BA(Hons) Graphic Design (with Foundation Entry option)
Why you should apply for this course.
To see more of what we do please visit our website
www.cumbria.ac.uk/graphicdesign|
We love graphic design and, after studying with us, we’re sure you’ll feel the same. More importantly, you’ll be using that passion to produce exciting design across a wide range of traditional and digital media, showing your skill, commitment, versitillity and creativity to potential employers.
It’s a sad truth that students at many other institutions rarely see their tutors due to huge group sizes – happily we’re very different! We know that small year groups are best and so we recruit around fifty students each year. This means that you see us regularly and receive a massive amount of regular tutor support and feedback. We also believe that you should work from a studio base. In our case this is a huge, dynamic, modern, multi-functioning space in which all years of our course mix, share ideas and inspire one another.
Our course is carefully structured, starting at first principles, allowing you to develop rapidly using innovative project briefs, technical workshops, frequent studio lectures, practical demonstrations and visits from professional designers.
What is this course about?
Put simply, our aim is to give you the experience, confidence and creative skills to allow you to stand out from the crowd when you graduate.
During Year One we build your confidence and help you develop your ideas by looking at all aspects of design through a series of imaginative briefs that address core themes, issues and technical skills. These themes are further explored in an integrated design theory module. We are renowned for our teaching of drawing (including life drawing) and typography and you also develop your two-dimensional and moving image skills using our state-of-the-art digital resources and technical workshops. We cover a lot of ground and you learn a huge amount!
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. This includes designing and building your own online portfolio. 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 supports your transition from student to professional and includes a work placement, which can help you to successfully launch your career as a practicing 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.
Resources
We are immensely proud of our fantastic, huge and well-equipped studio space. It contains over eighty Mac workstations, small tutorial and lecture spaces, staff offices, and lots of space for student work bases. It also has the advantage of having an in-house reprographics department for all your printing needs. The benefits to you of working alongside students from all years of the course are immense and the mix creates an inspiring, dynamic, stimulating and continually changing environment.
We also believe you should be able to exploit any technical areas your project work may require and so you will have access to computer training labs, animation suites, printmaking studios, moving image editing suites, wood, metal and plastic workshops, textile studios, photography studios and even our ceramics department!
What do our students say?
“I’ve never been more sure about making the right choice of course – it’s brilliant and the tutors are fab!” – Year One Student (2010 anonymous feedback survey)
“The feedback was incredibly helpful and the majority of what I have learnt came from this.” – Year One Student (2010 anonymous feedback survey)
“Working outside my comfort zone has been a creative and enjoyable experience.” – Year Two Student (2010 anonymous feedback survey)
“The feedback and guidance was strong throughout the year.” – Year Two Student (2010 anonymous feedback survey)
“I learnt a lot this year and the tutors were willing to answer questions at any time – I could even Email them for more help.” – Year Three Student (2010 anonymous feedback survey)
“Tutors were helpful and very creative, always giving me a new and fresh perspective on project briefs.” – Year Three Student (2010 anonymous feedback survey)
What can the course lead to?
We help you graduate as a 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 and advertising consultancies, new-media agencies, TV companies, publishing houses and newspapers.
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, styling and design management.
Foundation Entry (Year Zero)*
Foundation entry option is full for 2010 entry.
You experience a wide range of project work and have extensive inductions into virtually all of our technical workshops. The pace is fast, the projects are fun and successful completion of ‘Year Zero’ gives you automatic progression to Year One of the BA (Hons) Graphic Design course. You will be able to hit the ground running!
Here’s what our students say:
“The teaching style is enthusiastic, handouts and lectures are informative and the frequent feedback is honest and encouraging.” – Year Zero Student (2010 anonymous feedback survey)
“The best thing about Year Zero has been the tutor and technician support helping me create work that I didn’t think I could.” – Year Zero Student (2010 anonymous feedback survey)
“The teaching style is personal and attentive, I learned lots of new techniques and the feedback has been honest and very helpful in improving my work. The briefs are clear and the technicians are so helpful.” – Year Zero Student (2010 anonymous feedback survey)
