Graphic Communication and Illustration BA (Hons) DIntS / DPS

What you'll study

Excited to learn more? For a taster of what you can expect to study on our Graphic Communication and Illustration BA (Hons) degree, take a sneak preview of some of the modules you may have the opportunity to study below.

The information below reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. Updates may be made on an annual basis and revised details will be published through Programme Specifications ahead of each academic year. Please see Terms and Conditions of Study for more information.

• Year 1
• Year 2
• Final year

In Year 1, students are encouraged to work through an exciting array of briefs that examine aspects of the subjects, including drawing and visualising, layouts and grids, animation, filmmaking, typography, ambient media, advertising and graphic theatre.

Semester 1

Drawing: Discourses and Debates Core

Drawing: Discourses and Debates

Visual Research in Practice Core

Visual Research in Practice

Semester 2

Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art and Design Core

Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Art and Design

Visual Methods in Practice Core

Visual Methods in Practice

In Year 2, students are encouraged to sample a wide range of specialisms including sequential and narrative design, corporate identity, editorial and book design, packaging and information graphics, all deployed across a range of media.

Semester 1

Content and Context: Society, Culture and Economy Core

Content and Context: Society, Culture and Economy

Visual Culture: Histories and Theories Core

Visual Culture: Histories and Theories

Semester 2

Locating Practice: Interpreting Environment and Audiences Core

Locating Practice: Interpreting Environment and Audiences

19th Century Bodies Optional

19th Century Bodies

African American Culture Optional

African American Culture

On this module you will explore the complex formal and political questions raised by African American cultural expression produced between 1845 and the present. We will study a wide range of forms and media - literary, cinematic and musical - situating these in their shifting historical contexts, from the nineteenth-century American South to the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.

Arts Management Optional

Arts Management

This module covers a range of issues related to arts management including: the economic and political landscape for the arts and creative industries, careers in arts management, funding for the arts, establishing and running an arts-based organisation, arts programming, curating, audience and customer development, finance and fundraising, marketing, time management and project management.

Costume Design Optional

Costume Design

This module aims for the student to gain both theoretical knowledge of the function and historical development of theatre costume, and practical understanding of the creative process of design and making.

Creative Dissent: Protest, Activism and Art Optional

Creative Dissent: Protest, Activism and Art

This module identifies and addresses the central concepts, terminologies and debates concerning the relationship between art, activism and politics within society through a series of 20th-century and contemporary case studies. Be part of an online blogging community, work collaboratively and develop a reflexive approach to establishing your own perspective on socially engaged and activist forms of cultural practice.

Elephants and Engines: An Introduction to Creative Writing Optional

Elephants and Engines: An Introduction to Creative Writing

This module will introduce you to techniques for writing fiction and poetry. These include imagery, character and location - allowing you to write in whatever form or genre you wish, and on any subject matter. Practical workshops and examples from contemporary literature will help you to write, and to develop your writing strengths.

Fashion Theory Optional

Fashion Theory

This module will introduce and critically examine some of the main theories of fashion. It will identify and survey modernist and post-modernist theories of the nature of fashion as well as of the production, meaning and consumption of fashion.

From Print to Digital: Publishing Revolutions Optional

From Print to Digital: Publishing Revolutions

This module provides multiple perspectives on publishing and the spread of ideas through print and the digital in society, and on key concepts and ideas from the publishing world. It traces significant changes that have taken place in the book trade since the invention of printing to the digital revolution and to explore the challenges and opportunities arising from these changes.

Introduction to Multimodality Optional

Introduction to Multimodality

How do we communicate through images and what is the relationship between visual and verbal text strategies? The aim of the module is to introduce students to the study of texts that are created not just by using verbal language.

Material Culture Optional

Material Culture

Optional module taught by Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies, focusing on the concept of physical and virtual objects. The ideas of consumption and possession are explored, including the notion of the body as a material thing and the nature of gift and exchange.

Non-verbal Communication: Body Adornment and New Technologies Optional

Non-verbal Communication: Body Adornment and New Technologies

This module aims for students to develop an appreciation of body objects in life, art, design and drama, as well as gaining understanding and knowledge of the communicative roles of wearable artefacts and the relationships they can have with the human body.

Philosophy, Literature and the Arts Optional

Philosophy, Literature and the Arts

On this module you will read and discuss some of the key ideas in philosophy that are central to literary study and theory, and to the discussion of art and its role in our lives and societies. We will be examining these alongside a selection of literary texts and visual art (sculpture, painting and photography) which pose, incorporate or illustrate philosophical ideas and questions.

Word and Image: Verbo-visual Exchange in Art and Literature Optional

Word and Image: Verbo-visual Exchange in Art and Literature

This module examines innovative exchanges between word and image in visual art and literature across a range of media. It develops analytical skills through the close visual and textual analysis of works drawn from a wide variety of historical periods and genre.

In the Final year, students are stimulated to recognise and test their strengths as a graphic and illustrative communicator, building confidence in the ability to develop a personal focus.

Destinations in Graphic Communication and Illustration Practice Core

Destinations in Graphic Communication and Illustration Practice

Route A

Art and Design Dissertation Core

Art and Design Dissertation

Focusing Directions in Graphic Communication and Illustration Practice Core

Focusing Directions in Graphic Communication and Illustration Practice

Route B

Industrial Intelligence and in Graphic Communication and Illustration Practice Core

Industrial Intelligence and in Graphic Communication and Illustration Practice

Synergising Directions in Graphic Communication and Illustration Practice Core

Synergising Directions in Graphic Communication and Illustration Practice

Programme specification

Module specification