Graphic Design Summer Short Course

Students will work on a different aspect of the discipline each day, but each activity will be linked by a continuous theme individual to each student.

A typical week might be:

The students will be allocated an object in a razzmatazz lottery draw – complete with tombola. They will be asked to observe and draw this object, moving from figurative to more abstract to completely experimental in stages, presenting an 'evolution' to the class at the end of the day.

A short lecture will be given on the expressive possibilities of typography. Each student will then be asked to experiment typographically with the dictionary definition of their object. The aim will be to make this passage of text communicate in a visually exciting way – in as much contrast as possible to the staid delivery of the dictionary.

Students will be asked to expand their perception of their object through several short conceptual thinking workshop activities. In the afternoon session, they will work in groups in a longer exercise in which they will construct a narrative based on the relationship between their objects. This work will be fast, fun and based on ideas not aesthetics.

Students will be asked to broaden their knowledge of their object through desk research and discussion. The students will be helped throughout the day and directed to relevant resources in response to their progress. At the end of the day they will be asked to present the 10 most interesting new facts they have learned during the course of the day. A short lecture will follow on the importance of research in graphic design. Finally, the brief for Friday's project will be given out.

Students will be asked to incorporate all skills learned during the week's activities into this one-day group project centred on their objects. They will use the research from the previous day in reaching creative solutions. Two tutors will be on hand to teach intensively with a presentation taking place at the end of the day.