Course summary

Course overview

• On our MA Graphic Design course you’ll have the opportunity to develop your own choice of personal topic(s) within the wide arena of visual communication. This will be guided by your research and support from your supervisor.

• The course is rooted in visual communication research, underpinned by theory, with an emphasis on enabling you to develop a very personal body of practical work. We’ll encourage you to generate a unique line of enquiry through developing new ideas and challenging traditional design boundaries. By the end of your programme, you should have generated a contemporary body of work that has advanced your skills to a professional level in preparation for your future in the creative industries.

• The course modules challenge you to advance your critical and creative thinking skills in graphic design, across both traditional and digital media, whether that involves getting to grips with established graphics disciplines like typography, editorial, branding and packaging, or working with digital tools to create concepts for moving image, websites, apps and other new media.

• You’ll be taught in a friendly studio atmosphere with the opportunity to mix with all the other MA students in the School. You will be able to explore various traditional print techniques, such as letterpress and screenprint in our specialist workshops. Then we have a full spectrum of digital print facilities for large format printing onto different material, laser cutting and 3D printing.

• The opportunity for a structured work experience will be provided for every student who requests it.

• You’ll have access to an excellent library of traditional and digital books/magazines and computers loaded with the latest industry software (such as the Adobe Creative Suite).

• Study trips are an important part of the research activity that brings design to life. We’ve taken students on study trips to London, Berlin, Amsterdam and New York in recent years.

• You will be required to pay for any overseas trips and visits you undertake. These are an optional aspect of the course.

• Some of our students have gone on to apply for further study at MPhil and PhD level.