BA(Hons) Graphic Design (with Foundation Entry option)
Why you should apply for this course.
To see the splendid things we do please visit our website
www.cumbria.ac.uk/graphicdesign|
We love graphic design. There, we’ve said it. And, after studying with us, you’ll feel the same. More importantly, you’ll be using that passion to produce exciting design that shows your skill, commitment, and creativity to a wide range of employers.
Students at many other institutions rarely see their tutors due to huge group sizes. We know that small year groups are best so we aim to recruit around forty students each year. This means that you see us regularly and work alongside your fellow students from a studio base. You receive a massive amount of regular tutor support and feedback. Our course is carefully structured, starting at first principles, allowing you to develop rapidly using a series of short projects, workshops and fully illustrated studio lectures.
What is this course about?
During year one we build your confidence and help you develop your ideas by taking apart design through a series of imaginative briefs that address specific themes, issues and technical skills. These themes are further explored in an integrated design in context module. We are renowned for our teaching of drawing and typography and you also develop your skills using our state-of-the-art digital resources. We cover a lot of ground and, as stated previously, you receive a massive amount of tutor support and feedback.
In year two, you tackle a series of wide-ranging design problems. You gain specialist skills as you cover corporate identity, illustration, marketing and promotional work, information, book, magazine, film, TV and web design. Throughout the course you also work with professional designers, travel to design studios and visit relevant exhibitions. By the end of the year your experience, skill and ambition should ensure you have developed a strong sense of your chosen area of graphic design.
Year three allows you the freedom to explore a personal approach to design, which helps you build a portfolio appropriate to your career goals. Work will include a range of international competitions, tutor-set projects and live outside briefs. Ultimately you develop self-negotiated projects giving you the opportunity to show the design world just how good you are. A professional development module includes a work placement, which can help you to successfully launch your career as a practising designer.
We’re good at what we do and we have a fantastic record of getting students into work. You’re with us for three years, but it’s what you achieve after you graduate that’s really important.
What do our students say?
“Thank you for making me believe in myself” – Year One Student
"The staff are obviously very enthusiastic about what they teach and it is
catching" – Year Two Student
"From my interview I knew this would be MY University... I felt like I
fitted in" – Year Three Student
What can the course lead to?
We help you graduate as a fully-rounded, flexible, highly motivated, professional designer. In fact, just the type of person the creative industries are crying out for.
Our graduates are working for national and international design consultancies, new-media agencies, TV companies, and newspapers (including the New York Times). The MTV design studio only employs three full-time designers two of which are our graduates.
Our reputation for the teaching of typography and magazine design means that each year a number of our graduates are head-hunted by the major magazine publishing houses including Future Publishing, IPC and Condé Nast. Others graduates have established themselves as self-employed designers or developed design-related careers in marketing and design management.
