Graphic Design

Year 2

Compulsory modules

• Critical Thinking: Design & Society

  Building upon your previous engagement with Critical Thinking at level 4, this module will help you cultivate a profound understanding of the historical and cultural influences on design, engage in stimulating debates, and unravel the intricate relationship between theory and practice. By critically evaluating the profound impact of social, political, cultural, and technological contexts on design practices, you will gain a holistic perspective, enabling you to comprehend the multifaceted nature of the field and make informed contributions to its discourse.

  By the end of the module, you will emerge as a perceptive and discerning thinker, equipped with the tools to critically analyse design's impact on society and navigate the evolving landscape of design practice.

• Design Practice: Integrated Projects 1

  This module aims to cultivate both a deeper critically reflective approach to your learning and an opportunity extend the skills and processes you have learnt in Level 4. The module will provide opportunities for you to undertake research and further explore processes and applications through studio-based projects which enable you to begin to work with a design process that reflects external professional practice, from briefing to delivery. 
  
  The module will have tutor led briefs with an emphasis on learning through experimental approaches and the development of your own voice supported by workshop & tutorials. 

• Visual System

  One function of Graphic Design is to synchronise and co-ordinate different kinds of material and content in order to communicate a coherent and comprehensible flow of information. This module explores ways of constructing systems of rules, scripts, specifications and templates to constrain and focus graphic expression. Such visual systems can range from typographic grids, which can be designed in such a way as to permit a designer to produce a wide variety of layouts, to a tightly defined system of rules that generates graphic outcomes independent of any further engagement by a designer. 
  
  As part of your exploration of visual systems you will consider the role of hierarchy in structuring information by categorising, sequencing, and prioritising content, as well as the way in which systems unify content across a range of different media and sites of display. 

• Design Process: Issues, Ethics and Social Responsibility

  The aim of this module is to extend your group learning and deepen your understanding of a designers’ social responsibility and the term discuss the term ‘Design Activism’. Working in teams you will respond to an issue that affects society at either a local, national or global level and explore how as designers you can make a positive impact. You will continue to develop your creative and production skills throughout.

• Design Practice: Integrated Projects 2

  This module aims to establish a framework for specialist practice, brief analysis and project management. The module will allow you to further explore independent and collaborative processes, skills and methods and work towards the development and distribution of content driven design solutions whilst continuing the ethos of risk-taking and experimental approaches to practice. 
  
  Your will identify, research and engage with specific/appropriate audiences and external contexts in the production of a creatively and professionally relevant body of work around a given theme/s.

• Professional Practice

Year 3 (placement year)

Optional modules

Year 4 (or year 3 if no placement)

Compulsory modules

• Final Negotiated Practice

  This module will provide you with the opportunity to deepen your understanding of the context of your practice through practical and theoretical research, critical writing and debate. The module is designed to enable you to initiate, research and construct a topic of your own choice and explore a range of different research strategies and methodologies.
  
  The module will require you to engage in key debates in current and emerging design practice.

• Collaboration

  This module aims to foster greater awareness and understanding of working in teams and is the final module that cultivates a collaborative approach and aims to signpost the increasingly interdisciplinary modes of working. Collaboration may manifest on a local level within the community or across the faculty or university. What you choose to pursue should be informed by your career development planning in Entrepreneurial Practice. Students can work together within the course or seek out partnerships and collaborations through other means.
  
  Students are encouraged to develop a deeper understanding of project and people management.

• Entrepreneurial Practice

  This module  aims to develop a range of external communications in a contemporary professional context, that contextualise your learning in preparation for professional career aspirations. This outward facing module spans two semesters and allows you to develop your professional profile and gain understanding of basic business skills. It will build on the skills and behaviours you have acquired in previous modules and prepare you for the next stage in your journey.
  
  These will be presented alongside your portfolio of work, forming a complete self-promotional package. You will be required to critically reflect on your work and devise an appropriate strategy for your brand. It will support you to identify your target market to promote your creativity in readiness for employment, self- employment or postgraduate study.

• Professional Practice

  This outward facing module allows you to develop your professional profile. You will be invited to respond to Live and competition briefs: D&AD, ISTD, YCN, RSA, Design Museum are examples. It will build on the skills and behaviours you have acquired in previous modules. Graphic Communicators have tremendous potential power in collectively shaping the visual environment of a whole culture, affecting its social, moral and linguistic framework. Visual communicators are able to make public the thoughts, ideas and aims of any organisation that consults them. This is an opportunity to work in a commercial context responding to the needs of an organisation or brand.