BA (Hons) Graphic Design

This unit offers a practical introduction to graphic design.  It will outline the fundamental concepts, methods and tools that underpin the culture of the programme in order to develop your awareness of their creative potential. It includes two practical studio projects that analyse the key subject building blocks of image and idea. These are supported by a range of induction, seminar and workshop activities that include opportunities for developing research and making verbal presentations.

A creative unit that explores the tools and basic techniques used in the origination of graphic design. This unit examines fundamental relationships between text, ideas and visual execution. It includes two practical studio projects that analyse key subject areas of narrative and typography. These are supported by a range of induction, seminar and workshop activities that include opportunities for developing research and making verbal presentation.

A unit that develops creativity by exploring the tools and design techniques employed in the construction of a variety of print and screen-based graphic messages. It includes two practical projects that explore fundamental aspects of visual communication. These are supported by a range of seminar and workshop activities that include opportunities for developing research, making verbal presentations and working in small groups.

This unit provides a foundation in critical, historical and professional issues that will enhance your development within practice-based clusters.  You will engage with a set of selected thematic options in critical and historical areas.  The course also raises cluster-side professional issues and those related to employability; these will facilitate the development of both your studio based work and your identity as a practitioner. 

This unit aims to develop your creative visual thinking by exploring notions of the unconventional.  Two practical projects analyse the importance of developing a questioning approach to graphic design work and introduce a graphic vocabulary with which to challenge conventions.  The main projects on this unit are supported by a range of seminar and workshop activities that include opportunities for developing technical skills, engaging in research, typography, making verbal presentations, preparing work for portfolio presentation and working in small groups.  Coursework is based around the following methods and processes:

• Exploiting the creative potential of working within restrictions
• The impact of technology on the development of design work
• Exploring how lateral thinking, risk taking, experimentation and other processes might usefully disrupt expected channels of print and screen-based visual communication

This unit introduces you to the professional environment of the graphic designer and explores the impact of external factors on graphic design practice.  Two practical studio projects analyse the influence that external considerations have on the development of graphic design ideas and introduces a vocabulary of professional specification. Coursework is based around applying a range of creative print and screen-based graphic design solutions within a variety of specified technical, professional, social and ethical constraints. The main projects are supported by a range of seminar and workshop activities that include:

• Opportunities for developing technical skills
• Engaging in research
• Typography
• Making verbal presentations
• Preparing work for portfolio presentation
• Working collaboratively in small groups

This unit explores collaborative and interdisciplinary art and design practice.  You will have the opportunity to engage in a range of external facing learning opportunities which will encourage collaborative, interdisciplinary practice and shared experience; this may take the form of spending time outside of the university and working within the creative community and the public domain. 

This unit explores the professional environment of the graphic designer and the impact of teamwork on graphic design practice.  Through your work on two practical studio based projects, you will analyse the professional environment of the graphic designer and the role of teamwork within the development of ideas for print and screen-based visual communication.  Coursework is based around exploring the professional relationships of personal practice, collaboration, clients and target audiences.  A variety of 'live' projects are devised in consultation with professional designers which in some cases may act as a gateway to live project work and/or placement opportunities. Responses to the projects are developed creatively in both individual and team-based situations. These projects are supported by a range of seminar and workshop activities that include opportunities for making verbal presentations and preparing work for a portfolio presentation.

This unit provides you with the opportunity to produce a negotiated project focussed around an individually defined area appropriate to your aims and ambitions.  Your project will be weighted either towards critical/historical or professional/employability issues.  In order to support your self-directed study and individual research you will also engage in lectures, seminars, facilitated student group presentations and tutorials. 

This unit will develop your independent, self-directed study based around graphic design projects that have real-world parallels with the professional designer and/or creative industries.  Studio based projects will extend your professional understanding and will develop your capability for self-directed learning.  Three projects look at ideas of authorship based around a given theme, responding to a live brief and initiating personal work.  A negotiated option within each project will build on your existing skill set and are described using a series of student authored learning agreements. 

This unit will prepare you to begin a career within graphic design related creative industries and/or relevant post-graduate study.   Coursework is based around a negotiated programme of self-directed study and developing a finished portfolio that reflects your future aspirations within professional graphic design practice. Focus will be placed on the importance of the portfolio as the portable representation of your professional practice. You are encouraged to take an enterprising approach to developing personal practice that builds on your existing skill set. A negotiated programme of study will be described in a learning agreement and can include relevant external opportunities. You will be guided to develop a flexible approach to formatting your final portfolio and may adopt a paper-based and/or screen-based method appropriate to the intention and ambition your work and its intended audience. Studies are supported by a series of lectures, seminars, tutorials, reviews and workshop activities focused around portfolio preparation and presentation.

This unit provides you with the opportunity to author a final project that culminates in a showcase of your finished work.  Through a negotiation with your tutor you will generate your own brief before commencing on a significant body of work for academic, public and professional audiences (as based on your own personal interest, ambition and career aspirations).  There is also the option to include collaborative and interdisciplinary practice into your project as based on your professional context and ambition.