BA (Hons) Graphic Communication Design

Bachelor's degree

In London

£ 9,250 VAT inc.

Description

  • Type

    Bachelor's degree

  • Location

    London

  • Duration

    3 Years

This course equips you to become a versatile graphic communication design practitioner in a wide range of media and contexts, from paper to screen, from digital environments to public spaces.Taking this broad perspective, you’ll develop not only technical and conceptual skills but engage socially and culturally, understanding the power of design to shape human behaviour.This course is part of the Graphic Communication Design programme.Great reasons to applyBA Graphic Communication Design supports students interested in developing hybrid practices, specialist approaches and those looking for a more general and strategic graphic communication design educationChoose from areas of study to develop professional approaches in, for example, typography, coding, illustration, interaction, moving image and brandingDevelop collaborative and team-working skills and hybrid practices across disciplinary boundariesCo-design your curriculum for final year study, developing themes and issues for exploration and experimentationElect to tackle live briefs engaging local government, non-profits and companiesGain support and feedback from a larger community of professional design practitioners.Open daysWednesday 22 November, 10amWednesday 22 November, 2:30pmFriday 1 December, 10amFriday 1 December, 2:30pmFriday 8 December, 10amFriday 8 December, 2:30pmScholarships, awards and funding Mead Scholarships and FellowshipsYat Malmgren BursaryThe Fung ScholarshipsRebecca Ross and Peter Hall in conversation"One of the biggest challenges is to work out how graphic design can confront environmental, political and social crises without making the problems worse."Student workBe dangerous. Be subversive. Be unique. Confound and confront. Have an agenda. Have a mission and stick to it. Be ready for a fight .Johnny Hardstaff, BA Graphic Communication Design alumGraphic Communication Design on...

Facilities

Location

Start date

London
See map
1 Granary Square

Start date

On request

About this course

Entry requirementsSelection is determined by the quality of the application, indicated primarily in your portfolio and written statements. A very high proportion of successful applicants complete a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design .Applicants are normally expected to have achieved, or be expected to achieve, the course entry requirements details below: Foundation Diploma in Art and Design1 GCE A Level3 GCSEs grade C or aboveORPass at BTEC Extended Diploma3 GCSEs grade C or aboveOROther University of Arts London awarded level 3 Pre-University...

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Subjects

  • Access
  • Design
  • Perspective
  • Communication design
  • Illustration
  • Image
  • Typography
  • International
  • Technology
  • Government
  • Writing
  • Team Training
  • Communication Training
  • Media
  • Human Behaviour
  • Production

Course programme

Course detail

Graphic communication design is the art of generating and diffusing visual culture. Its practice is as old as cave painting but with the advent of mechanical, photographic and then digital means of reproduction, graphic communication design became a dominant and ubiquitous force in the world, disseminating the ideas and norms of our visual culture. As a means of recording, informing, promoting and persuading, graphic communication design is responsible for shaping the ways people see and act in the world.

This course aims to develop your technical and conceptual skills and situate your practice socially and ethically, so that you emerge with strong technical skills, creative abilities and an understanding of the power of design to influence and shape human behaviour. This is particularly important amid unprecedented social, political and environmental changes.

The accelerating pace of transformation raises important questions about the future forms the world will take and, as a consequence, the future aims and possibilities of graphic and communication design. Such challenges demand that practitioners envisage and direct change, and accept responsibility as managers of material and cultural resources, data and information.

During their studies, BA Graphic Communication Design students:

  • Choose disciplinary areas of focus and build strengths in specific technical skills
  • Co-create content based on student-initiated themes and issues
  • Acquire skills and process knowledge based on both the historical tradition of the graphic communication design discipline and the potential and pitfalls of new technology within the systems and structures of society, providing a practical expression of the connections between meanings and audiences
  • Join a large, diverse design student community spread across five continents while enjoying direct access to London, one of the world's great capital cities of design
  • Have easy access to London’s vast cultural and social resources.

The ability to think critically about the purpose of what we do is crucial in developing a strategy of sustainability within our discipline and beyond. The future belongs to those responsible and reflective practitioners who understand the extended potential of graphic design and possess the creative openness to explore its possibilities.

We support and encourage all BA Graphic Communication Design students to imagine, express and communicate responsibly the new, the exciting and the different.

BA Graphic Communication Design runs for 90 weeks full time over three years, and is divided into three Levels (or Stages), each lasting 30 weeks. The whole degree course is credit-rated at 360 credits, with 120 credits at each Level (Stage).

Under the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications the Levels for a BA are: Level 4 (which is stage 1 of the course), Level 5 (Stage 2) and Level 6 (Stage 3).

There's a progression point at the end of each Level and, in order to progress, all units of the preceding Level must normally have been passed.

If you're unable to continue on the course a Certificate of Higher Education (Cert HE) will normally be offered following the successful completion of Level 4, or a Diploma in Higher Education following the successful completion of Level 5.

To gain a BA (Honours), students must successfully complete 360 credits. The final award consists of marks from Level 6 units only, weighted according to their credits.

Course dates

Autumn term:
Monday 24 September 2018 – Friday 7 December 2018
Spring term:
Monday 7 January 2019 – Friday 15 March 2019
Summer term:
Monday 15 April 2019 – Friday 21 June 2019

Related content
  • Follow BA Graphic Communication Design
  • 2017 Degree Show website
  • 2016 Degree Show website
  • 2015 Degree Show website

Course outline

The BA Graphic Communication Design curriculum is delivered through a mix of project work, lectures, seminars and assignments in discrete units.

BA Graphic Communication Design offers you a common introductory diagnostic experience during the first year, followed by two years of selected and more specialised study driven by your interests and preferences. The degree programme includes a contextual studies (Context) element and gives access to a comprehensive range of technical workshops and resources, both digital and analogue.

Main study - stage one

Stage one will introduce the landscape and languages of graphic communication design and welcome you to a community of designers. You will be inducted into the core languages of graphic communication design– reading and writing, typography and digital – through lectures, workshops, seminars and individual and collective projects. This stage will include introductions to the history of design and theories of communication. You will have the opportunity to experience different specialist areas of design before making a negotiated choice of focus in which to begin stage two. Teaching will be intensive, timetabled across 2.5 days.

Main study - stage two

You will begin stage two in your chosen specialist area and will have the opportunity to begin to collaborate with students across the course and across the college, with options to shift focus at key points as the year progresses. The course encourages you to explore hybrid practices through projects where different specialist areas meet and mix and discipline boundaries are expanded and explored. This stage will focus on communication skills: how to communicate verbally, visually and in writing as an integrated practice. You will be mapping the field, thinking through making, exploring practice and working collaboratively. As you move towards stage three, you will be involved in co-designing the content and curriculum for your final year and will be supported in making a negotiated choice of Community of Practice. You will explore notions of collaboration, participation and the relationship with audiences. Communities of Practice will be supported by lectures, workshops and seminars that will explore cultural, social and theoretical contexts of contemporary graphic communication design practice.

Main study - stage three

Stage three will address problem finding, problem solving and problem setting. The focus will be on depth of knowledge, and situating practice around student-initiated issues and themes. This is an outward-facing stage designed to facilitate students in making connections and building networks. You will work in Communities of Practice based around thematic areas that have been arrived at

through the co-creation conference in stage two. You will be tutored by a group of staff that will bring studio and writing together to facilitate and support the production of a body of work that situates all aspects of the student’s practice.

Developing your skills - external activities

There are opportunities to engage with live briefs led by local government or clients such as LVMH, Camden Council and Sony, and to participate in national and international student design competitions, such as RSA and D&AD. The course is a member of D&AD - BA Graphic Design students gain from discounts on submissions to the D&AD Student Awards and other benefits.

Arrangements for work experience or internships are encouraged and facilitated on an informal basis. Study trips, student exchanges, studio visits and collaborative projects (either within UAL or with partner institutions at home and abroad) offer further opportunities to study within a broader context. During stage two a number of 'Study Abroad' students from the USA and other countries join the course for one, two or three terms.

The course has a strong history and a reputation for thinking through making. You will have opportunities to learn prototyping, craft and production skills through workshops and projects that explore the synthesis between thinking and making as an essential part of the design process. You will explore what making means in relation to both traditional and contemporary practice – for example, you will be able to explore code as a material and at the same time choose to do bookbinding; you might experiment with analogue printmaking alongside physical computing; stop-frame animation and augmented reality. This approach extends beyond making into ‘breaking’ – you will be encouraged to challenge, experiment, disrupt and subvert and to make your own tools.

BA Graphic Communication Design Programme Specification 2018/19 (PDF, 278KB)

Industry collaborations

Working with paying clients on live briefs will give you valuable commercial experience which may mean your work being taken forward for production or, if so desired, in the purchase of your intellectual property. All paid projects are conducted within a carefully developed legal framework, which includes student agreements to protect your work and help you realise its commercial value.

Recent client projects in the Graphic Communication programme include: TetraPak | Karstadt | Sony Music | Beefeater Gin | Fabriano | Kagome | Hewlett Packard | Tod's | Fresh. Find out more about the Lacoste client project.

Once you’ve graduated, you may be picked as part of a small team to work on a live creative brief, organised by our Business and Innovation department, under the supervision of an experienced tutor. This can be a valuable first step in working professionally in a chosen discipline and has resulted in graduates being hired by clients.

CSM Graphics graduate designs stunning Foyles building wrap

In a competition curated by Futurecity, ten recent BA Graphic Design graduates were selected to develop artwork proposals that would celebrate the character of both Central Saint Martins and Foyles, exploring the status of the two institutions as cultural icons and bringing their heritage to life for this large-scale temporary artwork.

BA Graphic Design graduate and current MA Communication Design student Rebecca Hendin’s playful illustration was selected by a panel of judges from Futurecity, Foyles and Saint Martins Lofts and unveiled earlier this month.

Visit the News section to find out more.

CSM Graphics work with Beefeater on #MyLondon photography campaign

Central Saint Martins BA Graphic Design students had the opportunity this autumn to work alongside the Beefeater Gin #MyLondon campaign, which invited people to send in photos of what London means to them.

Winner Natalie Braune had the IP of her winning photo purchased by Beefeater and received £1000. Her photo captured the interaction between iconic London monuments and the patterns they make on the people around them.

Facilities

  • Letterpress

    Find out more about our Letterpress workshop

  • Print Workshops (Archway)

    Find out more about the printmaking facility at Archway

  • Digital Media

    Find out more about our digital media facility at King's Cross

View all facilities

Staff

Programme Director: Rebecca Wright
Course Leader: Dr Peter Hall
Stage 1 Leader: Emily Wood
Stage 2 Leader: Kira Salter
Stage 3 Leader: Dr Catherine Dixon
Senior Lecturer (Advertising): Clive Challis
Senior Lecturer (Moving Image): Esteban Gitton
Senior Lecturer (Illustration): Andrew Hall

Senior Lecturer (Design & Interaction): Kira Salter (Stage 1 & 2) and David Preston (Stage 3)
Professor of Typography & Senior Lecturer: Professor Phil Baines
Senior Lecturer (Context): Andrea Lioy
Senior Lecturer (Context): Dr Paul Rennie

Senior Lecturer (Photography): Gary Wallis
Senior Lecturer: Cath Caldwell
Lecturer: Jaap de Maat
Lecturer: Luise Vormittag
Visiting Fellow: Lucienne Roberts
Visiting Fellow: Jack Schulze
Practitioner in Residence: Paul Elliman
External Liaison Co-ordinator: Kate Pelan

BA (Hons) Graphic Communication Design

£ 9,250 VAT inc.