BA (Hons) Graphic Design
Graphic Design is the modern form of storytelling. It has the power to inspire, educate, instruct, entertain, influence and define identity. Our BA (Hons) Graphic Design course enables you to examine the principles of graphic design, encouraging you to explore your own individual creative voice in a progressive, enterprising, playful and curious way. You will be introduced to a broad range of creative communication techniques and be equipped with the tools to help define your future and find an individual voice within the field of visual communication.
You will be given the freedom to explore innovative and experimental methods to develop your practice as a professional designer. Through experimentation and critical enquiry, students are given the opportunity to reflect on the past, challenge the contemporary and influence the creative future of design. Our small class sizes ensure that you will receive frequent one-to-one guidance from our highly-skilled lecturers, allowing for a more tailored learning experience.
This course is designed to prepare you for a successful career in the design industries. Teaching comprises of set and live project briefs, self-initiated work, hands-on workshops and guest lectures by industry professionals. You will also have the opportunity to showcase your work through exhibitions and industry events in both Cambridge and London.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS COURSE
YEAR ONE
The first year of this course is designed to expose you to the fundamentals of the discipline, whilst exploring the breadth of possibilities available within the world of graphic design. Through exciting and engaging practical workshops, diverse project briefs, lectures and crits you will start to develop your own unique visual language through personal idea development.
You will be introduced to the design process and to a wide variety of techniques through embracing discovery, experimentation, idea generation, critical enquiry, visual language using type and image, and storytelling.
YEAR TWO
In the second year, you will continue to develop your individual visual language. You will take part in live projects and/or collaborations as you examine the subject in greater depth and start to discover the potential area of industry that most appeals to your aspirations. You are encouraged to continue to question convention, disrupt, take risks and use creative thinking throughout.
In the second half of the year, you will begin to define the subject from your own perspective and begin to shape your skills and interests for the final year ahead. Creative briefs and specialist workshops will introduce you to the ethics and responsibility of design practice, collaborative practice and methodologies of project management.
YEAR THREE
Your final year is the link between college and your career in the creative arts. During this year, you will undertake more challenging set briefs and self-initiated work as you examine in depth specific topics of your choosing.
Guided by tutors and industry specialists, you will work on a final project, focusing on your individual personal direction, by refining the detail and depth of existing projects or working on new initiatives. This final project should present your final graphic design identity and will contribute to your final body of work from which to select your own professional portfolio.
WE PROVIDE
- Your own individual workspace in the studio.
- You will be allocated personal use of an iMac.
- Studios are open 7 days a week.
- Lectures are based in your studio 5 days a week.
- One-to-one with tutors.
- Access to an extensive range of UK wide practitioners, connecting you to industry and building industry contacts.
- Small group and one-to-one assistance with essay and dissertation writing.
- Guaranteed Graduate Show in London, with no extra costs.
- Free colour printing.
- Access to an in-studio library, printmaking, and photography studios.
THE AWARD
Upon successful completion students will be awarded a BA(Hons) Graphics Design accredited by Falmouth University.
“My time at CSVPA has been so helpful. I wouldn’t have got this experience anywhere else. There are such small classes, we have a lot of one-to-ones with the tutors. It is definitely an opportunity I wouldn’t pass up for anything else.”
McKenzie –
BA (Hons) Graphics and Illustration student
VIDEO
HIGHLIGHTS
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OVERVIEW
Course Location
Cambridge
Course Length
3 years (6 semesters)
Course Start
September
Tutor Support
Specialist tutor support available 5 days a week.
Studio Access
Students have access to our studios 7 days a week, from 8am to 8.30pm, Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm at weekends.
Awarding Body
Falmouth University
English Language
Up to 5 hours per week if required
How your Work is Assessed
Visual projects with occasional written assignments and a Dissertation in Year 3.
Guest Lecturers
Our course is enriched by programmed lectures and workshops from a range of leading creative professionals.
Your Space
Each of our students has their own workspace and is provided with free colour printing. Students will also have access to an in-studio library and our photography and printmaking studios.
How we Teach
Throughout this course, students will be taught through projects, specialist workshops, guest lecturers, regular one-to-ones, and group tutorials.
Progression
Graphic Designer, Art Director, Advertising, Branding, App Design, Product Design, Digital Moving Image, Typography, Interactive Design, Packaging, 3D Design, Publishing, Exhibition Design, Website Design, Information Design, Photographer, Animator, Concept Artist, Printmaker, Game Art Designer, Media & Communications, Freelance Design, Retail Design, Social Media Design, Virtual Reality Design
Results
100% of students praised our lecturers’ dedication to supporting their learning*
100% of students said that they had the chance to explore ideas and concepts in depth*
*National Student Survey 2024
UCAS Institution Code
C06
UCAS Course Code
W210
W211 with Integrated Foundation Year
ENTRY
Age
18 years +
Educational Level
72 UCAS points (or equivalent) gained through a Foundation Diploma or Extended Diploma, International Baccalaureate or two A Levels (or similar international High School qualification).
Students who do not meet these entry requirements will still be considered on their own individual potential to succeed.
English Level for International Students
IELTS 5.5+ (with no element below 5.5)
Portfolio
A portfolio of work showing personal work, schoolwork, finished and prepared is required for this course. Your portfolio is the chance to show us your skills and your passion. Download our guide to see what we look for in a portfolio.
STRUCTURE
YEAR 1
One of the first modules you will study is Core Practice. This module will introduce you to a range of the fundamental skills and techniques that you will need for success as your progress through the Graphic Design degree course.
Delivered through a series of practical workshops, in-studio projects and assignments, and guided by our experienced faculty of tutors, you will have the opportunity to experiment with and become confident using basic elements of Graphic Design such as: dot, line, shape, direction, tone, colour, texture, dimension, scale and movement. You will undertake individual and collaborative projects, all the while refining new methods of working, developing your idea generation and creative thinking, and exploring your own visual language.
Disrupt. Challenge. Take risks. Exploration is the key theme of this module and you will be provided the freedom to experiment with a wide range of materials, techniques and thought processes. This module encourages you to challenge popular conceptions and constraints within the design process, exploring and utilising your personal individual language, as you undertake a number of varied and interesting assignments. You will be prompted to reflect on your own work, evaluating its effectiveness in visual communication and assessing how you can introduce your new skills and methods into your individual creative approach.
Creative Expression is a module that will allow you to build on the idea development processes studied in earlier modules, taking your ideas and bringing them to life as you find creative solutions to exciting briefs set by your tutors. Assignments are designed to develop your conceptual thinking and you will explore what possibilities a career as a creative graphic designer in the modern world can bring.
You will undertake individual and collaborative projects, which will encourage you to expand your skills in visual communication. Projects will encourage you to explore global issues through your individual artistic expression.
The world of art and design is broad and complex. Guided by our expert lecturers, within this module you will explore the cultural context of art and design, and their impact on the wider world. You will investigate a wide range of creative products, typically drawn from Graphic Design, Film, Animation, Gaming and Graphic Novels, to analyse and identify the significance of the particular sociohistorical, cultural, geographical, philosophical and ideological frameworks in which they were created and of which they are communicating. This module concludes with a written assignment.
The aim is to demonstrate how practice relates to a broader context of visual communication, to encourage an enquiring and reflective approach to practice and to engage students in the production of a written assignment.
YEAR 2
Professional Voice is a module that focuses on you as an individual artist. With the assistance of your tutors, you will identify the areas of Graphic Design that resonate with your ambitions, and work with them to enhance the artistic skills you may find challenging.
Assignments will encourage inquisitiveness and open-minded thinking as you explore new graphic design methodologies. This module will focus on individual creative exploration as you identify and investigate different methods for producing visual outcomes. Projects will provide you with the freedom to reflect on your own way of working, with the intention of developing a more focused use of design processes as you generate Graphic Design ideas. Classes will explore in a deeper context design skills in image and text manipulation, layout, colour, line, scale & texture, as well as reinforcing the concept of information hierarchy and typographic techniques.
Research is essential in the artistic design process. Through this module, you will be provided with an insight into research methodologies and their application to the creative industries. The module will cover research of past and current practitioners and theorists, research through experimenting and prototyping, and research linked to specific creative problem-solving exercises. On completion of this module, you will have gained valuable employability skills through the understanding of preparatory research and prototyping. You will also be confident in employing a range of research methodologies relevant to your creative discipline, which will help prepare you for your final year dissertation or video essay.
Within the Applied Process module, you will learn how to approach assignments and produce creative solutions while taking into consideration aesthetic, social, environmental, moral and ethical issues affecting us all today. You will be encouraged to explore a wide range of media and their potential for visual communication. Projects will require you to develop and utilize your research skills, from both a historical and contemporary perspective, as you determine how and where these newly acquired skills can be applied. Throughout this module, you will be encouraged to continue developing your conceptual and explorative thinking, while identifying areas of personal development.
This module focuses on the notion of you as a Graphic Designer and instigator or ‘author’ of your own creative project. In consultation with your tutor, you will devise a project that focuses on an individual direction of creative enquiry. This project should enable you to stretch your critical thinking skills and demonstrate your problem-finding, problem-solving, research and professional presentation skills developed in earlier modules to produce a creative outcome.
YEAR 3
In your third year, project briefs become more challenging as you are pushed to stretch your creative abilities and idea generation. This module will include assignments set by your tutor, but also self-initiated assignments that encourage you to reflect on your work in terms of the professional, commercial, ethical, sustainable and contextual influences that surround it.
There will be a focus on developing your critical evaluation skills with regard to your own work, as well as the importance of analysis, innovation, collaboration, creative problem solving and idea generation when approaching an assignment. You will be encouraged to continue investigating different Graphic Design methods as you prepare your work for submission. Submission will consist of no fewer than 3 completed projects, which are selected by you from work completed in this module, work that you feel best represents your identity as a Graphic Designer.
This Dissertation module is designed for you to explore in-depth a subject of your choosing. On completion, it should take the form of a presentation of your proposed investigation, followed by either a written dissertation or an annotated video essay.
Working independently, you will need to utilise all the knowledge and skills acquired through the variety of modules studied during your course. The aim of your Dissertation is to: focus in-depth on a specific self-selected topic and develop and evidence a thesis supported by research and a theoretical framework. The Preparation module, studied in Year 2, will have provided you with the necessary skills to define research questions, conduct research and employ appropriate texts in the formation and support of your thesis, critically analyse texts and artefacts, assess the value of sources, and structure your own response.
Your final module provides the perfect opportunity for you to bring together everything you have learned over the course of your degree and showcase your potential as a Graphic Designer. You will develop a self-initiated project, focusing on a theme of your choosing, that demonstrates your own specific personal area of interest within the creative industry. Your final project should showcase your understanding of design processes and skills in idea generation, research, contextual awareness and strength in Graphic Design techniques, methods and disciplines. The work developed and completed in this module will form part of a public exhibition, sharing your work with a wider audience.
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