Completing our Graphic Design course will help you gain everything you’ll need to become a well-rounded creative praticitioner. You will develop specialist skills, and learn how to reach your audience through innovative design.
This graphic design course encourages you to investigate, question and challenge the contemporary role of graphic design. You’ll gain the confidence to understand, interpret and talk about ground-breaking and iconic design from the past and present. You will also learn how to present and defend your ideas and promote yourself and your work.You’re encouraged early on to make your thinking visible, to test your ideas through iteration and to collaborate in practice. You’ll have the opportunity to develop specialist and broad-based design skills, to think laterally and to innovate through making, testing, and finding and reaching your audience.
You’ll learn from different creative methods such as drawing and letterpress printing, app design, type fundamentals, user experiences, human-centered design and connected communication platforms. There are many diverse employment options available to graduates of this degree.
This course offers real opportunities to connect with graphic design studios and consultancies, to work across the realms of art direction, digital publishing and editorial design, moving image and sequential narrative, web and innovatory digital practice from app design to social media, brand communications to start-ups and design enterprise.
Industry partners and guest lecturers include Angharad Lewis (Grafik), Sarah Boris, Kin Design, Be Colourful, Someone, Nous Vous, Paul Jenkins, A Practice For Everyday Life (APFEL), Frazer Muggeridge and Craig Oldham.
A high-profile lecture series – the Hothouse Talks – offers you the chance to engage with visionaries in the field of Graphic Design and visual communication. You’ll also benefit from live project opportunities and a vibrant studio culture.
Graphic Design BA is taught together with our Illustration and Animation BA and Design for Publishing BA. This combination of teaching makes for a unique learning environment, full of opportunity for cross-pollination and scope for wider learning.
Assessment
You’ll be assessed through project work, essays, individual practice and a final portfolio project, including a dissertation. There are no examinations.
Portfolios and interviews
Your portfolio should be selective but have enough work to show the range of your interests and talents. We’re interested in seeing how you develop a project from beginning to end, not only finished work.
Graphic designers work in a variety of media; please include the whole range of your creative work. If you can’t bring some of your work to the portfolio interview, please take photographs and include them.
Finally, be ready to talk about your work and how you see your future as a graphic designer.
Physical portfolio
If you are coming in person to your interview we strongly suggest bringing a physical portfolio of work.
Things to bring:
- Sketchbooks – we love to see your sketchbooks with ideas and notes, even if they are messy.
- Examples of the development of a project from start to finish and the final outcome.
- Some work that you are really proud of and want to talk about.
- Some work that shows you experimenting with different processes.
Digital Portfolio
If you are submitting an online application, please follow these guidelines.
Things to include:
- Scans or photographs demonstrating items from the list above.
- Storyboarding for motion-based work.
- Scans of sketchbook pages showing development.
Be sure to check the resolution and overall quality of your image to ensure submissions are not pixelated.
What our students say
„Intellectually stimulating. I have learned new techniques and my understanding of the subject has broadened. I have made some really good connections.”
„Tutors are the highlight of the University. You can see the passion they have for art and design, as well as having the passion to teach us.”
„The new studio idea is really successful and my studio leader is absolutely amazing.”
„Excellent tutors and lecturers. A good range of facilities available, all of which are well supervised by helpful technicians and tutors.”
„My printmaking teachers were awesome, they helped me gain enough confidence with my work.”
„I have definitely learnt a lot over my three years, gained confidence in my work and met some brilliant people.”
After the course
The teaching team includes professional print, photography, web, animation and graphic design specialists alongside illustrators and artists, who together, create a stimulating teaching and learning environment that allows you to identify and succeed in your chosen career path.
The course has produced a number of award winning students who have excelled in leading design competitions run by organisations such as Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and the Design Museum.
The employment success of our graduates is excellent, with many starting successful careers as graphic designers, taking on leading roles within creative industries or continuing on to postgraduate degrees in the UK and abroad.
