The Graphic Design BA (Hons) degree is a diagnostic course, meaning that students can identify and develop the specific areas of study that they are most interested in. This is achieved through a combination of exciting core and optional modules.

Compulsory modules

Creative Production

The aims of this module are to:

  • Support the development of core digital competencies for the creative production of visual outputs.
  • Introduce core industry standard digital production skills.

Graphic Design Context

The aims of this module are to:

  • Introduce core ideas and concepts of graphic design practice within a critical, historical and theoretical context.
  • Establish creative design processes that emphasise research, iterative development, experimentation and criticality.
  • Provide an opportunity for establishing a learning community through collaborative working and formative peer feedback.

Type and Language

The aims of the module are to:

  • Provide a practical, critical, historical and theoretical introduction to typography and writing systems.
  • Equip students with the basic skills and understanding required to produce typographic outcomes.

Visual Thinking

The aims of the module are to:

  • Introduce a variety of applied visual methods and processes for undertaking creative enquiries.
  • Develop technical knowledge and confidence across digital and analogue image-making techniques.

Writing for Practice

The aims of this module are to:

  • Provide students with the opportunity to develop knowledge and understanding of how writing is used to frame art and design practices across diverse applications.
  • Develop skills in academic writing and argumentation.
  • Deepen understanding of the relationship between studio activity and scholarship.

Visual Practices

The aims of this module are to:

  • Develop a practical understanding of applied image-making methods and procedures.
  • Enable students to visually articulate concepts, information and values across a variety of contexts and in a breadth of media.

Branding and Strategy

The aims of the module are to:

  • Introduce design methods for undertaking branding and strategy.
  • Enable students to engage with audiences and contexts strategically to generate insight and understanding.
  • Introduce storytelling, tone of voice, values and brand personality as a paradigm within branding.
  • Develop a practical understanding of how graphic systems are used in the production of visual design outputs.

Applied Storytelling for Sustainability

The aim of this module is for students to

  • Appreciate the narrative arc as a device for the planning and development of compelling stories.
  • Introduce a range of participatory Storytelling techniques.
  • Practice the planning, filming and editing of video, using post-production and animation techniques as appropriate.

Compulsory modules

Social Design

The aims of this module are to:

  • Provide a practical and theoretical introduction to social design.
  • Equip students with the skills, methods and understanding required to undertake social design projects.
  • Interrogate responsible approaches to practicing graphic design.

Visualisation

The aims of this module are to:

  • Introduce a variety of visualisation techniques, methods and rationales.
  • Develop conceptual and experiential knowledge of the various tasks performed by different types of visualisation techniques including data visualisation, knowledge visualisation, network visualisation, system mapping and information graphics.
  • Develop technical knowledge and confidence in the production of different visualisation types across multiple practical applications.

Narrative and Sequence

The aims of this module are to:

  • Critically examine how graphic design practices utilise narrative and sequence to achieve intended goals
  • Provide students with technical, practical and conceptual skills for undertaking narrative and sequential graphic design practices.

Collaboration

The aims of this module are to:

  • Introduce a variety of collaborative and participatory design processes.
  • Develop a practical and reflexive understanding of the role of the designer within a variety of professional scenarios.
  • Promote innovation through co-design, stakeholder engagement and consultation.

Audience and Environment

The aims of this module are to:

  • Enable students to develop targeted understanding of audiences and environments using analytical design methods.
  • Facilitate the production of imaginative and distinctive creative responses to complex challenges that draw upon analytical and exploratory processes.
  • Empower students to negotiate and manage unbounded design briefs.

Design Research Methods

The aims of this module are to:

  • Introduce students to a variety of design research methods and their applications.
  • Provide the opportunity to undertake a short, guided research study.
  • Prepare students for undertaking a dissertation.

Speculative Futures

The aims of this module are to:

  • Discuss the notions of a critical art/design studio based on a future-facing and/or speculative design or art practice.
  • Identify and interpret a range of roles and functions for artists and designers in the future, including in post-capitalist or non-human-centred community, based on historical context and existing frameworks.
  • Conceptualise artistic/creative practices in a future scenario and apply relevant processes and tools to convey their ideas within their chosen scenario.

Optional modules

Arts Management

The aims of this module are to:

  • Give students an awareness and understanding of arts management as a discipline, in the context of arts organisations and the creative industries.
  • Provide students with a context in which to explore ideas and practices related to professional environments they may wish to progress to post-graduation.
  • Present students with the opportunity to evaluate and apply information, resources and ideas to a scenario relevant to their career futures.

Responsible Practice: Making your Manifesto

The aim of this module is to equip students with both the skills and mindset to uphold and reflect on the values of Responsible Design, namely design that is ethical, pluriversal, planet-centric, decolonial, transdisciplinary, and optimistic, in both the processes and outcome of the creative agenda.

Creative Dissent: Protest, Activism and Art

This module highlights the social production of art. It explores the extent to which art and cultural production contributes to protest movements and activates social and political transformation. Addressing historical and contemporary connections between art and activist practices, it will provide students with an understanding of the complex relationship between art, politics and wider social movements.

In addition to facilitating the development and contextualisation of their own socially-engaged studio or cultural practice, it will provide students with an opportunity to develop specialist interests for future study in Part C and to engage in the creation of a community of learners and researchers.

 

Creative Placemaking

The aims of this module are to:

  • Explore how creative interventions can transform how spaces function.
  • Develop theoretical and practical understanding of how creative practitioners can actively work to inform placemaking.

Drawing Characters: Representation and Identity

The aims of this module are to:

  • Raise student's awareness of identity and representation issues in character designs.
  • Equip students with transferrable character design skills that could be applied to a wide range of creative arts subject disciplines.

Story Design for Creative Industries

The aims of this module are to: learn basic elements of creating narratives for the story industry, to include film, TV, stage, animated film, and video games, and to provide a forum in which these skills can be practised. The module will enable students to analyse and explore their own creative practice. They will design and develop a short outline for their chosen medium, under the supervision of tutors.

Fashion to Function: Designing Clothing and Wearable Products

The aims of this module are to:

  • Understand the core principles of human-centred design and fashion design, and how they apply to clothing and wearable products.
  • Develop effective communication, collaboration, and problem-solving skills in multi-disciplinary teams for the successful execution of fashion design products for a specific consumer.
  • Compile a portfolio showcasing individual and team contributions to clothing/wearable product designs, highlighting the integration of human-centred design principles and fashion design processes.

The Ethics and Aesthetics of Generative AI in Design

The aim of this module is to imbue students with the capability to utilise generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and an understanding of the ethical implications of GenAI tools in design practice. After completion of the module students will have gained: an appreciation for what GenAI tools are available and which are currently popular in their discipline of choice; foresight into how these tools are developing and what their future capabilities will be; and what the ethical implications are for the use of GenAI in their field of study.

Phantom Threads: Fashion, Costume and Culture in Film

The aims of this module are to:

  • Introduce a range of theories and concepts related to costume and clothing, pertaining to fashion in film.
  • Apply these concepts to a variety of relevant cinematic contexts including historical period, the wearing of uniform, the construction of fantasy, the function of specialist dress, fashion as symbols of community, ritual and identity.

Compulsory modules

Negotiated Project

The aims of this module are to:

  • Enable students to develop high level graphic design practice in a subject specialism.
  • Promote independent, creative, intellectual and professional enquiry.

Major Project

The aims of this module are to:

  • Enable students to produce a substantial body of expert practice in a subject specialism.
  • Promote a culture of collaboration, enterprise and innovation.
  • Ensure students develop a professionally presented portfolio of work that is ready for exhibition beyond the studio.

Optional modules

Dissertation

The aims of this module are to:

  • Give students the opportunity to select, design and conduct independent research on a topic relevant to their creative practice, degree programme or career aspirations.
  • Equip students with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on their independent research.
  • Enable students to develop their organisational skills in planning, time management, preparing and producing an extended written account of their work.
  • Guide students in developing a specialist understanding of their chosen topic and the communication skills to convey this understanding in a rigorous and compelling way.

Industrial Report

The aims of this module are to:

  • Provide students with the opportunity to originate, negotiate and assume responsibility for the production of independent research in an area of industry related to their creative practice.
  • Enable students to identify and critically engage with specific concepts related to their area of industry through a rigorous exploration of its practical and contemporaneous framework: formal, social, cultural, political, environmental, technological and industrial contexts.
  • Develop organisational skills in planning, researching, preparing and revising a substantial piece of written work.
  • Enable the students to pursue an industry-focused route in a way that may enhance and inform their own studio practice.

The information above is intended as an example only, featuring module details for the current year of study. Modules are reviewed on an annual basis and may be subject to future changes – revised details will be published through Programme Specifications ahead of each academic year. Please also see Terms and Conditions of Study for more information.