Investigating Beauty
We start by examining how beauty images, focused through colour, texture and historical settings, can inform beauty images for now and the future. Researching influences on beauty imagery from the past, looking at style and lifestyle, movies and music, culture and heritage, art and interiors; all of which will support a creative and forward-thinking narrative for understanding beauty imagery.

The Narrative of Beauty
This unit investigates telling a story the end-customer wants to hear, communicating a concept, marketing ‘beauty and lifestyle’, combining technical expertise with creative flare. By taking a narrative starting point (song lyric, a real-life event or a direct inspiration point such as a city) and then storyboarding a creative response, you will explore the concept of pulling disparate threads together to create a cohesive, new entity. We will focus on your ability to bring a fresh eye and a new interpretation to style and beauty, using trend boards to communicate the initial idea before further development.

The Context of Beauty
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” - a truism in relation to context. The observer must be able to understand what you are communicating, however beautiful on the surface, it must ‘speak’ to the customer on a deeper level. To this end the context and positioning of your work gives it gravitas, commercial clout, a reason to actually exist and conviction underpinning the creative aspects. Beauty – be it men’s grooming for beards, or a tiny seasonal cosmetics capsule colour story, requires you to understand what the core brand message is, why you are coming up with a creative concept in response, and how that will benefit the product, the brand and sales.

My Portfolio
The aim of this unit, which spans the whole year, is to provide you with the technical practical skills in preparing you for a career as a make-up innovator and creative director. How make-up, as a tool, can be used from the conventional and classic shoot or look book through to a new innovative concept. To understand the technicalities and techniques of professional make-up, the practical basics on which to build and refine creative and technical innovations. To understand and investigate the diversity of make-up and its applications in fashion and style terms is vital.

Creative Catwalk, Film and Performance
This unit is about applying your understanding of the market to beauty in motion, film or performance. The balance of usage between still and moving image in the promotion of ‘Lifestyle and Beauty’ has never been more important. The behind-the-scenes interviews, the sound-bite, the documentary, the as-seen-on or the advert, offer opportunities to go beyond the static. From practical demonstrations through to haute couture beauty editorials, there are countless ways to embrace moving image and creative make-up and hair. In the ‘Creative Catwalk, Film & Performance’ unit, you'll set out to create a short film, documentary of a live event or editorial, which takes creative make-up to the highest level.

Brand Positioning
This unit is about research, analysis and your deep understanding of the market and applying this understanding to branding and creative solutions. Imagine you were applying for the role of creative director at the brand of your dreams (this could be the same brand as in the Creative Catwalk unit).

My Industry
This unit is about gaining direct, insider understanding of the marketplace and your role within it. The unit will begin to prepare you for entry into industry and focuses on the practices and principles of the creative industries surrounding creative make-up and hair design. It will introduce you to professional environments through consideration of expectations regarding internships, your rights as a worker, ethical concerns and how to academically frame your placement in relation to your future goals.

Innovation for the Beauty Industry
In this unit, you are encouraged to work with a client of your choice to embrace and cultivate innovation through creative thinking. Through a process of research, debate and experimentation, you will cultivate and evaluate your ideas and refine the direction of your study.

Research, Theory & Practice
This unit enables you to choose the style of writing that will best reflect and communicate your academic ideas. As the unit progresses you will be the one to decide, with input from your tutors, which readership is best suited for your topic. Deciding on your readership will enable you to locate your study within a journalistic outcome. It is anticipated that the research topic will support your development as a make-up and hair design practitioner and/or broaden your understanding of the wider industry. This will be achieved by absorbing concepts and literature that already exists but you will also add to this through primary research, which can take many forms. Developing your ideas and finding an angle and an argument allows you to potentially add to the knowledge or discussion of this topic.

Final Creative Project
For the Final Creative Project (FCP) you are expected to create a substantial final project that focuses and illustrates your area of professional interest. The Final Creative Project may take a variety of forms (such as a body of editorial work within a publication; a series of films; an exploration of digital media platforms; beauty photography, product development, packaging, ethical or culturally specific narratives, retail or an installation concept; or a combination of some, or all, of these).