with by identifying the name and logo. Branding is essential to identify and leverage competitor advantage in a crowded marketplace. It helps differentiate products and services from competitors and captures a target market, maximising customer loyalty and ensuring brand success. Understanding the principles of design and brand building is an essential skill to have in Creative Industry.

Managing Creative People

You’ll consider and reflect upon the key skills and attributes effectively manage creatives. This unit will develop your understanding of the knowledge, skills, and personal qualities required to responsibly manage diverse teams in the cultural and creative industries. 

Core units

You will study the following core units:

Visual Communication

This unit delves into the impactful realm of imagery and how this is conveyed through diverse platforms, including online media and video. You'll explore the multitude of platforms used for communicating fashion images. Additionally, a lecture series will provide insights into the visual history of fashion and beauty, exploring their relationships with history, theories, and culture.

Principles of Content Creation

You’ll discover why, where, and how to deliver brand concepts and content in this unit, using relevant skills in strategy and tools of content production. You’ll undertake brand content projects in which you will first consider the strategy (platforms, channels and tactics) and then use tools and processes to develop your understanding of the creative potential of design and copy in relation to brand communications.

Producing Fashion Media

In the ever-evolving landscape of fashion, effective media production is crucial for conveying the essence of brands and trends. This unit is a comprehensive exploration of the creative, editorial, conceptual and ethical aspects involved in developing captivating fashion content. From envisioning the visual direction to crafting compelling narratives, this unit delves into the multifaceted world of fashion media production.

Influence, Self-branding and Promotion

The topic of influence and influencer-led marketing is covered in this unit and you’ll develop a framework for understanding contemporary challenges to visibility, traction, and communication that face creatives seeking to represent clients, employers, and themselves including their values across social media platforms, professional networking websites, and freelance labour marketplaces. This unit applies a critical and theoretical lens to the subject, questioning the roles that influence and promotion plays within society and business and how you can develop your own brand within that context.

Creative Business Brief in Branding & Communcations

Assuming the role of an industry professional in your field, you will respond to a brief provided by an industry client, such as a brand or advertising agency, also acting in the role as the client. During the course of the four weeks, you’ll participate in client meetings, check-in presentations and deliver a final pitch in which you will explain your research, insights and concepts and campaign executions.

Elective units

You will study one of the following elective units:

Cross-Cultural Management

This unit will introduce you to the importance of cross-cultural awareness and intercultural competence for business success in the global cultural and creative industries. It will explore the risks, uncertainties, and topics of debate within intercultural creative business and management, inviting you to consider what kinds of sophisticated, proactive leadership skills are needed to ensure positive cross-cultural collaboration and cooperation.

Creative Content: Analogue and Digital

The focus of this unit is to continue building your knowledge of and experience with design approaches and methodologies, specifically related to both analogue and digital design. The creative approach is specific to industry, encouraging outcomes through the approach of concept, vision and idea making. Students are required to develop a range of physical proficiencies that utilise both analogue and digital skills that investigate, generate, articulate and communicate ideas and solutions applicable to standards, approaches, and methods practiced across the Creative Industries.

Managing International Tours & Events

In this unit, you will critically examine concepts and working practices related to the touring of arts and music events on an international level. You’ll identify potential international markets for distinct cultural products and assess the feasibility of touring to those markets, considering financial and logistical aspects.

If you opt to complete a professional practice year, this will take place in year three. You will undertake a placement within the creative industries to further develop your skills and CV.

While on the Professional Practice Year, you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee for that year. This fee will be determined using government funding regulations. Based on current regulations, we expect this to be a maximum of 20% of the tuition fee rate that you are charged for your second year of study. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during this year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this as you approach your Professional Practice Year.

Core units

You will study the following core units:

Strategic Planning

You’ll be introduced to the concepts, theories and models used in strategic planning by businesses. The content will cover how strategic planning is actioned taking in the processes, management and key thinking that goes into formulating strategy documents and plans. During this unit, you will engage with the strategic planning process to develop a proposal that will then be executed as your Degree Project.

Case Studies in Fashion Branding and Communications

This unit will take a case study approach to deepen your understanding of branding and communication in the fashion industry. Throughout this unit, you will be exposed to a range of case studies selected to demonstrate best practices, common pitfalls, and highlight important considerations when approaching business situations in fashion branding and communication.

Ethics and Society

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that is pertinent to understand and learn about in relation to business, art and society at large. In this unit, you will learn how to reflect on issues that face us in society using a range of philosophical sources and methodologies to be able to analyse situations through a philosophical lens.

Degree Project

In this final unit, you will apply your learning to create a distinctive piece of work for your degree project. The purpose of your degree project is to allow you to identify opportunities successfully in your specialist subject area to promote and to develop your career.

Through research, you will independently identify and/or generate innovative opportunities within your specialist subject area. Your portfolio will consist of a series of outcomes that showcase your knowledge, and your key attributes and skills as a reflective creative practitioner. You will be expected to consider the theoretical and professional contexts of your exploration.

This course is designed to offer you (if eligible) the opportunity to study part of your degree aboard at a UCA partner university, while still earning credits towards your UCA degree.

For more information please visit the Study Abroad section

Industry placement
offer

Preparing graduates for successful careers underpins everything we do, and all students on this course may be offered support to identify and prepare for an industry placement according to their individual needs. We’ll draw on our wide range of contacts within the creative industries to help provide you with opportunities that align with your interests and future career aspirations.

Course specifications

Please note, syllabus content indicated is provided as a guide. The content of the course may be subject to change in line with our Student Terms and Conditions for example, as required by external professional bodies or to improve the quality of the course.

Explore our gradshows

Each year, we’re privileged to be able to share our graduates’ incredible work with the world. And now’s your chance to take a look.

Visit the online showcase
Fees & funding

Fees & financial support

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

  • Integrated Foundation Year: £9,250
  • BA course: £9,250

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

  • Integrated International Foundation Year: £9,250 (see fee discount information)
  • BA course: £9,250 (see fee discount information)

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £1,850. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Tuition fees - 2024/25 entry

  • Integrated International Foundation Year: £16,950
  • BA course: £17,500

If you opt to study the Professional Practice Year, for 2024 you will be required to pay a reduced tuition fee of £3,390. You will also incur additional travel and accommodation costs during your Professional Practice year. The University will provide you with further advice and guidance about this.

Please note: The fees listed on this webpage are correct for the stated academic year only, for details of previous years please see the full fee schedules.

UCA scholarships and fee discounts

At UCA we have a number of scholarships and fee discounts available to assist you with the cost of your studies.

Financial support

There are lots of ways you can access additional financial support to help you fund your studies - both from UCA and from external sources. Discover what support you might qualify for please see our financial support information.

Additional course costs

In addition to the tuition fees there may be other costs for your course. The things that you are likely to need to budget for to get the most out of a creative arts education will include books, printing costs, occasional or optional study trips and/or project materials.

These costs will vary according to the nature of your project work and the individual choices that you make. Please see the Additional Course Costs section of your Course Information for details of the costs you may incur.

Facilities

Fashion Branding & Communication students have a dedicated course studio and study space, access to campus print making workshops with dedicated technical support, campus photographic studios with lighting rigs, green screen lighting set up and digital media suites equipped with Macs and PCs, programmed with specialist design software. Students also have access to screen printing and bookbinding facilities, together with wood workshops for set building.

View 360 virtual tour

Fashion Branding & Communication studios, UCA Epsom

Photography studio, UCA Epsom

Print studios, UCA Epsom

Digital media suite, UCA Epsom

Career opportunities

This course is highly regarded in the fashion world, and we have forged many strong industry connections, including:

  • Nike
  • Swarovski
  • CROWTHER/PLANT
  • Good Ordering
  • Lazy Oaf
  • Patternity
  • K-Swiss
  • LSN Global
  • BERTHOLD
  • The Future Laboratory
  • BBH
  • WGSN
  • A.P
  • Paul Smith

Visiting professionals

We host a number of visiting lecturers, including:

  • Laura Vent: art director
  • Susannah Jones: PR expert
  • Nick Maroudias: photographer
  • Cian McConn: artist
  • Mark Wells: designer
  • Louise Naunton Morgan: artist
  • Mark Thomson: art director
  • Chris Colville-Walker: art director
  • Jason Hughes: fashion editor
  • Anna Lomax: set designer
  • Sophie Stephens: illustrator
  • Willem Jaspert: photographer
  • Carolina Daher: art director
  • Jacqui Ma: trends researcher
  • Ruth Marshall-Johnson: trends researcher
  • Simone Konu: stylist
  • Katja Mayer: photographer
  • Ivana Bobic: director
  • Greta Ilieva: photographer

Our graduates have secured many rewarding career positions throughout the fashion industry, for example as:

  • Fashion editor
  • Showroom manager
  • Art director
  • PA to artistic director
  • Press officer
  • Set designer
  • Artist
  • Editorial assistant
  • Trend researcher
  • Producer
  • Prop assistant
  • Researcher
  • Illustrator
  • Filmmaker
  • Film editor
  • Graphic designer

Our graduates have progressed these roles at the following companies, to name but a few:

  • ASOS
  • Celine
  • Paul Smith
  • GQ Style
  • Margaret Howell
  • L’Oreal
  • Benefit
  • Asprey
  • Aromatherapy Associates
  • Farfetch
  • Porter
  • Oki-Ni
  • Burberry
  • Chanel
  • Dazed & Confused
  • Artistry
  • A.P
  • Alexander McQueen
  • Fashion East
  • Juergen Teller
  • Katie Shillingford
  • Benjamin Bruno
  • Storm Models
  • The British Fashion Council.

Your training on this course will prepare you for a wide range of postgraduate courses.

We offer postgraduate opportunities in our Business School and we will help you find the correct course for you and support you in your application should further study be for you.

What’s it like being a student at UCA?

That’s a big question. Get some answers from people who are studying right here, right now.

Chat to a student

Ashley Deverell

"The tutors helped guide me through my creative thoughts and turn them into processes that I then could take into the real world. They were good at helping me understand the importance of prioritising and finding a balance, which I still try and use"

Ashley Deverell

Entry requirements

This course doesn't require a portfolio. If you receive an offer, you’ll be invited to attend an Applicant Day where you can meet the course team and learn more about the course. 

Select your country to find the equivalent requirements

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