Foundation Year
Building skills and knowledge to prepare for advanced art & design programmes in Years 1-3. Learning to self-manage your academic development.
Year 1 (Level 4)
Idea focused, emphasising design thinking, generation of ideas and problem solving with workshops providing hands-on media and software experiences.
Semester 1
Visual Skills 1 L4
• Developing basic levels of technical skill in markmaking methods and techniques; introduction of experimental, accidental and design analytical approaches.
Thinking About Ideas L4
• Understanding how ideas relate to visual communication; developing working methods that lead to the generation of creative ideas.
Critical and Cultural Studies L4: Design
• Familiarisation of design practices and contexts of the design produced, circulated and consumed; understanding theories and conducting a critical/historical analysis to design practice.
Semester 2
Directions L4
• Develop awareness of graphic design potential, apply and extend research abilities, problem solving skills and related skills.
Visual Skills 2 L4
• Developing basic levels of technical skill in a range of moving image and interactive techniques and analytical approaches to design, storytelling and interactivity.
Critical and Cultural Studies Elective Internet Cultures
• Invention, emergence and widespread adoption of the internet within wider cultural processes of change such as virtualisation, interpersonal communication in daily life and social change.
Year 2 (Level 5)
Focus on projects related to the creative and cultural industries, emphasising professional constraints and expectations that includes live projects, pitching and work-related experiences to develop design production knowledge.
Semester 1
Visual Skills 1 L5
• Develop advanced level of technical skills and professional approaches to the development of design solutions as well as effectively managing increasingly complicated workloads and responsibilities.
Professional Development & Employability
• Understand their developing practice in relation to the dynamics of the industry, business knowledge, awareness of contemporary industry practice; develop a range of professional skills appropriate to the industry and self-promotion with necessary marketing skills.
Visual Communication L5 (Graphic Design)
• Further develop understanding of the design process, expand knowledge of visual languages and further develop their critical analysis skills.
Semester 2
Visual Skills 2 L5
• Develop advanced level of technical skills; embed good practice, experimental and accidental approaches to the development of design, story-telling and interactivity.
The Live Pitch (Graphic Design)
• Develop good practice through the study of the market, competition, the user and the client, understanding the professional context graphic design and working in a competitive pitch situation.
Critical and Cultural Studies Elective Media Culture (C & CS)
• Develop knowledge, understanding and critical skills in relation to art, design and visual and material culture.
Year 3 (Level 6)
Emphasis on expanding the professional portfolio with national competition, developing ideas and solutions and professional standards of working and support from staff whose experience best matches student interests. It is intended to provide an experience from which you can emerge as a creative designer, able to work up to professional standards.
Semester 1
Competitions Brief L6
• Extending knowledge, practice and skills in graphic design; negotiate, plan and assemble a body of work suitable to present.
Critical and Cultural Studies L6: Degree Essay/Report (Design)
• Negotiation, research and present an honours degree level essay/technical report with consolidation of knowledge and understanding.
Semester 2
Final Major Project L6
• Extending knowledge, practice and skills in graphic design; demonstrate a systematic understanding of key aspects of graphic design, professional contexts, markets and audiences.
Self Promotion (Graphic Design)
• Understanding advanced practice in relation to chosen fields with visual communications industry; further develop abilities to self-evaluation, adopt reflective approach to work and learning.
Negotiated Project (Graphic Design)
• Developing work that reflects a personal area of design; engage in authoring of a design brief through negotiation process; further develop design skills with research, idea generation, design development and more.
General Studies
• Subjects are compulsary for all students throughout the 3-year course.
