Graphic Design With Foundation Year

This module enables you explore the creative industries and its career opportunities, You’ll learn about a range of subjects including responsible design and future trends within your chosen area of art and design. It will allow you to build on the technical skills that you have gained in the first semester to produce a creative publication.

This module will enable you to examine the creative and professional practice of others as a way of reflecting on your own practice. You’ll create a range of outcomes to help you build a dedicated portfolio as well as learning about major influences in art and design.

This module is all about challenging your creative thought and highlighting the importance of creative risk taking. The briefs allow you to produce a range of outcomes that underpin all of the main art and design disciplines as well as giving you the flexibility to interpret the brief to your area of interest.

This module is designed to allow you to bring together all your prior learning from the previous modules. It gives you the opportunity to propose and create your own brief based on a theme, topic, or issue that you are passionate about. Within this module you’ll be supported by tutors who will guide you in creating in a meaningful body of work that demonstrates confidence in your chosen area. Your work will be exhibited in school of Arts and Media end of year show.

This module helps you to become more familiar and confident with technology. As well as learning the creative software and photography skills, it will allow you to explore a creative subject of your choice and give you essential time management and research skills.

This module introduces a variety of approaches to developing an applied understanding of the fundamental design principles used within graphic communication design practice. Through a series of practical workshops and projects you will examine process, materials, form, proportion, contrast, balance, space, colour and symbol and their impact and use.

The Critical and Contextual Practice module gives you the opportunity to intellectually explore and interrogate your chosen discipline. The module is supported by workshops, lectures and seminars aligned to and in support of the development of studio practice. The module aims to embed writing as a connected and integral part of design process where a series of interlocking, complementary texts and artefacts will be produced to help build deeper understanding of the theories, debates and discourses that surround the discipline of graphic communication design.

This module aims to develop an awareness of the contextual factors, which affect contemporary graphic communication design practice through the study of challenging real-world ‘wicked’ problems. Yous will be introduced to working within the constraints inherent in designing for specific purposes and encouraged to give due consideration of their responsibilities as designers to any stakeholders involved. Focus will be placed on the application of previous learning, the development of personal design processes and capabilities regards the generation of ideas and application of creative thinking.

Further developing the knowledge and skills you acquired in semester one.

In this module you will research how 21st century designers are expanding their role beyond the aesthetic and commercial and are applying their creative skills contributing to social, ecological and political issues. You will participate in several projects intended to help the development of socially responsible design practices and the broadening of perspective on how and where design can be applied in an ethical manner. These projects may range from devising and communicating inventive proposals to local level, everyday problems, to larger and more complex global issues such as food production, energy consumption, mass education and the protection and improvement of natural ecosystems and resources.

This module introduces further knowledge and context and facilitates the academic application and continuing development of the knowledge and skills gained on the course. You will investigate and test your position in relation to creative and cultural communities relevant to your developing practices. The module will also provide practice in working with others and explores the nature of applying research in collaborative situations.

This module will challenge you to utilise graphic communication skills and knowledge in the answering of a live design brief. Through negotiation, you will be encouraged to select and answer a project with externally set requirements. The work produced for this unit should demonstrate a clear understanding of the aims, goals, objectives and needs of stakeholders involved (clients, collaborative partners and target audiences). You will have the opportunity to expand and apply the skills and learning gained in an educational context within a professional setting.

This module will allow you to investigate possibilities for graphic communication design connecting and interacting with other subjects such as sociology, anthropology, politics, science, philosophy, psychology, economics and technology. Through a series of project challenges, workshops and seminars, you will generate and evaluate ideas that help identify your own ambitions and develop specialist technical and practical skills.

Further developing the knowledge and skills you acquired in semester one.

On this module, you will learn about gamification and the design of virtual interfaces for multiple design contexts, such as advertising, education and training.

This module offers the opportunity to consolidate specialist interests by enabling you to select from a range of projects that allow flexibility of process, media and outcome. These projects will be either course set, industry partnered or from a range of design award schemes.

This module requires you, in consultation with programme staff, to formulate, investigate and produce an individual response to a subject area connected to visual culture or key critical, professional subject debates. It will also allow you to consider and articulate a personal agenda and prepare for life after graduation through the development a post degree plan and related portfolio of work.

The Negotiated Major Project module is designed to allow you to bring together and synthesise your prior learning and experiences on the course through the definition, negotiation and implementation of a self-determined programme of study. You are encouraged to identify a theme, topic, issue or set of issues around which to focus your exploration leading to the development and presentation of a significant body of work.

Further developing the knowledge and skills you acquired in semester one.