Graphic Design

Content

What is graphic design today? 'Graphic Design' is an imprecise name for an ill-defined subject, constantly shifting and changing, responding to social change and attitude, inextricably linked with cultural change.

It is usually accepted to have something to do with media of all kinds, though not definitively; it may, but may not have a physical form.

The diagnostic and analytical approach, and above all flexibility and breadth of the course structure enable you to establish your own creative identity and take control of your future. Our concern is to enable you to become a sensitive and sophisticated practitioner, fully capable of responding to the demands of professional life, but not to be defined by them. Contemporary graphic design graduates have opportunities their forerunners could not have imagined. Access to established analogue, mechanical and manual technologies: letterpress, screen-printing, etching, and 'wet' photography have been preserved, but alongside newer, digital technologies, giving you the ability to work within a creative fusion of media, crafts and techniques.

Structure

The course runs for 90 weeks full time over three years, and is divided into three Levels, (or Stages) each lasting 30 weeks.

Graphic Design Practice is the programme of practical, creative and reflective studies expressed through the introductory and diagnostic programme of Stage One, and the 'routes' of Design, Illustration, Advertising and Moving Image in Stages Two & Three. Through a series of projects you will develop the cognitive and technical skills necessary to develop, communicate and implement your thinking. Your chosen route is your 'home' area within Stages Two & Three. You can work exclusively within your area or work with other disciplines from your home area. Technical skills are taught and acquired on a need to know basis, and by the end of the course, you will have developed your own personal suite of skills according to the route and direction you have negotiated through the course.

Stage 1

Stage One of the course is diagnostic and provides an introduction to a broad range of approaches to graphic design, its practices and the technologies it employs: design and ideas, typography, advertising, illustration, photography, moving image, interactive media, drawing, printmaking, digital software and the context programme.

You are challenged with a demanding pace of project work that offers you the opportunity to control the direction and content of your work. At the end of Stage One you establish your choice of route and any complementary media for Stage Two.

The four specialist routes in Stage Two and Stage Three are as follows:

Design focuses on the visual language of graphic design and its many applications. It aims to be a broadening experience during which you will gain confidence as a creative problem solver, acquiring an understanding of the means by which inventive design solutions can be achieved. Project work takes place on two levels: exercises designed to extend the repertoire of visual skills and concepts and that can vary from one day to three weeks in length.

Advertising requires 'creatives'-conceptual thinkers who are also writers and art directors. Set briefs during Stage Two are used to develop communicative thoughts, and do not need to be taken to a finished stage. A large number of briefs are undertaken and critiqued to tight deadlines. Through this process, you will begin to understand that the idea is the most valuable of all commodities, and the execution is both informed and directed by it. A range of issues will be covered including: visual and verbal synergy, research and targeting, perception and psychology, planning and appropriate choice of media. In the latter part of Stage Two, briefs start to include marketing and targeting issues.

Illustration - The image is your primary means of communication. A series of set briefs will be structured to challenge your value systems, to elicit personal responses from you, and to find methodologies to communicate concept driven imagery to a wide audience. You learn to assess and interpret a brief, to carry out research and development, and to incisively answer a brief in an appropriate medium. Embedded within Stage Two projects will be a programme exploring the fundamental elements underpinning visual language and visual communication. These often include: single and sequential narration, semiotics and the subtext, visual vernacular, use of wit and metaphor, symbolism and editing.

Moving Image students learn how to originate ideas in time, how to build a dramatic construction and develop an ability to connect individual images in a sequence that represents ideas in a 'narrative' structure. Students also learn to consider the relationship between sound and image and the potential of each to influence and alter the interpretation of the other. Typical projects include, video rostrum animation, a TV title sequence, a short video documentary, MTV idents and Kodak student film competition. Students learn all aspects of film/video production - they script, shoot and edit and create their own soundtrack, using both, film and digital media.

Stage 2

This Stage focuses increasingly on the application and synthesis of learning within your specialist route, and on your role as a practitioner within the related disciplines. The Stage is defined by a process of transition in which you progress from responding to staff-led and externally set briefs, to beginning to identify areas of specific interests and initiating your own projects. Whilst you negotiate a position within your specialist route, there are no formal restrictions on the work that can be made or the medium used. The course provides the flexibility that enables you to develop your originality and creativity both individually and/or collaboratively, to extend the boundaries of your route title. You can supplement your route by specialising in a range of media that enable you to develop your main study work.

Stage 3

This is the most integrated of all three Stages, mirroring as far as possible challenges you are likely to encounter in professional practice outside college. Although you will be encouraged to maintain a spirit of adventurous enquiry, the requirement to demonstrate your qualities to a wider audience now takes priority. You are expected to generate a body of work for final assessment that reflects the programme of study you have chosen to undertake, your portfolio demonstrating currency within your chosen arena, without retreating into the normalised world of the established and accepted.