Course summary

From the icons on your smartphone to the type on your favourite magazine, visual communications play a powerful part in shaping our choices. Visual Communication is a broad discipline, encompassing graphic design, image generation, typography and screen-based design. If you’re looking to be a part of the choice-shaping process then this is the course for you. Throughout the course, your industry knowledge will be strengthened through independent research, as well as collaborative and individual participation in ‘live’ and prestigious competition briefs, set by the likes of D&AD and ISTD. Past are the days when the role of a professional communication designer was limited to the confines of a single discipline or linear career-path. What is required now is a combination of skills and personal qualities, including: the ability to be well-versed in a wide range of technical skills and in processes of thinking-through-making which are supported by rigorous self-criticism and reflection; an informed awareness of context and audience; the ability to work collaboratively as well as independently. Above all, the designer of today/tomorrow should have an idealistic commitment to improve all aspects of sustainable user-centred communication design both locally and globally. What you will learn Visual Communication explores the interface and overlap between analogue and digital technologies, and looks at ways in which traditional craft media and processes are used alongside, and combined with, digital developments. The course is interested in these ‘hybrid’ processes of developing ideas and communicating these ideas through visual language to an audience. Visual Communication is a rich fusion of graphic design, illustration and photographic practices and dialogues, whose influences come from a myriad of cultures and experiences; its practitioners are characterised by their innovative multi-disciplinary approach to the development of contemporary communication solutions. The teaching and learning within BA (Hon) Visual Communication’s working studio environment is fluid and open so that you can make the most of opportunities that arise from both within and beyond the curriculum structure. This manner of teaching is essentially multidisciplinary, and is characteristically based on collaborative studio practice. The course allows you to pursue your particular creative interests and to extend the scope and depth of your enquiry. You will be encouraged to formulate and identify your particular professional and academic interests. Intellectual and academic integrity will be further encouraged, both through written content and ‘thinking through practice’. Across the three years approximately 55% of your time will be contact hours, including scheduled teaching sessions, but also supervised time in the workshop or studio, and the remainder will be independent study. 100% of assessment for this course is coursework based. By the end of the course you will be able to...

• Apply a broad range of analytical, interrogative processes that inform experimentation, innovation and resolution.

• Understand and apply the benefits of live projects, cross-course and collaborative and/or interdisciplinary practice in academic and professional environments.

• Apply an ethical approach to sustainable design and visual communication problem-solving.

• Demonstrate a sound understanding of the broad critical and cultural contexts of visual communication, and knowledge of the principles and methodologies which underpin them.

• Select, evaluate and critically reflect upon a range of research in order to create effective visual communication solutions.

• Demonstrate the ability to produce critically informed visual communication solutions targeted at specific audiences.

• Demonstrate competence in the advanced technical skills necessary for professional practice.